Darkroom portraits

[argus]

This is mine:

located in the hobbyroom, 4 x 2,8 meter. I occupy about 3 meter on one side.
Two enlargers but no sink. I use large trays to collect all spoiled liquids. The bathroom is only 8 meters away.

As all is freshly installed, the safe light is missing and the place is still clean.

 

[modafoto]

Handy for an emergency with all those liquids flowing and the door shut tight...

Rodinal?

 

[Soeren]

Rodinal?

I didn't know Rodinal was diuretic
Søren

 

[TPPhotog]

I didn't know Rodinal was diuretic
Søren

It is all things to all ......

 

[tbm]

My darkroom measures 8 x 6 feet and is spacious enough to be very comfortable. I love portrait photography but don't find enough opportunities regularly to shoot that style. To keep me inspired, however, I tack portraits shot by others on the wall in front of me, next to my Saunders dichroic enlarger and this reminds me to go out and find people who want to be photographed. I intermittently switch from male to female portraits to remind me not to discriminate out in the field. The attached photo shows a portion of my darkoom I captured with Acros 100 and my 28mm Leica lens. The photo of twin brothers was copied from a book with my copy stand, my 60mm macro lens, my R8, and Technical Pan. What looks like grain is really the particle board the walls are composed of. Meanwhile, if you like portraits, bridges, landscapes, city life, etc., rotate photos you have obtained via your camera or from any other source on your darkroom walls and this will inspire you likewise!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Dark/Bathroom

For those who wonder how to manage in a Manhattan dark/bathroom, here are two quick snapshots I made yesterday. One shows my contact printing setup, and one shows my enlarger in place. That's the APUG Group Print Exchange #3 in the fixer there.

 

[BWGirl]

Geez David! Are you Spiderman or something??? Where were you to take these photos???

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Heh. Using a wideangle attachment on a non-analogue image-capture device held above my head, and for the one including the enlarger, standing on the edge of the bathtub, trying to hold still at 1/4 sec. and keep my feet out of the picture.

 

[BWGirl]

Darn, I was hoping you were at least Peter Parker! haha

 

[fred]

For those who wonder how to manage in a Manhattan dark/bathroom, here are two quick snapshots I made yesterday. One shows my contact printing setup, and one shows my enlarger in place. That's the APUG Group Print Exchange #3 in the fixer there.

Motivation is all you need!
Very good organisation in there!
With such a 'drive', good results are almost guaranteed!

Fred

 

[BruceN]

Ok then, here's mine:

I know, I know. Dark doesn't equal black. It was just my way of "Claiming my territory." You can see that it's designed and constructed from the ground up to be a highly efficient and spacious professional darkroom. Note the fine details like the custom ceramic holding bath support unit and the built in print washing & hanging/film drying unit. Also note the handiness of the Rodinal bottle on the third shelf.

Thanks, Flotsam! Got the thumbnails going.

 

[Flotsam]

For those who wonder how to manage in a Manhattan dark/bathroom, here are two quick snapshots I made yesterday.

Wow, David that makes my darkroom look spacious and, Oh brother, is my darkroom small.
How small is it?
My darkroom is so small that the Mice are hunchbacked. [rimshot]
My darkroom is so small that I have to go outside to change my mind.[rimshot]
I tell you. I don't get no respect, no respect at all.

 

[etriplett]

David that is incredible. I even like the shims under the enlarger. I can only imagine the contortions required in case of an "emergency" while using the enlarger...

 

[Aggie]

Wow, David that makes my darkroom look spacious and, Oh brother, is my darkroom small.
How small is it?
My darkroom is so small that the Mice are hunchbacked. [rimshot]
My darkroom is so small that I have to go outside to change my mind.[rimshot]
I tell you. I don't get no respect, no respect at all.

David's darkroom is so small it doubles as a bathroom, no rimshots please!

 

[Flotsam]

Bruce, I see that like me, you prefer the luxury of a walk-in print washer.
Works equally well for washing both the photographs and the photographer.

To add thumbnails, scroll down to "manage attachments" on the "post reply" screen. You will get a window that allows you upload several images that will appear as thmbnails in your post.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Now the dark/bathrooms will rise to the surface. Has Tom Sauerwein posted to this thread yet? He's got a really nice bathroom conversion with trays stacked vertically in a shower stall, that like mine, also needs to function as a bathroom (well, in Tom's case, the shower installation is semi-permanent, while we really need to use the shower, because that's the only one in the apartment) when it's not being used as a darkroom, but unlike mine, his has a fairly spacious adjacent room that can be blacked out and functions as the "dry side".

