Darkroom portraits

mikecnichols · Mar 2, 2011

2F/2F said:
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.

I'm glad I'm not the only one dealing with that. Coincidentally, the right side of my enlarger table is also my "work bench." I have to be careful with sawdust and I have a brush to clean the table and other things laying around. Since I've started using the enlarger, I've not needed to saw much, but I know the time with come.

basti · Mar 8, 2011

After seeing all those wonderfull darkrooms, I'm thinking how I'm going to build mine. When I get home from Mexico, I would like to build one in my house in Belgium. There is just one problem: I don't think there is a room avaible with running water or a sink, and I don't think it's going to be possible either to put one there (besides: my parents probably won't let me break out walls or stuff like that). I have been thinking in some possible solutions, and was thinking of a 'garafon' (that's how it's called in Spanish, just, a plastic water tank of 30 liters). Now, would this practicly seen be possible?

Worker 11811 · Mar 8, 2011

I don't have running water in my darkroom. I use two 5 gallon buckets. One for fresh water. The other for waste.
There is a sink in the laundry room near the darkroom. It's only about 20 feet.

I thought about running a water line but I decided it wasn't worth the cost.

grahamp · Mar 8, 2011

Just make sure your waste bucket is greater than the freshwater tank, and you check the waste level before starting work. Otherwise you can get a flood... I keep a small electric kettle for water heating when doing chemical mixing. In an ideal world I would have hot and cold service with full waste disposal, but it is not worth doing until it significantly reduces my productivity.

Worker 11811 · Mar 9, 2011

I always empty the waste bucket as soon as I am done for the day and I refill the fresh water bucket when I begin the next day.

It's a little more work but I only have to carry water for about twenty feet, between the laundry room and the darkroom.

ooze · Mar 13, 2011

A couple of pictures from my darkroom.

The dry side has two enlargers, one Focomat Ic and a Meopta Opemus 6 with Meograde head. The Meopta is my workhorse; a great enlarger for relatively little money. It does up to 40x50cm on the baseboard. Enlarging lenses are a 50mm EL-Nikkor for 35mm and a 80mm Schneider Componon for 6x6.

The wet side isn't that wet really. I don't have running water in the darkroom, and frankly never missed it as the bathroom is just opposite and I do all the washing there. The bench is custom made to fit the room and my requirements. It has four drawers on rails to dry prints. I really should have added a few more. The lower compartments contain all the paper, trays etc.

The darkroom is just one smallish room in my house. It even has a door to a small balcony which I use for ventilation.

Ricus.stormfire · Mar 18, 2011

I'm moving soon to a new house. I will post some pictures of the new (larger & running water, yay!) darkroom when it's setup.

Luseboy · Apr 10, 2011

I will have updated pictures of my darkroom soon. It's gone through a ton of changes since my last rendition. Currently i am cleaning up my sink install, making room for some new stuff i'm getting, and covering some bare walls(framework with fiberglass insulation in it) with wood. I also plan to go to the container store later today and buy some cool stuff from there to further make my darkroom easily used.
-Austin

jpreston · May 1, 2011

I have never had the opportunity to work in the darkroom, but would like to set one up since I've started shooting 6x7 again. I want to be able to print up to 24"x30" and have found a Beseler 23c with several accessories (albeit no 6x7 neg carrier) for $120.00. If it's all in good condition, does that sound like a decent buy?

Thanks,

Jeff

puptent · May 1, 2011

jpreston, what series is your 23C? One of my enlargers is an old series II. I'm going through a total darkroom make over, and the project has stalled a little. I'm thinking of making a wooden sink and then fiber-glassing it, any body have an opinion?

Luseboy · May 1, 2011

jpreston said:
I have never had the opportunity to work in the darkroom, but would like to set one up since I've started shooting 6x7 again. I want to be able to print up to 24"x30" and have found a Beseler 23c with several accessories (albeit no 6x7 neg carrier) for $120.00. If it's all in good condition, does that sound like a decent buy?

Thanks,

Jeff

I would say 120 is fair if it's a 23cIII in mint condition with tons of accessories. I bought my 23cII, also in mint condition, with a saunders easel, el-nikkor 50mm f/2.8 lens, timer, safelight, etc. for $100. That said though, i have 5 enlargers, and that's the only one i paid for. It is in the best condition though. Keep your eyes open, i've been offered many 23cII's for free (i acctually prefer the 23cII over the 23cIII)
-Austin

Luseboy · May 1, 2011

puptent said:
I'm going through a total darkroom make over, and the project has stalled a little. I'm thinking of making a wooden sink and then fiber-glassing it, any body have an opinion?

If you can't find a nice darkroom sink off cl or similar, then that is supposedly a good alternative. I've seen many how-to's online, it supposedly works pretty well. The nice part is that you get it to the dimensions you want, and you can really go crazy with customizing it.
-Austin

puptent · May 1, 2011

Thanks Austin, I've seen sinks that I could get for under $300 including shipping, but I have an odd shaped room, and some drain pipes to go around. I'll poke around and find some how to's. I paid $21 for my 23c II and gas to go get it, Best deal I ever made!

kwall · May 1, 2011

argentic said:
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.

