Darkroom portraits

My Darkroom with My New 4x5 Enlarger

I snapped these photos to show a friend, and then I came across this thread so I thought I would post them here. My darkroom is in the basement of our shop outbuilding, 11'x14'. I just set up my new (to me) Beseler 45MXT purchased with the adjustable table from a nice fellow on eBay who is going digital. To the left of the enlarger is a homemade UV exposure unit for platinum printing. (I still need to build a sturdy bench for it...right now it is sitting--waiting to be used--on a card table.) Left of that is our wine rack filled mostly with Syrah from our home vineyard. Off camera to the left are two freezers, and the chest freezer doubles as a work surface from time to time. (You can see the corner of it in photo #3.) In the second photo you can see my Beseler 23CII which my stepmother gave to me. That is what got me started on outfitting the darkroom a few years ago. The cabinet is left over from our kitchen remodel and the coutertop is an old door from the remodel. The air intake is left (top) of the black painted area and comes in from the ventilated unfinished basement. In the third photo, you can see that my sink is kind of small, so I have a print washer on a moveable office cart. Exhaust fan is over the sink and vents to the outdoors. I'm all ready for my next B&W course in the Spring semester!

I find the idea of wine rack as darkroom fixture very appealing!

Monophoto said:

I find the idea of wine rack as darkroom fixture very appealing!

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I noticed that, too! I knew there was something I forgot in my darkroom!! Looks like a great setup Karen.

more Darkroom Pictures

I finally managed to take some images of my darkroom. This is my fourth darkroom, this time in my own house and built to last. It is a cement block construction, 5 x 3 m (15´ x 12´). Floor, walls and printing area have white ceramic tiles and there are 14 grounded electric outlets above the printing
and developing areas. A full-sized fridge holds paper, chemicals and beer and the freezer holds chemicals, film and a liter of Grey Goose.
The lights inside the fridge are red in case there is a beer emergency during
printing.
The stainless steel sink has three faucets, two connected to a pressurized tank to fill and clean trays, the third faucet comes from the IO Filter I use for my aquaria and delicate greenhouse plants.
I just hope that in 2006 I´ll have the time to enjoy it.

Peter

I have not had a darkroom for months.
I took the equipment and furniture down for a planned renovation and it has taken so long while I waited for new equipment and professionals to do their work.
First I had to wait for an Albanian friend who is a jack-of-all-trades worker to fill in the window of the room, destroy an old water heater that was taking up room and paint the whole place. Then the plumber installed a new one ton water tank, filters and new drains. Then the electrician came to do more or less what I had done before with the electrical installations but supposedly better. Then I had to correct his mistakes, fix a bit the paint job, give up on the paint job because of the humidity and assemble the new furniture. After of course I fixed them a bit cause of a bit of miscalculation when I ordered them. Then I also made some shelves for the walls.
And in between all that, they brought my new metallic custom sink which is a beauty.

A few minutes ago I took a seat in front of the reinstalled enlarger and 50x60cm masking frame and next to the RH Designs Analyser Pro and Jobo CPP-2.
The feeling was... incredible.
Like I just won the lottery or the heart of a gorgeous woman.
It was the feeling of success and achievent, but more than that it was a moment of pure happiness, like the whole rotten world became good for a second, like all the madness dissapeared and everything fall into their right place.

I haven't taken a shot or printed a picture for months with this whole crazy affair of the goverment funding and waiting for equipment and trying to get the money and rebuilding the darkroom and everything. I was afraid I had lost it, that I wasn't be able to take another photograph even if I had so many thousand of euros of new equipment. I was scared shitless.

But now, I am content and relaxed and now that everything's gonna be all right baby!

Here's some shots of the place before the equipment and stuff. I'll show you some new ones and I have everything ready.

arigram said:

A few minutes ago I took a seat in front of the reinstalled enlarger and 50x60cm masking frame and next to the RH Designs Analyser Pro and Jobo CPP-2.
The feeling was... incredible.
Like I just won the lottery or the heart of a gorgeous woman.
It was the feeling of success and achievent, but more than that it was a moment of pure happiness, like the whole rotten world became good for a second, like all the madness dissapeared and everything fall into their right place.

