Let's see

[Patrick Latour]

I thought that a small introduction would be nice. Obviously I love to work in my darkroom. I love to be alone with my prints, trying to achieve the best result I can, with my modest equipement.

I use an old Durst M600 given to me by a nice friend. Since I just bought a Voitlangder Bessa 1 I am looking to find an enlarger doing 6x9 negs, like a 23CIII.

I work in a usual small tray workflow. Ok let'try to give some life to this group now.

Cheers !!!

 

[Ektagraphic]

I currently do only black and white processing and printing. I really enjoy it. I use a Beseler 23C for my 35mm and 120 and I just recently aquired a Calumet 4X5 and an Omega DII to print the 4X5. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but I can't wait. I also tray process. I use mostly the Ilford Multigrade papers but I have been having fun making black and white prints from my color slides on Efke Reversal Paper. It's very high contrast is kind of tough to work with but it is really nice.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

I process and print black and white with my Fujimoto Lucky 60M enlarger in my downstairs half bath which gives me about 23 square feet floor space and a sink alcove that holds the enlarger (trays on the hopper). I run out to the kitchen sink for rinsing and hanging RC prints.

 

[Rick A]

Hello all, I am currantly in a small utility room using my (new to me)D-6. I picked it up about four months ago, and have not really spent enough time getting to know all its quirks yet. I also have four Omega C-700's set up for four different formats,35, 6x4.5, 6x6, and 6x7.They are now being put aside for the 4x5. Its been extremely nice using identicle(but dedicated)machines, as they are very predictable in outcome. We are selling this house, so my basement darkroom remodel has ceased. I've been a lab rat since 1967, and the only reason I shoot film, is to get my darkroom jones.

Rick

 

[Christopher Walrath]

No better reason, Rick. There's just something about silver and chemicals that gets the blood a'churnin'.

 

[argentic]

For three years I have been working almost exclusively in d*** because I haven't had a darkroom since we moved to France. I cannot wait until the darkroom I'm building now will be ready.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

What I wouldn't give for a little more room for my girth. Keep us updated.

 

[Ektagraphic]

Good luck with your building!

 

[Shadowtracker]

Nice link to your DR construction. I made a 6.5' x 11' DR and love having it. It's small but I made it for me. I have 2 small enlargers in it but am selling those because I found an Omega D5 XL with triple turret for lenses. Just picked up a 4x5 Omega 45F camera as well.

I shoot 35mm, 6x6cm and soon 4"x5". I also use digital just because it's faster to send things to my family but B&W is my first love. I will be taking a color film (photo not movies) class in the fall I think. I made my own sink and table, had an electrician tie in the wires just so I know I am up to local electrical code, put in a Y for hot/cold water so my girlfriend can also do laundry in the room next door.

I have found some good deals over time for a water filter, tanks, LF developing equipment and other odds and ends. Soon, the homebrew soup-making will begin. Maybe I should make my gf leave the house when I fist begin that part of things. Being a DIYer is not all bad. My printing has improved greatly since getting my own DR because I can rely on having the same enlarger every time. At school, it's a hit&miss kind of thing to see if you will get a different enlarger that acts odd relative to what you are used to. I hope to have some pics of my DR to present here. I added the walls, elec., water, etc.

 

[Ektagraphic]

Congrats! 4X5 is a lot of fun!

 

[MartinCrabtree]

Hello.I have no darkroom and haven't developed an image since high school.That's going to change soon.I am here to listen and learn.
Thanks.

 

[Bertil]

Hello, always interesting to sneak into other peoples private life i.e. darkrooms! This could be an interesting group. But I suppose it requires some contribution of one's own. Here is something I just posted in a thread discussing the need (?) of running water in the darkroom. (Suppose it's ok to write the same thing in two different places here on APUG)

I built my darkroom without running water, but a zink and running water just outside the door to the darkroom – call it the lightroom!
I could easily have installed running water into the darkroom, but decided not because of the following experience:

A long time ago I had together with some friends a marvellous huge darkroom including “everything”. But those of us who weren’t into mass printing “cards”, but rather making a few prints with some ambition towards the “perfect print”, were all the time running in and out of the darkroom in order to view the print in full light, and do some thinking how to proceed.

