Darkroom secrets, tips and tricks

sterioma said:

Always check the paper box is closed before turning all the lights on. I have fogged a couple of boxes when I was first printing in my bathroom, and now it's an automatic reflex

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• Keep notes on what you did to get the result you liked. Label and keep your test strips. I put them all in an envelope for each important print. Same goes for any burning/dodging templates I cut.
• Make things as repeatable as you can by keeping temperatures, timers, filters, papers, developers as similar as possible until you have repeatable results and know what you want to change
• Ignore the complaints about below-the-lens contrast filters and go ahead and use them. I think it might be more important on really big prints to use the above-the-lens filters, but the speed and ability to change filters easily makes the below-the-lens type well worth it.

relistan said:

Top things I learned:

• Keep notes on what you did to get the result you liked. Label and keep your test strips. I put them all in an envelope for each important print. Same goes for any burning/dodging templates I cut.
• Make things as repeatable as you can by keeping temperatures, timers, filters, papers, developers as similar as possible until you have repeatable results and know what you want to change
• Ignore the complaints about below-the-lens contrast filters and go ahead and use them. I think it might be more important on really big prints to use the above-the-lens filters, but the speed and ability to change filters easily makes the below-the-lens type well worth it.

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fiddle said:

A big garbage can. I still use mine quite often.

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Sirius Glass said:

@RalphLambrecht's book Beyound Monochrome "Way Beyond Monochrome" will answer questions

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MattKing said:

Fixed that for you.
Some Kodak documents. They are dated, in that they reference many products that are no longer sold under the Kodak banner, but still contain useful information:
"Black-and-White Tips and Techniques for Darkroom Enthusiasts"
https://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/o3-2002_02.pdf
"Darkroom Design for Amateur Photographers"
https://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/ak3.pdf
"How to Process and Print Black-and-White Film"
https://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/aj3.pdf

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MarkS said:

Use a citric acid stop bath, and an alkaline fixer like TF-5, to (mostly) eliminate that nasty darkroom aroma. Those make it a much more pleasant place to be.

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• Choose exposure to get the highlights how you want them, then choose contrast filter to get the shadows how you want those. I learned this from Ralph Lambrecht when his book came out, after rather too many years of unsystematic flip-flopping.
• Paying attention to detail (e.g. enlarger alignment) makes a big difference even with mediocre equipment.
• Be nice to your working solutions. When printing, the main purpose of the stop-bath is not to stop development but to save the fixer from contamination. Give it time to get in there if using FB paper. Using two fixer baths (of which number 2 is freshly mixed) is also hugely beneficial.