Darkroom portraits

[Nikkorray]

I just finished building mine. I was on a budget so I used cheap parts on some areas.

 

[jamesgignac]

nikkorray,

looks like a nice chunk of space. Space is my current reason not to have an active darkroom. I have all of my gear tucked away in stacked boxes in a closet - were the closet modestly larger and ventilated I would certainly put it to better use. For now - I wait.

:/

 

[canuhead]

nice space, really like the enlarger bench...now if you could replace the garburator with a silver recovery unit, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank

 

[David Brown]

nice space, ...now if you could replace the garburator ...

Oh wow! I have a fridge (for film) and a microwave (for hot water) in my darkroom, but I never thought of a garbage disposer.

(Although a small dishwasher would be nice ... )

 

[jovo]

... I have a fridge (for film)...

"for film"....yeah....right....for film....uh huh.....right!

 

[Nikkorray]

...now if you could replace the garburator with a silver recovery unit, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank

Yeah, I'm not really sure how to cover that spot. I went to a hardware store but they don't really sell anything that will permanently seal that off. I just put a large tray over it & let the rinse flow down the sink.

I forgot to add a link to the building process... you can see it on the link below:
Dead Link Removed

 

[Mike Wilde]

Thats a good qustion. Probably just the Colour without an expiry date. (notice I even spelled colour in the traditional Canadian language !)

Don't laugh at Canadain Tire money. I have a Canadain Tire Master Card. The only non deposit taking institution to ever issue them, as far as I am aware of. I pay my kids daycare and before/after school care fees with it, buy all gasoline on it at Canadian Tire gas bars, and put any other charged bills for the month onto this Master Card.

These activities that put money though this account (paid for in full every month, to be sure) spin off about $40 a month in Canadain Tire money. This buys in turn things like toilet paper, laundry detergent, klennex, automatic dishwasher detergent, kids sports gear ... you name it.

Then there is offsetting $40 that I pulled out of the bank machine, that gets tucked into an envelope in the darkroom near the enlarger every month to go towards the next photo workshop fees, consumables puchase like film or paper, or mad gear purchases at the next camera show.

 

[Henry Alive]

Darkroom pictures HA

I just want to show you my modest darkroom. It is very small; in fact the work area is 1.80 m x 2.00 m. Thank goodness, I do have cold and hot water. I took this photography last night, after a whole day of working in it. You can see my Opemus 6A magnifier and my RH Designs Analyser Pro at the left side of the photo. You can also see the place where I dry the pictures: just on the sink.

 

[Dennis S]

You don't need alot of room anyway. Looks like you have all that you need need. And a place to hang your hat.

 

[ic-racer]

I just want to show you my modest darkroom..

That looks nice.

 

[kwmullet]

Anyone know of someone who has converted an Airstream into a darkroom?

Has anyone ever heard of someone building a darkroom in a largish (20+ feet) Airstream travel trailer? Dianna and I are thinking that instead of building our fourth darkroom as part of the house, we should put it in something that can be moved from place to place.

My original thought was to repurpose an ISO Marine Shipping Container (8x8x20 foot type) and paint it to look like a box box of 120 FP4, but I'm getting the sense that something like that wouldn't be embraced in residential areas.

A friend of mine whose really experienced in construction and associated trades has pointed out that the airstreams all have curved walls and that I'd only be able to stand and walk down the center, but I figure if I have sink down one side and counter down the other, I'll only have a narrow walkspace anyway. Of course, if I want to have a deeper (front to back) sink, then standing at the sink might be an issue.

Thoughts from the chorus?

-KwM-

 

[David Brown]

Has anyone ever heard of someone building a darkroom in a largish (20+ feet) Airstream travel trailer?

Thoughts from the chorus?

Yes, to the initial question. Maybe not an Airstream, per se, but in a trailer or camper, yes.

"thoughts":

Is your neighborhood OK with one of these parked by the house?

Do you intend to move it around? If not, why do it?


There are other travel trailers that are more square, and would eliminate the "curves" problem.

 

[kwmullet]

Hey DB,

Do you remember any of the design decisions/trade-offs?

WRT moving:
That's the general idea. It would be nice to know that next time we move (nothing planned right now) we can just hook the darkroom up to Dianna's trailer hitch and take it to the new place with no long dry spell without a darkroom whenever we move.

-KwM-

 

[gerryyaum]

Really enjoyed browsing through all these darkrooms, great long post. Will try to get some images of my favorite place in the world for you all to see.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Has anyone ever heard of someone building a darkroom in a ... travel trailer?

Earlier in this thread:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[perkeleellinen]

Here's my very small darkroom. It's a cupboard under the stairs, enough room to stand, but the enlarger is very low because of the sloping ceiling. I've got a Meopta Opemus 6 with the Meograde head. The Nova slot processor is a God-send, without it I wouldn't be able to print as there's no room for trays and my wife would object to the smell (I'm right next to the sitting room). There's no running water (so I use a bucket) and no electricity (I run a cable under the door). I'm sure many could not work in such conditions, but I've been without a darkroom for four years and I'm really happy about this little place:

Oh, and the film is NPC160 which I foolishly got processed on the high street and it came back with drying marks. Seems like a nice film, though, but what can you tell from a scan?

 

[ic-racer]

Thanks to fellow APUG user, Peter Spangenberg, I have a nice light table in my darkroom. All these years I had used a little 8x10 light box.

 

[ic-racer]

I realized it has been a few years since I posted my darkroom pictures. I have had a few significant upgrades, so I have some recent pictures.

Overview:

 

[ic-racer]

Negative Handling Area with drying cabinet on left. Stock of empty negative sheets. Densitometer and sensitometers.

 

[ic-racer]

I set this Minolta enlarger up just for the kids to use.

 

[ic-racer]

These are Omega D5500s. One is set up for Minox, 16mm and 35mm. The other is set up for 6x6cm, 6x9cm and 4x5"

 

[ic-racer]

I keep my Omega negative holders in these hanging folders.

 

[ic-racer]

Here is the main counter, set up for printing. That old print dryer is to dry the test prints. I used to use a microwave, but this old print dryer is smaller and works just as good. Final prints are dried on screens. The print washer is a Nova 20x24. It is bigger than I need, but it was cheap.

 

[ic-racer]

I keep the Jobo under the counter. I can't process negatives and print at the same time, but I couldn't concentrate on both activities at once anyway

 

[ic-racer]

This is the Durst 8x10 enlarger.