Darkroom "tricks of the trade"

ricksplace · Nov 15, 2007

I still have and use a small pocket penlight made by agfa that has a red safelight filter on the end of it. Really useful for poking around in dark corners of the darkroom without having to turn on the white lights. I have mentioned this before, but I use wallpaper trays for prints over 11X14. They use less solution, and take up less space. The see-saw action is easy to learn. After a few tries, you can do it without spilling a drop of solution.

Shiny · Nov 15, 2007

I actually have a guitar in my darkroom (can't say it's all that useful), not just a pick.... but then i have one in every room (except the bathroom).

I like the dodger idea

Steve Smith · Nov 15, 2007

Shiny said:
I actually have a guitar in my darkroom (can't say it's all that useful), not just a pick.... but then i have one in every room (except the bathroom).

I think you need to buy another one. The bathroom is where they sound their best!

Steve.

Ole · Nov 15, 2007

Do they make waterproof guitars for singing in the bath?

Once upon a time some friends and myself were playing with the idea of making a waterproof songbook for bathroom "popstars"...

Steve Smith · Nov 15, 2007

Ole said:
Do they make waterproof guitars for singing in the bath?

The plastic Maccaferri should work for this:

Steve.

thomsonrc · Nov 16, 2007

Salad spinner?

gandolfi said:
hey - I just thought of one thing/gizmo I use....

a centrifuge/spin dryer to spin my films before drying the films...

works like a charm - no surface water= no chalk stains and much quicker drying..

can't live without it!

(works for 135 film and medium format, but not for LF film..

I have a plastic salad spinner, it works for lettuce so perhaps I'll give it a go with FP4?

Cheers

Ritchie

Fintan · Nov 16, 2007

When cutting the edges off a roll of film so to load onto spirals a little easier, use a nail clippers instead of a scissors

clayne · Aug 30, 2009

Couple stupid but small tricks I've made up:

1. Occasionally I throw a cut of gaffer tape over the right corner of my dev trays if they're more full than normal. This way if the rocking motion causes a little bigger wave than normal it just slaps the bottom of the tape rather than shooting out of the pour canal.

2. I flip my paper bags over in my paper safe (I use one of the ABS Doran style ones) and pull the bag back so that the edge of the paper is near the opening and the bag's free space is at the back. This way when I reach in I'm always grabbing the bottom of the paper and never have to worry about fingerprinting the front of a print, etc.

3. I keep a miscellaneous water jar around for dunking tongs or fingers into if I feel like I've got something on my fingers or the tongs. This helps cut down on contaminating surfaces with my fingers (dev, fix, etc).

DannL · Aug 30, 2009

Sometimes it can be a nightmare getting the 16mm wide film to go into the slots of reloadable cartridges when reloading for Minolta 16mm cameras. I found it much easier if you place a small piece of folded paper in each slot before turning out the lights. In the dark, locate the paper, bend each flap down and insert the film strip into the space between the two flaps. With the film in place, pull the paper strips towards the middle of the cartridge and remove downward. It works great in practice, and is more difficult to explain.

Securing the table and the top of your enlarger to the wall may help baffle small vibrations in the system. I live in close proximity to a very busy railway.

.

Ronald Moravec · Aug 30, 2009

The very best things I ever did was to install water and air filters and spend $200 on glass storage bottles.

My spotting brushes are now lost somewhere.

Mark Fisher · Aug 31, 2009

1. While hardly a little trick, I managed to get all my dust problems to go away. I ended up installing a high end bathroom fan made by Panasonic. It is designed to mount remotely so it goes outside the darkroom, It exhaust through a high end 3M furnace allergen filter. My air outlet is on the other end of the darkroom. This way, my darkroom is pressurized with filtered air. I hand my film right in front of the fan and they dry fast even in the summer. I have to spot maybe 1 of 5 or 1 of 10 prints....and i use glass carriers!

2, Fill a 16x20 tray wit warm water and float my 11x14 developer tray in it. It keeps it warm and makes it easier to rock. I usually reserve this trick for lith.

3. I do individual test strip. I pick one area that I think is most important and do cut strips of that area. I may make a special easel to do this at some point as in Beyond Monochrome, but I haven't yet. The individual strips also help to figure out burns quickly.

4. Write my development times in sharpie on the counter where I won't lose them.

5. I am building special easels for the sizes I print (for me 7x7, 10x10, 6x9, 8.75x13, 7x9, 10x13). I want to get some consistency so I can standardize on mats. Standard easels just don't do that.

Anscojohn · Aug 31, 2009

I use an egg timer with blue sand in it to time my print development.

clayne · Aug 31, 2009

Mark Fisher said:
2, Fill a 16x20 tray wit warm water and float my 11x14 developer tray in it. It keeps it warm and makes it easier to rock. I usually reserve this trick for lith.

What a cool idea.

jongcelebes · Sep 4, 2009

I record metronome (software) while ticking about 1 minute with my phone then I use "the song" to count my exposing time. Have to be careful with light from phone, though.

