iPhone as a safelight?

mfratt · Dec 29, 2010

I'm looking to do a hackjob contact printing setup in my bathroom, as the facilities at my school are currently closed for winter break. I have a proofing easel, Ilford filters for multigrade paper, and a 7.5w lightbulb, but no safelight. I have an app for my iPhone which will turn the screen on red; pure red since only the red LEDs are lit. I know that B&W paper has little to no sensitivity to red light, but I was just wondering (before I risk wasting paper) if this would be a safe safelight?

JohnMeadows · Dec 29, 2010

I would think you'd be OK, one thing to check though is if you have any background notification apps running that might pop up a nice cheerful blue message box

mfratt · Dec 29, 2010

^ Hmm. Good call. I planned on putting it on airplane mode, but turning off Push notifications is a good idea.

markbarendt · Dec 29, 2010

You could also just go without.

I did it all day today printing color, it's really no stretch.

mfratt · Dec 29, 2010

I could get by without, but the problem I'd run into really quickly would be making sure the negative and the paper are lined up when I put the glass down. I don't have a "proper" proffer, its more of a hinged glass plate with some foam underneath and on a metal base.

ann · Dec 29, 2010

just because it is red doesn't mean it is the correct type to avoid fogging. Make a test

David A. Goldfarb · Dec 29, 2010

No, I don't think it will work. The backlight is white light, even when the screen is red. This is something of a problem with the Massive Dev Chart app, if it is to be used for open tray processing.

Christopher Walrath · Dec 29, 2010

Run the coin test. Best way to tell. You could go and do that right now.

markbarendt · Dec 29, 2010

mfratt said:
I could get by without, but the problem I'd run into really quickly would be making sure the negative and the paper are lined up when I put the glass down. I don't have a "proper" proffer, its more of a hinged glass plate with some foam underneath and on a metal base.

Scotch tape?

PhotoJim · Dec 29, 2010

When I was a kid I used a 25-watt red light bulb. It worked surprisingly well. One would have to test for fogging, but it might do the job and won't cost more than a couple of dollars.

tkamiya · Dec 29, 2010

There is one more reason why this wouldn't work very well. If you look at the LCD (it's LCD, not LED) screen on iPhone under a microscope, you'll see each pixel is made up of red, green, and blue bar. As you said, if you just turn on red, only red (*maybe* a safe wavelength) is visible. BUT, what appears to be black (rest of the colors and the margin) in presence of bright red isn't actually black. They are pretty bright gray. LCD cannot block all the light from the back light - it leaks quite a bit. If you display absolutely nothing (black) on the screen and take it into a darkroom, you'll notice it will very well light the room.

By the way.... I took mine into darkroom and observed this under a 40x microscope.
I wouldn't try it without testing and establishing safe distance.

Kimberly Anderson · Nov 6, 2014

Roscolux red gels are pretty cheap...

MartinP · Nov 6, 2014

How about an led backlight of a bicycle, bounced off the ceiling? Possibly most people don't have bikes over there though.

RowanBloemhof · Nov 6, 2014

As Michael pointed out. Using a red gel filter works quite well. Just make sure you take the deepest red you can find. I myself use a similar setup for my tablet. I took a ziplock bag, trimmed off the bottom and reattached with tape to fit the size. And cut out a window for the screen. In the 'window' ive duct-taped a piece of red gel filter. Since the bag fits arround the tablet tightly the filter stays in place just perfect. Another upside is that you cant get any fluid, fixer or developer on your phone. So i can safely put it next to my dev trays.

Assuming your device has a capacitive touchscreen it should function fine trough the filter. Do make sure though you put the emulsion side of the filter facing toward the inside. So you cant accididentily scratch it.

cliveh · Nov 6, 2014

iPhone as a safelight? Please!

Kirks518 · Nov 6, 2014

I would think that in the 4 yrs since the OP started this thread, he either got a proper safelight, or figured something else out.

bdial · Nov 6, 2014

I use a red LED Petzl headlamp in the darkroom, works well and no fogging. There are lots of choices that work, but you'd need to test whatever you choose.

Wayne · Nov 7, 2014

markbarendt said:
You could also just go without.

I did it all day today printing color, it's really no stretch.

Silly comment. Iphone owners can't go without them for 15 minutes

iPhone as a safelight?

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