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Darkroom portraits

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David Brown said:
Good tip, Mr. Carnie. Of course, the press is already ancient, but I will raise the lid.
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Ancient or not, putting a boulder on-top of something is an ancient as it gets. It should do the job well, regardless of it's age.
 
the Durst 805 has been replaced by Laborator 1200 now...
 

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Darkroom in my new to me house.

Well, here are some photos of the darkroom in my new home. It's not pretty and I still have some light leaks to take care of but it is functional and a little bigger than my old darkroom! Sorry for the phone pics! This album also has my old darkroom pics in it.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38895&id=1599799071&l=40e8e27982
 
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Hi all, my first post in this particular thread...

just upgraded my Omega D-II from its old condenser head to a super chromega d-ii dichro. I didn't get the extensions for the lift rods with the head, so a trip to the hardware store for some 3/8" steel rods and some creative use of pvc piping as a collar made it good as new! Also regreased all the moving parts and gave everything a once over, everything is nice and smooth again. It's up to par with the enlargers at my university now, but seeing as those are five hours away due to christmas break, my home darkroom is now a formidable compound of mass production.

 
Part of my darkroom, in my furnace room.
 

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very small darkroom in Japan

I took a quick photo of mine yesterday while at work. Being in an apartment in Japan, space is very limited for me, so I've set it up in my shower room. I'm 177cm tall and can easily touch both walls with my arms outstretched.

The enlarger is an LPL 3301D which is 35mm only. I print mostly "kabine" size (12×16.5cm - 50 sheets for $18) - the box is on top of the enlarger head. I use an old darkbag for test strips in my pocket to save space.

I used the local $1 heavily: the trays were all $1 each. In addition, I bought yarn, clips and hooks for $1 each. The yarn is strung between two hooks on the wall and test strips & finished prints are hung up there to dry.

I use one black out curtain against the back wall. It was LPL and cost about $5. Turning the lights out in the hallway outside means no curtain on the back door is necessary.

The good thing about it doubling as my shower, is that clean up afterward is very easy - just hose it all down Setup/clean-up takes about 10 minutes.

I'd like to very much to thank the helpful folks on APUG for answering my (numerous) questions before and after setup - without your help this probably wouldn't have left the ground. Most people around me were skeptical that I could do it beforehand, and are still amazed now that it's up and working
 

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I've taken a liking to using plastic graduated pipettes for measuring and dispensing chemicals. While they are disposable, I didn't want to toss them with chemicals on them, so I was rinsing them, and if I'm rinsing them anyways, I might as well use them again. I suspect they were intended to be disposable so as to be biologically sterile. I use them for putting a drop of photoflo into the final wash, dispensing parts A & B of PMK developer, cyanotype A & B, gel bleach for fuji instant color negatives, etc...

I built a stand for them out of scrap pine and schedule 40 conduit. I have some pipettes ready for new purposes, and others in labeled holes for their dedicated purposes. While they are theoretically clean, I don't want to cause any potential cross contamination, so I figure one pipette for each purpose.

 
Photo attached of my darkroom which is in the 'long' spare bedroom. It is a very narrow room, so it restricts its use -so I have managed to blag it as a darkroom/guest bedroom.
 

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In the photo you can see were I hang my films to dry (4x5 drying in photo), Blumfield Masterprinter 4x5 enlarger behind wardrobe. Sheet film, dark slides, paper, kept in draw; underneath the draw-jugs, measuring cylinders and film tanks kept on shelf. On other side of room De vere 507 (now used instead of Blumfield), chemicals stored on bench next to this enlarger. At the back of the room a Meopta Magnifax 4. Paper developing trays + tongs etc kept under the bench near the hi-fi system. Bathroom next door for water and processing films.
Note: 2 blackout blinds, and there is a third one behind me. At least the darkroom blinds make it fairly quick to black out the room. See you can still have a bedroom AND a darkroom (she who must be obeyed will not let me have a room for just photographic purposes - but as I have managed to get 3 enlargers in there
 
This is an awesome thread. Thanks for all of your posts. There are a lot of great ideas here.
 
I've no water supply in mine but it doesn't really hinder me much to be honest. It needs a few tweaks but it works ok.

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Looks good!-plenty of room..
 
I finally finished converting my 80 year old bedrock basement. I first built a workbench topped by an old counter top I got from a kitchen remodel a friend and mine worked on. I included a shelf underneath using chicken wire. I did this to have a place to allow clean wet equipment and prints to dry. This part I've been using since September developing C-41 film. In the past week, I have completely blacked out the space and started experimenting with color printing on my Beseler 23DGA Dichro.









 
New darkroom! I've been building this for the last six months. The plumber will come on Tuesday to hook up the water mixing panel and the drainage pump, and then I'm ready to go! Still have to install safelights and ventilation.
 

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mikecnichols said:
I took a couple of shots of my darkroom using Ektar 100.
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Mike, I think your darkroom looks the most similar to mine so far in this thread.
 
2F/2F said:
Mike, I think your darkroom looks the most similar to mine so far in this thread.
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Interesting. Mine is in my dugout basement. I have to keep myhead down so I don't hit the floor joists, plumbing, and light fixtures. I was really worried about dust, but I have not encountered very much. When I have more money, I hope to build an out building on my property for the darkroom.
 


Mine is in a basement too, though the level is really only half subterranean. I do have lots of dust, as there is a lot of exposed dirt in there, but nothing unmanageable.
 
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