Introduction - New Darkroom

[Alan Edward Klein]

One of the main reasons I finally built the darkroom (besides being of the age to have disposable income) is the realization that it's about the process. It's not about what I produce, but the process of creating something. It uses different parts of my brain and heart. And the door is shut and it's quiet!

Process is why I shoot film. Frankly it's a lot easier to shoot with a digital and I use it when on vacation or at parties or for street shots for convenience. Many of us photographers tend to be loners at times, at least I am. We like getting out in the wilderness by ourselves. Unfortunately, I don't have a darkroom but can isolate in my room at my computer.

 

[dhstarr]

By way of introduction, I would like to describe the darkroom I just built and why.


Black & white film photography is something I started in high school and continued in college. Twice in my life, I had put together darkrooms. The first was modifying the bathroom in the house in such a way that I could be out of there in 30 minutes and no one would know I was there. The second one was built in a shed with a friend of mine on his property. Around the time that professional photographers were dumping all of their analog equipment I purchased a Mamiya 7 and fell in love with it. 2 years ago after the Mamiya had sat in the closet for over 10 years I made a commitment to myself to get back into something that I truly love.

In August of last year, my wife and I started remodeling our unfinished garage. Having recently finished the project I got a 9 ft by 6.5 ft darkroom, and my wife got a weight room. We built the walls, I did the electrical, and we paid someone to insulate and do the drywall. Most of the work to build the darkroom I had never done before - thank you YouTube! Here are some of the highlights:

• 9 ft ceiling.
• The sink stand is 28’ wide by 72” long. I used true 2x4s left over from the original build of the garage (which could be from 1906) to build a base for the plastic sink that came out of my friend's shed. I do not recommend trying to build a sink stand from the top down.
• The dry-side counter is 64’ by 23’. After the sink stand stretched me nearly to the breaking point I decided to go with Strongtie premade corder and standard 2x4’s.
• The enlarger is mounted to a stud support built behind the drywall.
• The easel stand is 29” x 28”, and rests on brackets so that I can move it down for larger prints.
• All surfaces are set to 28” high (Since it's my darkroom, why not make it fit me perfectly). I'm pretty proud of how level all the surfaces are given how uneven the old concrete floor is.
• In the corner between the sink and the enlarger stand I build shelving for drying racks above where the light-tight vent.
• Electrical: The dark room has four circuits; one for the overhead light; one for the fan; one for the enlarger wall which also has a switch so I can turn all the outlets off at once; and one for the rest of the electrical outlets that serve the darkroom. I love the red outlet and switch covers. I wanted the darkroom to be a place that was a joy to spend time in - the pop of color makes it.
• Plumbing: it was not in the budget to bring plumbing from the house. I created a gravity system using PEX. There is an attic space above the darkroom. I use 5-gallon jugs of purified water from a local vendor for a gravity feed system. drainage is into a (red) 10-gallon garbage can from ULINE. ULINE is a great source for a dark room.
• I built a jump seat for when I need to sit and think. It opens in front of the doorway but folds down when I don't need it.
• The safe lite is a Blisslight LED string circling the ceiling. I will probably do a separate post on the use of this as a safe light because I could find almost nothing on the internet about using cheap LED string lights. It works great.
• Like a tight sliding door.

The sliding door is something I'm particularly proud of because I totally made it up as I went along. I chose a 36-inch door because I knew I would have to create the light trap all around the sides. I wanted to have enough leftover space to get in and move equipment in and out. I used a 1-by-6 for the door framing and overhang the door by 2 inches, then a 1x2 to fill the gap to the door. I sprayed the inside of this 2-inch gap with black spray paint and then lined it with felt theater tape. The door slides along the felt snugly with a bit of friction. After caulking the metal threshold the door is light-tight. Looking at the pictures you can see the scars of my learning and iterations.

It took two-20-minute visits in the dark to find any light leaks and get the entire room light-tight. But since then I have started the break-in period and am relearning the process of making prints. At this point all the technology bits are in place - now comes the artistic part - using my judgment in trying to figure out how I get to my vision out of a finished print - which already feels like the hardest part of this whole Adventure!

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I am sure I will have my own questions to post soon enough.

View attachment 342210
View attachment 342214 View attachment 342215

Really cool darkroom. Not having one is one reason I have avoided photography for so long.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Really cool darkroom. Not having one is one reason I have avoided photography for so long.

Welcome to APUG Photrio!​

 

[Rolleiflexible]

The sink stand is 28’ wide by 72” long. I used true 2x4s left over from the original build of the garage (which could be from 1906) to build a base for the plastic sink that came out of my friend's shed. I do not recommend trying to build a sink stand from the top down.

For wet side, I found an 8-foot steel commercial kitchen sink taken from an abandoned taco stand. Its three deep basins are not optimal but I solved that problem by laying a six-foot wire shelf across them. All in, I paid less than $200. It's a bit of a hack, but it is sturdy and does the job.

 

[VinceInMT]

……It's a bit of a hack, but it is sturdy and does the job.

I am pretty sure that all of us that have a darkroom also have numerous hacks that get us by. I like yours.

Hmmm, maybe it’s time to start a “Darkroom Hacks” thread if there already isn’t one.

 

[MTGseattle]

Nice work! I keep kicking myself. I have all of the skills needed to do this, but since my wife and I keep thinking about a move, I keep not building a darkroom. I even have a corner of the basement where it could be done easily. The plumbing is a slight challenge. The high-cost option for me would be the wet side drain into a gray water lift pump (see link) then into my sewer line. The low cost would be as many have done, just drain into buckets of some type/size.

 

[btaylor]

Nice work! I keep kicking myself. I have all of the skills needed to do this, but since my wife and I keep thinking about a move, I keep not building a darkroom. I even have a corner of the basement where it could be done easily. The plumbing is a slight challenge. The high-cost option for me would be the wet side drain into a gray water lift pump (see link) then into my sewer line. The low cost would be as many have done, just drain into buckets of some type/size.

There are much cheaper ways to do this, a low cost sump pump with a float switch in a 5 gallon bucket will do it. I have done this in two darkrooms.

 

[BryanFlnt]

Really cool darkroom. Not having one is one reason I have avoided photography for so long.

Thanks. You can still do photography and send film to a lab. If you live it - do it!!

 

[MTGseattle]

There are much cheaper ways to do this, a low cost sump pump with a float switch in a 5 gallon bucket will do it. I have done this in two darkrooms.

I have float switch failure ptsd. Still, this is a good idea for low volume/gallons. I do own a couple of pumps already.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

The plumbing is a slight challenge. The high-cost option for me would be the wet side drain into a gray water lift pump

I got around this problem by feeding the sink drain into the basement drain. It exits to the ground outside, not to a septic tank or sewer. I live on a mountainside with no wells or agricultural uses nearby, so I don’t lose sleep worrying that my diluted hypo runoff might be killing the environment.