Darkroom portraits

[Thane Bitter]

I like that the sink and faucet are directly below the breaker box.

What!? Haven you heard the term "hydroelectric" before? :rolleyes:



But all joking aside, I totally agree that the sink's location is poor and not to code, however it was only very temporary at the time (there had been a sink there), however that’s still a poor excuse. At the time I needed to print of a pile of photographs in time for Christmas present for my sister. The sink now sits on the wall opposite of the main counter top, well clear of the panel as it should and the old copper/plastic/hose/chewing gum water lines have been removed as well.



It has been an interesting saga, I wanted to build a darkroom but in the end I am practically rebuilding most of the basement. And now here is the rant, I really think that every home improvement/renovation show should begin with a warning to people to: A.) Get the proper permits and B.) hire qualified people. If you are planning on doing some of the work on your own, that’s fine so long as you do it PROPERLY and that means getting an inspection. The previous home owner did none of this when they decided that they wanted to "finish" off the basement and generate a few bucks at the same by making the space into an illegal apartment. In the process of their renovation they placed (in this order) a plastic laundry sink, washer and dryer under the main breaker panel. Oh that wasn’t the only thing they did wrong either, here’s the short list:

-Powering a 220 volt clothing dryer with two separate 110 volt lines, both of which where on the same phase (bet they never did figure out why the thing never worked)

-Attaching several 4x8 sheets of drywall with between 6 to 8 straight nails

-finishing (if I can call it that) off a wall over 20’ in length and not including a single electrical outlet.

-using “recycled” wire (stuff that was about twice as old as the house), and duct tape instead of electrical tape.

-using a rubber backed carpet on a concrete floor (mildew, fungus and mould)

-reversing the hot and neutral wires in the few outlets they did install (no ground wire either, they cut them off!

-using 2’ nails in a 2x4 (well, that was a plus, it was oh so easy to pull apart)

-and using a putty knife to mud the drywall joints.

-about 1/3 of every pipe fitting they had solder showed signs that it has leaked at one time

Clearly these people where somewhat out of their league (and minds) when they attempt to finish off the basement and as a result its taken quite a bit of time to undo their mistakes which unfortunately has kept me out of the darkroom. Was it worth it – hell ya – even with the extra work involved I would still rather shoot film then vegetate in front of a computer using PhotoShop.



Long Live Film!!!

 

[Bob F.]

Someone was remarking on the tidiness of the darkrooms here. Well, here's what happened last night when a water pipe burst under the floorboards of the darkroom and you have to find the leak at 2 o'clock in the morning - ripping up laminate floor, underlay and the floorboards to find the **** thing...

Ho hum...

 

[Calamity Jane]

For most of my life I have been a renter and darkrooms have been pretty makeshift - any room that could be darkened, water and drain thru temporary hoses, and so forth.

In '97 I bought a 1920s vintage rural home, one built before indoor plumbing, and it has a strange floor plan. One bedroom (the only one on the main floor) opens into the living room and the bathroom (also the only one) is off that bedroom. So I made blackout shutters for the bedroom (semi-permanent) and the bathroom (removable) and light-proofed the bedroom door. As many of you know, there are certain advantages to a bathroom that's accessible in the dark! The picture is the present darkroom.

Since my basement tends to be very wet in the spring, it isn't useable for much else, so the intent is to move the darkroom down there. When I surveyed the basement for stray light, I realized it would be easier to light-proof the whole basement with a "tripple-90" entrance than to try to divide off part of the space. That should happen this year and will give me an 18x30 darkroom - OH THE LUXURY!

 

[Thomas Wagner]

No pictures of darkroom as it is constantly in flux. However, a question (that may have arisen before)...

Circumstances have caused me to arrange my trays from right to left (ie, develop on right, move prints left to process). Am I committing a "cardinal sin"? I know I always taught left to right for processing. Needless to say, I am the only one using the facility.

Tom

 

[Leon]

here's mine

here's mine. I've been putting it together for the past 7 months or so - still have to put a water heater in (that's a summer 2005 project). I have to share it with some household tools, my bicycle and a lawnmower - but it's great to have a permanent set up at last.

 

[MikeS]

After looking at all these darkrooms, I'm almost embarrassed to post pictures of mine. I live in a small, very small one bedroom house that I rent, so the bathroom was already a dual purpose room, bathroom, and laundry room. I figured one more purpose couldn't hurt too much, so I put my enlarger (an old Elwood 5x7) in there (it blocks one of the 2 doors into the room), and I use the washer and dryer as my 'work surface' and the little sink to wash prints and film. I put a print washer in the shower (luckily there's a bathtub in the bedroom) as well as clothes pins hung from the shower curtain rod to dry prints & film (I even added an extra rod so I can dry 12 sheets of 4x5 at a time) It's a bit cramped at times, but it does the job well, as well as leaving the commode free for use as it is, so no conversions are needed. The only hassle is moving around stuff when I do laundry.