I haven't taken a shot or printed a picture for months with this whole crazy affair of the goverment funding and waiting for equipment and trying to get the money and rebuilding the darkroom and everything. I was afraid I had lost it, that I wasn't be able to take another photograph even if I had so many thousand of euros of new equipment. I was scared shitless.

But now, I am content and relaxed and now that everything's gonna be all right baby!
.

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Ari,

Congratulations. Glad to hear you so happy. Remember the moment when things temporarily go wrong. Report back with more good feelings as it all begins to function. Nothing feels so great as the success of your own efforts.

John Powers

Thank you John and that you all you guys in the chatroom (you know who you are) for all your good words and encouragement.

It feels so great to have a darkroom once again!
And a darkroom with great equipment and comfortable to be in as well!

Here are the photos of the darkroom with most of the stuff in. A few chemicals bottles and little things are not in yet and the placements might change a bit but nothing dramatic.
(its ironic to take photos of a darkroom with a digicam, isn't it?)

Great!

Ari, it looks wonderful. Dont forget to upload the new work you are doing in there. And no, I dont think it funny at all to use your digicam to document it for us. After all, we are looking at it on the "digital" river known as the web... Hard to get prints up here otherwise.

Thank you Patrick.
Its strange. I've been living alone for more than a decade and this darkroom feels like my first own home, my first real personal space. I mean, I have turned the living room of my appartment to a studio, my refridgerator in the kitchen has film inside and I sleep next to my photo equipment and books, but the darkroom really feels like my own private universe.
In my appartment in Boston when I used to go to art school there, I used to have the walls practically filled with my drawings like wallpaper. Everywhere there used be a sculpture of mine, usually in progress. And I haven't got to yet, but my appartment in Greece will probably look simular soon.

But my darkroom... it feels like I have created a virtual world like the ones in computer games, a world where even the gravity or light bends to my command. But its real.

I have yet to work inside yet. I have been studying the instructions of the Analyser and of the CPP-2 and today I took my first pictures in months. It was the old church next to my house and they were taken as fodder for the CPP-2, but the feeling was great! Plus I got to use the Hasselblad CFE 40, carbon tripod and Seconic 558 for the first time...

Now, the only thing I need is a visit by Monica Bellucci and a proposal by her for erotic photos and a milllion euros in payment and I can die a quite pleased man!

Arigram,

Ah, such a nice space! I can't wait until my space is finished, although it will appear as if hacked out of a cheap block of foam compared to your setup.

You did a beautiful job. I am jealous.

It has been torture working on this space for over two years, in my spare time, and now that I am ever so close to being finished, it gets only worse! :-(

Tonight I had to cut out a Powers Fotopanel thermostatic mix valve out the copper plumbing of my homemade plywood sink and install an old ITT one I found used. The powers had too much wrong with it; dried out seals, broken valve, etc., so I took a chance and plumbed in the radically different ITT valve; took 3 hours, 2 good cuts on my hands and one roasted thumb from the propane torch, but I got it done.

Now for the water pressure test...

Silly me, I unknowingly rebuilt the valve tree with grey plastic PVC, which I now know, is only good for cold water; it leaks terribly even with plumbing putty slathered on... I also thought I'd be super careful and put a whole house water filter on both the incoming cold and hot water, only to find they TOO are not designed to operate with water over 100 degree F, so the hot water filter pot started spewing all over the place when I turned on the water.

It also appears that the 3 coats of expoxy garage paint is NOT waterproof and hairline cracks instantly opened up in the surface when water hit the surface.

I waited for the frogs and locusts to arrive as well, but they must have gotten the address wrong...

*Sigh* Sadly, I am too stupid and stubborn to give up.

Tomorrow, I rip out the filter pots, will go get some fittings and clothes washer hoses to replace the filter pots, as the solid connection between my sink lines and the overhead copper water pipes make me nervous as well; I can certainly see where vibration could fatigue the joins and cause a water leak.

I will try to locate a smaller, in line filter pot to place after the thermosatic valve, which appears to work, but has a few leaks to be fixed by replacing the grey pvc with iron or steel.

