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Darkroom Portraits (Part 2)

Getting close to finishing up the darkroom.
 

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As long as you're at it, I would either paint the wall and ceiling adjacent to the enlarger black. Or put up some black cloth. All to minimize any stray light from the enlarger reflecting off the surfaces and affecting your prints.
 

Magnificent!!! I have 4 of these enlargers 2 setup and in use. What lightsource do you have. If you have a dichroic colorhead that has a delay in the lamp ask for help. I know how to cure it

Building darkrooms is a gas!
 
Pieter12 said:
As long as you're at it, I would either paint the wall and ceiling adjacent to the enlarger black. Or put up some black cloth. All to minimize any stray light from the enlarger reflecting off the surfaces and affecting your prints.
Click to expand...

Great suggestion. I will do that.
 
mshchem said:
Magnificent!!! I have 4 of these enlargers 2 setup and in use. What lightsource do you have. If you have a dichroic colorhead that has a delay in the lamp ask for help. I know how to cure it

Building darkrooms is a gas!
Click to expand...
 
It is the standard condenser head. I bought the 45MCRX enlarger and the Arkay Photo Drum Print Dryer (Model 150) both for $125 some years ago.
 
mshchem said:
Is that a light booth? I use Pako belt dryers for fiber. Essential to my workflow.
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It is a Nuarc N1000 Instant Mercury Printer. I got it free from a local print shop that changed over to digital. I am interested in trying various alternative photography processes, so I picked this up.
 
stevenje said:
It is a Nuarc N1000 Instant Mercury Printer. I got it free from a local print shop that changed over to digital. I am interested in trying various alternative photography processes, so I picked this up.
Click to expand...

Rock on! You are set! One note on the print dryer. If sticking becomes an issue try hardener. Only time I have had a problem is after toning in a warm darkroom.
 
mshchem said:
Rock on! You are set! One note on the print dryer. If sticking becomes an issue try hardener. Only time I have had a problem is after toning in a warm darkroom.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tip.
 
This is my darkroom in Helsinki, Finland. Red lamps are traditional bulbs except for the left one which is LED 2W. The enlarger is DeVere dichromat 8x10 from 1986

 
stevenje said:
Great suggestion. I will do that.
Click to expand...

I would encourage you to only black-out the barest of minimum you have to achieve your goals.

Why? Personally, after working in dark spaces for over 25 years professionally, I found a totally black dark room to be the perfect suicide machine. Very, very depressing in the long run; makes me want to avoid the space entirely. Of course, not everyone has this reaction, but be aware of the potential effects of TOO much dark space. Even in a darkroom, I have white walls with only the wall directly behind the enlarger painted black. The white walls are broken-up visually in the safe light by cabinets, shelves and timers, so there is some visual stimulation.

Just an opinion; your mileage may vary...
 

I second this.
It is worthwhile as well to remember that one spends a fair amount of time in a darkroom with the white lights on. You should definitely make it a pleasant place to be during those times. After all, simply keeping things clean should not be more depressing than it absolutely needs to be!
 
Kino said:
I would encourage you to only black-out the barest of minimum you have to achieve your goals.
Click to expand...

This suggestion comes at an ideal time for me, as I'm just thinking about if / to what extend I will paint my kitchen-darkroom black.

What do you reckon is the "barest minimum"?

I figure (as my enlarger will not be in a corner or niche of a room, so not "surrounded" by walls) for all intents and purposes it would suffice to have like a 1m broad strip of black paint (or cloth) behind it?
 
Sounds like a temporary or semi-temporary set up.

You might not even have to use anything if the enlarger is isolated in a center island or on a cart, but it but a strip of black cloth (perhaps on a frame) behind the enlarger would be a nice way to ensure no light hits the baseboard from behind.

You might even consider a folding partition, painted black that you can position how ever you need it and store out of sight when not needed.

Just some suggestions...
 
Thanks for the prompt reply @Kino I appreciate it

Indeed, just having a big sheet of, say, corrugated cardboard painted matte black would do the trick nicely, thanks for the suggestion!
 
Pieter12 said:
As long as you're at it, I would either paint the wall and ceiling adjacent to the enlarger black. Or put up some black cloth. All to minimize any stray light from the enlarger reflecting off the surfaces and affecting your prints.
Click to expand...

I would recommend against black cloth or plastic in this application because they are dust attractors of the worst sort.

The better solution is flat black paint and then only around the immediate area of the enlarger.
 
In one of my temporary darkrooms in the past I used black background paper held to the walls with thumb tacks and painters tape. That way I didn't have to paint over black paint later.
 
For clarity, the purpose of the black around the enlarger is to help prevent stray light that comes from the enlarger bouncing back on to the photographic paper.
You need to still take all the normal and reasonable steps to eliminate other extraneous light from getting to that paper - including light from things like the little lights on appliances and clocks and ...
Equipment designed specifically for darkroom use - e.g. times - usually have lights that are safe for this when using most B&W paper.
 
chuckroast said:
I would recommend against black cloth or plastic in this application because they are dust attractors of the worst sort.

The better solution is flat black paint and then only around the immediate area of the enlarger.
Click to expand...
I guess it depends on the dust and humidity levels in the darkroom. I have no more dust problem with black plastic or cardboard than with a flat-painted surface. I wouldn't use a slick/shiny surface (paint, garbage bag, acrylic) as that kind of defeats the purpose of diminishing refections.
 
Regarding the black around the enlarger to mitigate stray light when printing, I just cut and taped some black cloth skirts around the light leaks. Works for me.
 
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