It's much more humid in Atlanta than where you live.

jpreston · May 2, 2011

Luseboy said:
I would say 120 is fair if it's a 23cIII in mint condition with tons of accessories. I bought my 23cII, also in mint condition, with a saunders easel, el-nikkor 50mm f/2.8 lens, timer, safelight, etc. for $100. That said though, i have 5 enlargers, and that's the only one i paid for. It is in the best condition though. Keep your eyes open, i've been offered many 23cII's for free (i acctually prefer the 23cII over the 23cIII)
-Austin

The one I found is just a 23c. Probably very old. I haven't bought it, just wondering if it was a good buy. Sounds like I'll keep looking.

Thanks,

Jeff

Rick A · May 2, 2011

jpreston said:
The one I found is just a 23c. Probably very old. I haven't bought it, just wondering if it was a good buy. Sounds like I'll keep looking.

Thanks,

Jeff

The nice thing about the 23c series enlargers, parts availability. They can be repaired and rebuilt, even modernized to the newer style parts with little trouble. I have two of them left to sell, one color one condenser head.

jeroldharter · May 7, 2011

Contrastique said:
I have had an upgrade in the darkroom so here's a photo of the new Omega D2:

Very nice. Good work. I think it's great to see new darkrooms. Always gives me the urge.

I noticed those vinyl gloves. If you have not tried nitrile gloves, pick up a box of 100 from Amazon. Much nicer.

Luseboy · May 8, 2011

Alright, I finally got some pictures of my darkroom. I was reminded how much i hate digital in taking these... haha

New Things is a long list, but what still needs to be done:
Sink Plumbing,
Permanent walls/paint
Ceiling
Ventilation
Film Drying Cabinet

Other than that, this darkroom is very pleasant to work in. small, but it's not too bad

alexhill · May 14, 2011

My Darkroom is in the basement of the house my friends and I are renting, it occasionally floods after a rainstorm. The set up cost was about 50 USD. The light proofing comes from tinfoil on the windows, and the 'walls' of the darkroom are 3mil contractor plastic. The basement is super gross so after I hung the plastic I cleaned the floor with a vengeance.

[not pictured] is my ventilation. Its a box fan mounted on one end of a cardboard box, and a furnace filter mounted on the other end. It blows air into the room hopefully blowing dust out. It works pretty good, but in an ideal room I'd have an out vent over my work table.

Here is my work surface. Every once and a while it gets cleaned off/ a new plastic sheet. The shelf was about 10$ from home depot. Lots of stuff on the shelves not labeled like my glass stirring rods, calibrated 10ml pipets (a godsend! I hate drop counts) My hake brushs, vinyl gloves (I prefer nitrate but ran out) and some equipment storage below the table in a rubbermaid tub.

This is the reverse wall to my work table. This is where I keep (most) of the wet chemicals, as well at watercolor tubes for gum bichromate. Some other misc gear such as my plate drying rack and leveling table (for cooling/setting up of dry plates). You can also see some drying racks (thanks ikea) and a small pile of prints. Somehow my prints manage to infultrate every room of the house . Also there is my box of glass which i've been collecting from my friends at a frame shop. They throw out so much glass that can be resized to 4x5, 5x7,8x10 because they always have more than they'll ever need.

And finally my UV box and flat file. My last job was throwing it away after it got crushed by some gaterboard . Just needed to be reassembled with some screws and glue. The thing was stapled together!

The UV box averages 40 min cyanotypes and 12 min gum bichromate. Its still a work in process, the stupid tube socket's keep melting despite being rated for the amount of juice the tubes draw. Just been a near fire.. thats all.

Also, check out the lightproofing!

I hope this inspires some people to use less than ideal places for their darkroom.

Anthony J. Martinez · May 14, 2011

Finished my darkroom a few minutes ago. About to go inside, mix up some chemistry and test it out. This was done in the vanity area of my old bedroom at my parent's house.

A few before shots:

Drying screen:

Anthony J. Martinez · May 14, 2011

And then the transformation occurred after several hours with a circular saw, drill, electric screwdriver, and paint. Not to mention some back pain from carrying it all up the stairs.

Entry way:

Entry way from the inside:

Enlarger:

Enlarger again:

Drying rack, power, squeegee + acrylic sheet, air-evac bottles. The washer lives under there too, I just hadn't put it in place yet when I took this.

Trays:

Exhaust system. Some vinyl for a shroud, a 4" personal fan, 3" dryer hose, lots of duct tape:

Tight fit. The gap between my tray table and the enlarger. ~14".

CB7 modification. I rewired the carriage movement circuit on account of it not working. Momentary switches control the up/down movement of the carriage now. The rest of the front panel controls remain as originally wired.

Ricus.stormfire · May 16, 2011

Here is my new darkroom:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/5726383366_0de083d3f0.jpg

&

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2401/5725825573_283f3f509d.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5208/5726382026_8480068980.jpg

Ricus.stormfire · May 16, 2011

crap....oh well, you can view it on Flickr, (why do I always get this step wrong?) ugh

alexhill · May 16, 2011

Ricus, thats a pretty legit set up. So clean and spacious!

Anthony J. Martinez · May 16, 2011

Ricus.stormfire said:
crap....oh well, you can view it on Flickr, (why do I always get this step wrong?) ugh

If you click the little drop down arrow to the far right of the little bar of options (where add to group/favorite/etc are located) you can get the BBCode for your images to just copy/paste into the forum.

Darkroom portraits

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