I found a quart of marine grade bilge paint down the road at a Marina Supply Store late today and plan on putting the whole thing on the sink; that should seal it up.

After that, all I have to do is cobble together my forced ventilation system, mount my other enlargers on the wall (have one already), and build a work surface for my densitometer and print dryers.

At least the biggest jobs are almost done and I am in the home stretch.

What a great space! I agree with how you feel inside a darkroom. Kind of a brain really. ENJOY!

My darkroom is just my bathroom. Moved all the regular bathroom stuff out and am in the process of moving all the darkroom supplies in. This is my first darkroom and I am really excited to start. Still need a few items.

Thank you too guys!
If only I could show you how it looked like before it was turned to some sort of darkroom... Imagine that space, then imagine it full of centuries old stuff crampted everywhere, more dirty than a prison in Nepal and a rotten door that I had to cover with plastic...
Definately a lot worse than your bathroom Shan, unless of course your bathroom looks like that and we should worry about you!
This darkroom is version 3 and the first time its a properly constructed space, even though I did shed a lot of sweat for version 2...

Small Blessings

Any space for a darkroom can be a happy and creative space. My first photography started in 1968 with a Polaroid Model 250. It was great because I was 11 and a darkroom was not necessary. Two years later, I bought a used Argus C3 Standard, and developed in a bathroom. No prints though

It was a year before I could get all of the film I had shot into our high school darkroom and print it. I literally lived there. The largest photo store in town also rented space. Access was had to a darkroom where I worked later, but all of that stopped in 1979. Since that time, everything was commercially processed. Rot and bother. My current darkroom was nearly 25 years in the planning, and Ari, even when I am not doing photographic things, I am down here. The computer space and electronic/camera workbench are ajacent in the same area. I appreceiat your awe of just being there and thinking through creative ends.

I have added a lot of equipment since these photos were taken last fall:

Seems that the upload feature is out to get me...

I see you have one of those color heads with the self destructing circuit boards in it too, Pragmatist. There was a fellow who was promising to create a replacement board but nothing ever came of it. I wish I could find something better to do with mine than use it as a paperweight.

glbeas said:

I see you have one of those color heads with the self destructing circuit boards in it too, Pragmatist. There was a fellow who was promising to create a replacement board but nothing ever came of it. I wish I could find something better to do with mine than use it as a paperweight.

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Gary, you notice that I keep the manual 45S on the enlarger... The computerized head works great, but I find that I have to recalibrate the filter bias when negatives of vastly different density are placed in the carrier. It took scrapping a similar head out to get the board needed to make it work right. Someday, I might sell it.

There is salvation, however. The main microprocessor board (usually the one that croaks, and has impossible to find chips) does have a new replacement board, as well as does repair. Contact:

Adrian Davies
Baytron,LTD. Richmond, VA
http://www.baytronltd.com
Ph: 804-282-1676
Fax:804-282-1991.
adrian@baytronltd.com

I think that I will post this to a new thread as well.

Done enough to take her for a spin...

Well, here it is in all of it's second-hand, 7 x 9 foot glory... I still need to locate some kind of work surface/counter top to go across the back of the room, but it is pretty much complete. The sink needs a few more coats of marine bildge paint, but I was impatient and had to process a few rolls of film and print a few images, so I went ahead and did it.

Almost everything seems a compromise, but it's better than no darkroom at all.

One bit of bad news; my '"bargain" of 1600 sheets of out of date Kodak Polymax Fine Art FD paper that has been in the freezer for 5 years, appears to be age fogged; at least the first box of 100 sheets. I have 15 more boxes to try; hope it was a fluke.

Kino,

Nice use of space. I noticed your Jobo Maxilux safelight. I bought one used and have been disappointed by the low output. How is yours? I just bought some LED safelight bulbs from the APUG classifieds for just $15 each. I hope they are brighter without fog.

Kino,

Everything looks very respectable, did you do your plumbing and wiring? Nice to see the vacuum breaker on the water. Are the outlets on a GFI circuit? What did you decide on for a floor covering?

