Darkroom Wall Color - Portrait of an Obsessive Maniac.

[MurrayMinchin]

Early on, I experienced significant fogging issues. These were caused by a Thomas safelight and enlarger light leaks. To resolve these, I replaced the Thomas and painted the walls and ceiling adjacent the enlarger a flat black. I also used copious amounts of black gaffer's tape to eliminate the light leaks in my Saunders VCCE enlarger.

Hi Sparky,

Like Blaughn I also had a big-time fogging problem with the Thomas (Duplex sodium vapour) safelight that in my case reared it's ugly head when I switched from graded to variable contrast papers. It now sports a rather haggard assembly of black tissue paper and ripped up bits of cardboard to reduce the light it produces. Not pretty, but safelight fog isn't a problem anymore and I've adjusted to the subdued, introspective light level.

Blaughn also suggests eliminating light leaks from the enlarger - this makes a ton of sense. If after testing and re-testing (you did say you were an obsessive maniac right? ) you find your safelight is safe, then why not make your enlarger light proof too? That way, the only extraneous light you need worry about is that which bounces off the paper during exposures and during burning of a print, which then bounces back onto the paper...only the bottoms of your shelves (and burning cards/tools) and shirt need be flat black!

To seal the beast tight, try turning off all lights in your darkroom (including the safelight) and waiting a couple minutes for your eyes to adjust. Then with the lens cap over the enlargers lens and a mirror on the baseboard, turn it on. After you recover from the SHOCK and HORROR of seeing so many rampant photons puking out of your enlarger, begin covering the holes with black masking tape and bits of heavy black paper...one less thing for an obsessive maniac to worry about

My darkroom is painted light grey on the walls and white on the ceiling except around and above the enlarger - those areas are painted flat black. Because I was seduced by sharp and unsharp maskings potential (that can have a piece of paper in the easle for 10 minutes or more) I also have a black curtain hanging from the ceiling that forms a cubicle around the enlarger.

Hope you have fun with this new darkroom of yours!

Murray

 

[Sparky]

I experimented with my own darkroom and found that amber colored walls and ceiling worked just fine and it is much brighter than the standard flat black.

See??? So why not just use WHITE then? Actually - I'm REALLY leaning toward using a solution borrowed from the acoustics of recording studios. It's called LEDE. Live End/Dead End. The basic idea is that one side is absorptive and the other reflective. Why it may work in a darkroom (proximity to light sensitive materials) is COMPLETELY unrelated to why it would work in a recording space (standing wave elimination). Those are different, right...?

Anyway, I'm thinking to baffle the end with the enlarger - which is to say, that's going to be black, with physical light traps on the walls (fins pointing up towards the lens) and the other end (most of it) and ceiling (most of it) maybe white. The safelight system I'm using is pretty clever. I was going to use an LED light source - but it was too much of a pain. So I installed a 48" fluorescent T8 tube (need a red filter - anybody know where I can get these???) in a lighting cove directly OVER the enlarger. That's clever because it's impossible for the light from the safelight to hit any light sensitive materials at or near the easel without having to bounce off a MINIMUM of FOUR surfaces first. Anyway - look at the attached PDF file and you'll get the idea.

So - in summary.... I'm thinking go with the traditional 'black' though with a neat twist at the enlarger end - and highly reflective white at the other. Hope it doesn't kill me.

 

[George Papantoniou]

George, the way to solve that is by switching to Rock and Roll!

Throw some rolling stones in there.

S.

The Rolling Stones are too modern for my taste. I'd rather listen to Robert Johnson or Jelly Roll Morton. After all, white guys trying to imitate the true inventors of rhythm-based music are somewhat pathetic, aren't they ? I'm joking, I'm not so strict with my musical preferances. I'll listen to British Rock 'n Roll too, but in the darkroom I'll avoid it because it makes me shake and turn and there is a clear danger that 1. I might get distracted and perform errors 2. I might create dust 3. I might create vibrations and blur the print.

Calamity Jane, the total luminance of the safelights will not be amplified because the colour of the walls is red. The red walls will reflect as much red light as a white one would. Of course, the black walls will reduce the amount of light reflected. This means that with black walls you'll need more safelight bulbs and with red walls you'll use less (or less powerful ones). The result can be quite the same.