I make a point of working while my wife is out, and, um, arranging things so that "emergencies" are unlikely.

In New York a flat level floor is a rare thing, so that rubber wedge is a necessity. The table is an old typewriter table that rolls right over the commode and fits just between the wall and the vanity. Part of the attraction of that particular D-II was that it has a small baseboard, which is as large as I can fit in that space. The baseboard is larger than the table so I put a set of rubber feet on the bottom of the baseboard to match the footprint of the table, so it can be stable while it hangs over the edges. The feet that I added are lower than the original feet in the four corners of the baseboard, so that if I want to use it on a larger table at some point, I can do it without changing anything.

I do process 11x14" film and prints in this space, and I have print drums as large as 20x24" if I want to print big (though I can awkwardly manage 16x20" in trays).

 

[Flotsam]

unlike mine, his has a fairly spacious adjacent room that can be blacked out and functions as the "dry side".

I'm lucky enough to have a small slice of an adjacent room where I can do most of my processing and printing. No running water but it is easy enough to carry water the several steps as needed. Gives me a bit more elbow room than trying to fit everything in the bathroom. Clean up and print/film washing happens in the W.C.

I was searching for a table to span my john to put my print washer on but just couldn't relax, worrying about overflows so I moved that whole operation into the shower just as Bruce did.

This is a great thread. It shows that no matter if you have a tiny bathroom or can outfit a roomy purpose-built space, with a little thought and innovation, you can always manage to get set up to produce outstanding analog prints.

 

[rbarker]

Now that some of the more, uh . . . "space-efficient" darkrooms are floating to the surface, so to speak, my above-the-tub dry side seems really spacious.

 

[wildbill]

This is my first darkroom. A paneled set wall with a duvetyne door now separtates it from the rest of the 2nd bedroom in my apartment. My gilrfriend needed the rest as an office. There's a fan in the homemade vent in the black panel covering the window. The bedroom happened to have an access panel to the shower plumbing so i installed tapping tees when the water was off for maintainence.

 

[Thane Bitter]

Below are shots of my current darkroom which I started building about 10 months ago (which is about the same time I found APUG.org!). The space measures 7 x 12 and is located in the basement. It’s still not complete (I am beginning to think that darkrooms never are), but extremely functional. Following the old Scottish proverb of "money is flat and meant to be piled-up" I made both the sink and corner cabinets myself for about 1/3 of what Home Depot was charging. My advice for anyone that’s looking for building materials is to check the phonebook and see if your local chapter of Habitat for Humanity has a store. I was able to pick up some countertop material, was well as a sink and faucet for a very reasonable price. My next projects are installing a ventilation system, making a cover for the electrical panel, and making a film dryer.

I am sorry about the photo quality, my scanner aside from being insanely slow, does a poor job at scanning film, and yes the strange lighting was just me playing around with my new off camera flash.

 

[wildbill]

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

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Well, you definitely wouldn't want the faucet right over the breaker box.

 

[aggiezach]

WOW! There certainly are some very nice dark room setups here! Ya'll have definitely given me something to look forward to when I can setup a permanent DR! But for the time being, I'm using el bathroom as my temporary dark room. I've attached a vew images of what I work with!

Gotta black out the room some how! That is my comforter tacked over the door.
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My Enlarger/Timer setup.
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My homemade counter for the paper trays
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Its not much, but its still a dark room

Zach

 

[Andy K]

Yeah, it's not too bad, right now my only real problem is drying space, my wire isn't long enough and I don't want another one because it bugs me, so I am going to make some screens to stack up underneath the one bench.

Maybe an old extending indoor washing line would solve this? I found one in a junk shop for pennies and use it in my bathroom in winter. It extends up to about 5 or 6 metres (I think) and is easily fitted with two screws and a couple of hooks. When not in use you unhook the free end and it retracts fully into itself. see the attachments (taken just now with my phone cam deepest apologies!).

 

[dylder]

This darkroom is new this winter. Still has a few issues, I want a better sink, but that will have to wait. My enlarger is a beselar 45, the print washer is something I made out of an oil drain bucket from AutoZone and a few plumbing fittings from Lowes. It seems to work pretty well for under $12.

d wilder