Helinophoto · Feb 17, 2012

thomsonrc said:
I have a plastic salad spinner, it works for lettuce so perhaps I'll give it a go with FP4?

Cheers

Ritchie

I have one and I used one once, but only because I had two films to dry at the same time, if you put just one reel in there you'll make one heck of a bumpy ride for the film =) Got rid of most of the water though.....

Usually I hold the top end of the tank, arm straight down and then swing the arm back and fourth in a pendulum motion quite hard, first 5 swings -pour out water- 10 swings -pour- then 15 and lastly 20 swings.
Make sure you have the room for it and grab a good hold of the film tank while you do it, of you'll end up bumping it into something (scuff-marks on doors and walls).
- If you are really unlucky you may end up loosing your grip on the tank and throw it somewhere, messing up your film

I find that by swinging the tank with the reel in and pouring, greatly reduce the amount of water and residue on the film.

I am not sure how smart it is to centrifuge your film while it's wet, I'm thinking that this may cause the emulsion to shift, because of the huge g-force you apply....??

Edit: Oops! Just realized I resurrected an old thread, haha I was googeling around for some general tips and though I was reading a recent thread

walbergb · Feb 17, 2012

1. Mark Fisher wrote, "I may make a special easel to do this at some point as in Beyond Monochrome". I built one and I highly recommend it.

2. Dodging tool. I bought a package of craft wire from a craft store to use as dodging tool handles (the straight stuff, not the type that comes on a spool). It is a perfect length (about 10"), and sturdy enough to support and control the business end of a dodging tool, yet flimsy enough to be constantly moving. I made a large loop on one end to serve as a handle and a small loop at the other end to attach the "dodger." I went a step further and glued a piece of heat-shrink tubing between two pieces of black poster paper. I have various sizes and shapes and only need one handle. I mark the opening with a white marker. The tubing goes from one end to the other so the wire handle can be inserted from either end. For really small dodging areas, I attach a piece of black electrical tape and cut to size.

3. Burning tool. I glued a piece of black and a piece of white bristle board together along one edge. I cut a 4" square hole out of the middle. I made several 6" square inserts by gluing black and white pieces and drilled different sized holes. Now I only have to change the insert. The white top displays the image which makes it easier to position the tool. By laying, not inserting, a couple of inserts on top, I can may openings of different shapes.

4. I use a small earth magnet on each of the two bottom blades of my 4-blade Saunders easel to hold the blades flat. They are strong enough to do the job, yet not so strong as to make lifting the blades to insert the paper. I use MG IV double-weight paper that can have a bit of curl to it.

5. Cut a 2'x4' piece of an egg crate light panel to size and lay it down over the ridges of your sink. Provides a flat surface for beakers and other small stuff.

Rick Jones · Feb 19, 2012

I switch between 5 formats on 2 enlargers - 35mm, 2 14 X 2 1/4, 6 X 7, 6 X 9 and 4X5. It used to drive me crazy adjusting my 2 four bladed easels when I changed formats. I normally print on 8X10 paper with generous borders. Solution: Set easel with the borders adjusted for each format. Expose a sheet of 8X10 RC paper without a negative to achieve a grey to dark grey print density. Now I have a folder of 5 or more templates that when placed in the easel allow me to adjust the blades in a matter of seconds to create a print size I most often use with perfect borders. Accurate borders are unimportant when I dry mount because I cut off all borders. But recently have been dry mounting less and more often creating unmounted RC prints where centered images with accurate borders are a must.

walbergb · Feb 19, 2012

Rick Jones said:
I switch between 5 formats on 2 enlargers - 35mm, 2 14 X 2 1/4, 6 X 7, 6 X 9 and 4X5. It used to drive me crazy adjusting my 2 four bladed easels when I changed formats. I normally print on 8X10 paper with generous borders. Solution: Set easel with the borders adjusted for each format. Expose a sheet of 8X10 RC paper without a negative to achieve a grey to dark grey print density. Now I have a folder of 5 or more templates that when placed in the easel allow me to adjust the blades in a matter of seconds to create a print size I most often use with perfect borders. Accurate borders are unimportant when I dry mount because I cut off all borders. But recently have been dry mounting less and more often creating unmounted RC prints where centered images with accurate borders are a must.

Here's another method:
1. On the back of a sheet of photographic paper, draw a series of 2" lines (length not critical) from the left and top edges at your favourite border widths (e.g., 1/2", 1", 1 1/2") using a medium width marker such as a Sharpie. I use a carpenter's try square to make lines perpendicular to opposite edge.
2. Place the template on the easel with the marks in the upper left corner and the paper registered to the furthest left point (as you would your print before exposing), and set the left and top blades to the desired border width.
3. Flip the template so the marks are bottom/right (paper registered far left) and set the right and bottom blades.
4. If necessary, adjust one of the blades to fit your cropped picture (e.g., bottom blade for landscape; left or right for portrait depending upon negative orientation).

Make one template for each size of paper you use.

ezwriter · Feb 21, 2012

tricks

I play guitar and used to have a pick that glowed in the dark. That might be handy if you can find one at guitar shop.

Darkroom "tricks of the trade"

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