Bob, I find working in the red room with the lights on pleasant. It gives you the impression you're still in a darkened room, only there is much more light. I do have a second room (for washing and drying prints) that is white, though. It helps me evaluate the prints under normal lighting.

 

[Neil Souch]

Hi,
Comments for B&W only.

Tried an all white darkroom once (many moons ago) and got a bad dose of grey print syndrome. Nice to work in though. On later darkrooms I have had all red decoration - which kills light scatter dead in its tracks as any stray light is rendered safe (Gene Nokon's recommendation). A good comprimise would be to paint the area around and above the enlarger either red or black (or make that area red or black in some way). But all this is subjective as it depends so much on how much light scatter you have. If you are using existing colours / decorations give them a go with your set-up and see what you get. If OK don't try to fix it If not OK definitely start looking for light leaks and consider making the area immediatately around and above the enlarger either red or black.

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[Kirk Keyes]

So I installed a 48" fluorescent T8 tube (need a red filter - anybody know where I can get these???)

Delta makes safelight tubes for fluorescents. Around $50 at B&H - see:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=161731&is=REG

I have two 2x4 ft fixtures running down the middle of my darkroom (8x18ft). I have a "bright red" (OA I think) filters on the tubes, and it is really bright. My fogging time is 7 minutes, and that is in the brightest area - it is dimmer near the enlarger as the enlarger blocks the safelights directly above it.

I highly recommend them.

By the way, my darkroom is painted about a 10% grey tone, with a white cieling.

 

[Paul Howell]

See??? So why not just use WHITE then?

If your enlarger is not completely sealed, or you crop without a mask you will have white reflected back onto the print as is being exposed, if the wall and ceiling are red or amber then a safer light is reflected. If your enlarger is very leaky then you want to build a cubical around it and paint the inside of the cubical flat black and the remainder of the dark room can be painted white, as long as your safelight is sealed.

 

[thedarkroomstudios]

Kirk's tubes he mentioned are great. If you want to dim them, simply add some gaffer tape (I've a strip that runs along the bottom edge so it acts more of a bounce like the Thomas ones). If you want more "even" light cut the tubes (you'll need to baffle as they only come with 2 end-plugs) and space out a couple smaller 24" fixtures instead.
-Brad

 

[Sparky]

See??? So why not just use WHITE then?

If your enlarger is not completely sealed, or you crop without a mask you will have white reflected back onto the print as is being exposed, if the wall and ceiling are red or amber then a safer light is reflected. If your enlarger is very leaky then you want to build a cubical around it and paint the inside of the cubical flat black and the remainder of the dark room can be painted white, as long as your safelight is sealed.

Paul, that's kind of what I'm doing - if you read past the first line and look at the drawing.

 

[Paul Howell]

I think you have a good idea, I would just keep testing the height of the baffle to make sure no stay lights sneaks out. With a baffle you do have less of a chance that any light that leaks out of the enclosure will make it back to the printing frame as the baffle works both ways. I did not see your drawings so what about the ceiling? If you are printing from a cropped negative without a mask reflections can bounce from the table top to the ceiling and back down onto the printing frame. You might want to paint the work bench and the ceiling right over the enlarger flat black.

 

[Sparky]

Hi - I dunno - I guess nobody's going to bother actually clicking on the drawings to have a look. JPEG would be way too crude -it's a pdf. Anyway - the baffle doesn't actually HAVE a specific height. It IS the wall directly behind the enlarger - and should function very much as if the wall were in fact about TEN FEET BEHIND the enlarger. Anyway - maybe I need to repost these to get some feedback in a new thread... (??). Dunno. Anyway - I'm trying to design IN precautions such that light fog would be well nigh impossible.

 

[Kirk Keyes]

Hi - I dunno - I guess nobody's going to bother actually clicking on the drawings to have a look.

Sparky - I looked. I like your idea. But I think just direct exposure from the fluorescent safelight will work fine too - it certainly does in my darkroom.

before you built something like this, I suggest you get a fluorescent safelight and do some testing with it. Determine how much distance you need to get the time-to-fogging that you want. And go from there.

Kirk - www.keyesphoto.com

 

[Sparky]

Thanks for lookin'...

Well, it's already built for the most part. I think - if anything I'll just play around with masking the safelight if it's too intense.