Curt

jeroldharter said:

Kino,

Nice use of space. I noticed your Jobo Maxilux safelight. I bought one used and have been disappointed by the low output. How is yours? I just bought some LED safelight bulbs from the APUG classifieds for just $15 each. I hope they are brighter without fog.

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Jerold,

Thank you; should I ever build another darkroom, I will certainly avoid the grey/white motif! It is functional, however...

I was looking at your darkroom photos a moment ago; very attractive.

Yes, I could see where this safelight would be a disappointment in a larger darkroom or if you were using it for your main safelight. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't bother, but since I had already bought it, and my tiny darkroom is white, it makes a contribution to the overall safelight illumination, but my old canister-style, grey and maroon Kodak 15 watt OC safelight is about 4X as bright.

Frank W.

Curt said:

Kino,

Everything looks very respectable, did you do your plumbing and wiring? Nice to see the vacuum breaker on the water. Are the outlets on a GFI circuit? What did you decide on for a floor covering?

Curt

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Curt,

Thanks!

Yes, I did everything myself. I ran the electric in waterproof conduit, all fixtures are gasketed and water resistant and all outlets are GFI in parallel NOT in series so I can loose one outlet and not loose all.

I built the sink out of 3/4 plywood, caulked and sealed with epoxy garage paint and put a coat of marine grade bilge paint on it (needs at least one more).

The sink plumbing was a nightmare because of problems with tempering valves; the Powers 420 I had turned out to have a bad thermostat and main valve, so I had to cut it out and plumb in an ITT/Lawler valve, which turns out to also have a bad thermostat, but it can still be used as a manual mixer, so will save up for a new thermostat and deal with tweaking the valve occasionally to maintain temperature; The three red valves to the left of the thermostatic mix valve are all fed from that valve.

One thing, NEVER build a box like I did to enclose the plumbing! I thought it would be a more clean design, but I found out it makes a FINE sounding board for water rushing-through-the-pipes noise! I'm going to have to stuff it full of fiberglass insulation or something because it is LOUD.

The sound from a throttled-back valve was unbearable until I decoupled the house supply copper pipes from the sink with a pair of washer hoses; that also helps with knocking and keeps the pipes from jumping with sudden water shut-off.

Behind the enlarger is my "custom" ventilation (not well pictured); a 8" computer rack fan, gorilla glued into a 3/4 inch plywood board cut to fit the basement window casement, spray painted black. The fan is offset to the right and on the outside of the basement casement is another 3/4 inch plywood board with a plastic laundry dryer vent hood with air flaps. The inner casement is spray painted flat black and works fine as a light trap without any further baffling. I put the fan on a variac so I can vary the speed of the fan and avoid the inevitable harmonics that occur in such a small space.

The grey thing up in the corner on a corner shelf is a space heater, not a radio. It gets cold in there, but this heater will bring it back to reasonable in short order.

The floor is painted concrete; I used the epoxy paint with "traction chips" you broadcast into the paint before it dries. It hasn't been the most durable, some spots are flaking up, but it seems it will do for now. If you decide to use it, and you have enough, don't simply broadcast the chips on the first coat, wait for a second or third coat and THEN do it; will be much more durable.

Now I need to toddle down the road to the Harbor Freight Tools Store for some of that cheap, anti-fatigue matting they sell and I should be set for my standing area in front of the sink. Which is also in front of my enlarger! ;-)

I will compulsively rearrange this room for a few more months until I get it right, but it should do for now.

Frank W.

If it gets very cold in there, you might consider this:

Heated Floor Mat

jeroldharter said:

If it gets very cold in there, you might consider this:

Heated Floor Mat

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Interesting. It's waterproof, which is great... Hmmm... wonder if it would be a good tempering pad under a series of trays? Then, you'd have to stand in the sink! ;-)

Frank W.

Kino said:

Interesting. It's waterproof, which is great... Hmmm... wonder if it would be a good tempering pad under a series of trays? Then, you'd have to stand in the sink! ;-)

Frank W.

Click to expand...

I keep one in the garage in the winter and keep my shoes/boots on it. The heat dries them out and it feels goo to put on warm boots. I put one in my wife's office under her desk to keep her feet warm. It works great but I think it smells rubbery.