-Mike

 

[Sjixxxy]

Behold! Very spacious, I bet you are all jealous now. I didn't take photos of my sink 7 drying chamber. (Aquarium with cloths pins on the floor.)

 

[glbeas]

No pictures of darkroom as it is constantly in flux. However, a question (that may have arisen before)...

Circumstances have caused me to arrange my trays from right to left (ie, develop on right, move prints left to process). Am I committing a "cardinal sin"? I know I always taught left to right for processing. Needless to say, I am the only one using the facility.

Tom

Nothing wrong there, I move mine the same way, it all moves towards the faucet end of the sink where the rinse tray is. Sensible workplow pattern.

 

[dschneller]

Bare bones darkroom

This is an interesting thread with quite the variety of darkrooms from professional to temporary setups. Mine is pretty bare bones, I'm using the old kitchen base cabinet as my dry side and the washing tubs as the wet side. This is in the basement of an old Victorian house, they must have been small people back then, the ceiling is less than six feet. I have the head of the enlarger situated between the beams.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[claytume]

After looking at all these darkrooms, I'm almost embarrassed to post pictures of mine. I live in a small, very small one bedroom house that I rent, so the bathroom was already a dual purpose room, bathroom, and laundry room.

-Mike

Mike

While a few here have large comfortable full featured darkrooms the ones of most interest to me are like yours, really interesting to see how much can be accomplished with so little.

Clayton

 

[Thomassauerwein]

I spend a lot of time in these rooms. Love it here, Everything I need to get lost. Just love it in here!

 

[Christopher Colley]

here is what im currently using as a darkroom, a laundry room that works quite well, using 3 8x10 trays for RC or 4 for fiber and am quite comfortable, washing is done in the basin in a large tub with holes to circulate water

im using an omega d-II 4x5 enlarger with aristo cold light head

 

[Frank Pouw]

I don't have any photographs of my darkroom (yet) but, I do have an Autocad image! Maybe I'm a computer geek but it's been very helpful to render and design the cabinetry/layout before I build anything.

The room itself is only 1.8m x 3m and I have to share it with two hot water tanks (not shown, at the end opposite the door). The red box in the foreground is a cabinet for my Omega D enlarger. It's a bit short since our ceilings are only 7 feet (you can tell I'm a Canadian because of the mixed units of measure). Still , I don't have enough clearance to raise the head all the way.

My wet counter is sloped at 2 degrees into a big porcelain farmhouse sink. I have a dry counter along the opposite wall (both not shown). The oblong red object under the wet counter is the cats' litter box. I don't recommend one of these in any darkroom but, I've gotta share.

I enjoy seeing pictures of all your darkrooms but I'd love to hear what your favorite feature is. If your friend was builiding a darkroom, what would your one recommendation be? Mine would be my sloped wet counter, it puts the trays at a nice height and any spills just flow downhill.

 

[Max Power]

Here's my darkroom!

The room is about 2m x 2m and so the sink and work table were made specifically for the size of the room. I got the plans from the 'Build Your Own Home Darkroom' text. The plans were great and the execution was really simple. I can't recommend the book enough.

The room is so small that when I replaced my Omega B-600 with the Beseler 23CII, I had to place the Beseler sideways on the table! Oh well, it all works and I'm a happy chap!!

Cheers,
Kent

 

[Flotsam]

This is a great thread.
The people with large, well equipped, single purpose darkrooms are surely dedicated and fortunate. But IMHO the one's with those tiny, inconvenient, temporary darkrooms that have to be completely set up and taken down for every session are true heroes of analog photography. The quality of work that I have seen come out of those difficult conditions is remarkable.

 

[Christopher Colley]

the one's with those tiny, inconvenient, temporary darkrooms that have to be completely set up and taken down for every session are true heroes of analog photography.

We gain our hero muscles after a few weeks of moving a heavy 4x5 enlarger and massive baseboard from room to room every day!

I use a laundry room for my darkroom, and have to yes, setup and tear it down each time I print. Takes about 20 minutes to set it all up (about 30mins till Im ready to be printing), and about 35 minutes to take it down and clean up... Aint nothing like being exhausted from 4hours of printing only to realize you have to carry around a tank of an enlarger and make the room a laundryroom again! I really do enjoy it, I think maybe if I had the ease of just walking to an already setup room I might get a bit sloppy at times, I try to make my nearly hour of setup/takedown worth it by having a good printing session.

I'm hoping to be putting a dedicated darkroom into a 6.5foot long by 6foot wide by 6.5 feet tall! (small cieling!) box of a room within the next 4 months. Would be a lot less spacious than my laundry room, but at least it wont take an hour out of my printing time every day!

It is great to see other peoples darkrooms, you pickup a lot of nice tips, and see maybe you dont have it so bad (or good) as you think.

 

[Flotsam]

I'll tell you Christopher. I like small. I've spent a lot of years in a lot of commercial darkrooms and have come to the conclusion that lots walking around space is way over-rated. I like a more "intimate" setting where you're able to reach everything with a minimum of steps, Even better! While sitting on a stool. I've done plenty of production in a darkroom not much larger than you are looking at.
The huge improvement is in having a dedicated space. Set up is done when the trays are filled and clean up is just rinsing out the dishes and a bit of straightening up. As you say, that will have a real effect on your printing sessions.

 

[Thomassauerwein]

I think it takes many many years to build a darkroom. Not so much with the obvious equipment but with the individualizing tools that have solved a lot of questions and problems. Neal, boy do I agree with the intimate darkroom idea. After a while the feet and legs get rebelious after awhile, as it is. Certainly worth it but by cutting down to much extra effort to get to things helps lenghten the printing sessions and accomplish more during the session. Course good music is the best tool!

 

[gchpaco]

I have to agree with you on this. My current darkroom is relatively cramped; a bit bigger than my previous one, so there is a magic "enough" size where you can, for example, actually have a wet and dry side. But honestly the only thing I want there that I don't have is a teensy bit more counter space, and I don't need it that much.

What I want is a permanent setup. Maybe with a nice sink I can put trays in, but I've been doing fine without that. Something where I don't have to spend half an hour getting everything all set up before I can do anything. Something where I can go in and make contact sheets for a spare hour (although with cleaning trays that might be hard), instead of spending most of my precious, rare darkroom time making contacts from all the rolls I developed earlier.

 

[Buster6X6]

This is very interesting thread
I taught I had it bad. My darkroom is 4 wide 6 feet long and 6 feet high.When I want to go printing I say hallo to Heather Thomas. Than I get serious.I have an Omega 4x5 enlarger which seats on a steel table about 25" of the floor I cut out 20"x30" opening with recess for the mated glass and two fluorescent daylight bulbs under neath with aluminum reflector for viewing slides/transparencies.Cabinets are for storing paper and folders with negatives and transparecies.Underneath is a Small fridge for film and electric heater set to bring Canadian winter temperatures to 20 cel. Light is in the middle of the room with pull cord .Big clock with second hand on opposite wall with safe light above it.Small cabinet with square sink and rubber hose to my round print washer.Plastictub from Walmart with 3x 8x10 trays sitting in the water at 20 deg.Chemicals are stored underneath . Two 16x20 mesh drawers for drying large prints just under the top of the bench. To the right of that a small cabinet with 10 mesh covered drawers and muffin fan to dry prints 8x10. On the wall I have in the middle a air intake light tight with filter and 100cfm fan pulling air out.I hope you find this informational Cheers Greg

 

[Buster6X6]

I forgot to say room is painted medium gray only around enlarger it is painted flat black.And on the wall beside timer I have daylight light fixture to view color prints, and a erasable chalk board to enter when I mixed chemicals an other little reminders.Above it all under the ceiling string runs from left to right with about 20 plastic clothes pins to hang film or wet prints to drip dry first.
Cheers Greg

 

[ScottH]

Great thread. Always interesting to see what others have done, particularly those with limited space - like me. My dark "room" consists of the back side of my wifes *ahem* the master closet. The bench is just over 5' long, approx. 2.5' deep, and about 4' high. The height allows for standing or sitting on a bar stool (keeps me in practice for the real McCoy) as well as 2 shelves for storage beneath. As you can see, there is a top shelf which extends along the left wall for another 4' or so. Sorry for the image overlap. All processed prints go into a holding tray (either on the floor or stool) and then get washed, toned, etc. in the adjacent bathroom. I'm trying my first 11x14 prints this evening which won't be too difficult, though definately my max size.

The other image is my neg. dryer, which slides nicely into "my" closet between the hangers. Clean cloth on the floor and clean t-shirt on top once the neg's are hung to keep out the dust. It's a 5' metal duct, 2 holes for the wire to hang clips from. It'll only hold 2 rolls at a time (35 or 120), but that's all I develope at a time anyway. Takes 24 hrs to completely dry, and I need to be a bit careful that they don't touch the sides or each other. Clean negs every time.

 

[ScottH]

Oh, forgot to add that a few changes were made in January. Namely the addition of wireless speakers hung on each side. A little classic rock cranked up sure drowns out the rest of the world... They get turned off when exposing a 'final' print, lest they cause any vibrations.

 

[argentic]

The other image is my neg. dryer, which slides nicely into "my" closet between the hangers. Clean cloth on the floor and clean t-shirt on top once the neg's are hung to keep out the dust. It's a 5' metal duct, 2 holes for the wire to hang clips from. It'll only hold 2 rolls at a time (35 or 120), but that's all I develope at a time anyway. Takes 24 hrs to completely dry, and I need to be a bit careful that they don't touch the sides or each other. Clean negs every time.

24 hours, thats a lot. My films completely dry within an hour and a half by just hanging them in the darkroom and closing the door.

 

[David]

Just finished my third darkroom this week. It works beautifully.