In view of this I realised that the important thing with a darkroom wasn’t a wet darkroom but just a dark room ☺. Nothing wrong with water in the darkroom, but if you want to view your prints in full light you could as well have water and washing trays in “the lightroom” – of course nice to have it very close to the darkroom. Your eyes adjustment to the darkroom light will not disappear that easy, unless you don’t do tooo much thinking how to proceed next!
I always keep clean water in a 20 liter plastic container in the darkroom just to have water at darkroom temperature easily available.
/Bertil

 

[schrollphoto]

My dad was a professional photographer from 1936 until his death in 1995. I was raised with his studio in our living room (our drapes are in more portraits than I can count!) and his darkroom was in the basement. His darkroom never had running water of any kind! He mixed chemistry in our kitchen and washed prints in our bathtub from 1954 until 1995. He processed both black and white and color (when he finally converted). He never sent a single roll of film or print to a lab. He raised six kids on his photography in a small town (6,000 pop.). On the other hand, my darkroom has running cold water but no hot.

 

[Bertil]

schrollphoto: I think you have Very Good reasons to be proud of your fathers achievements, most impressive!!
/Bertil

 

[Rocky]

Nice to see a group like this...love my darkroom...will take a snap of it and post. Basically 5x8 of what would be a bathroom in the basement except I commandeered it for my space. Beseler 4x5 for medium format and 4x5 and a little durst for 35mm. Cold head on Beseler. My fortress of solitude....

 

[Ektagraphic]

nice Rocky!

 

[Rocky]

Posted a picture of the darkroom....haven and home away from home.

 

[pdjr1991]

I love my darkroom, which i started in my Junior year in high school. I graduated this year and will be attending Salisbury Univerisity in the spring. Hopefully more of us young bucks will continue on with the darkroom tradition. I firmly believe true photographers should work in one at least once.

 

[Sasha Dulyachinda]

Working in a darkroom and processing your own photos makes photography so much more personal!

 

[cyberslug]

I shoot mostly 6x4.5 or 6x6 and some 35mm. Have a besseler 23cIII and a pretty nice darkroom I built with hot and cold water, big sink and about 110 square feet or so. I like to lith print, so it's pretty comfortable and has music

 

[R gould]

Hello all, I have had all sorts of darkrooms in my time, from a blacked out kitchen and bathroom,and various cubourds under various stairs, but I now have a purpose built darkroom with comfort, which is luxuary, just switch on the heater and ready to go. I work in black and white, and spend so much time in there that my wife reckons it is for me the most important room in the house,Richard

 

[hawaiik]

Hi , I'm new to the Group , and new to Darkroom too. I am taking private classes from an 85 year old retired photographer. I am really enjoying it and am setting up a Darkroom in my laundry room.

 

[Charlie Wheelihan]

Hello to everyone,

Like hawaiik, I am new to this group, never had a darkroom before, starting one now and will end up fighting my wife for room in our laundry room. I am a newbie in every sense, as I have only been shooting 4x5 for about a year and want to learn how to develop my own film and prints. So, I figure why not and am jumping in with both feet ... just hope I can learn to swim with it.

I picked up a Beseler CB-7 Enlarger with Dichroic Colorhead, Unicolor Mornick Model I Color Analyzer & a Unicolor Mornick Model IV Exposure Timer and a slew of other "stuff" that I have to go through (a couple of lenses, drums, easels, paper safe, etc ...... ). I just haven't the faintest idea of how to use it ... yet ...

I am trying to find user manuals for the Unicolor Mornick Model I Color Analyzer & Unicolor Mornick Model IV Exposure Timer, but haven't been able to find them yet.

Charlie

 

[colourgeek]

I no longer have a darkroom, but when I did, it was to experiment with colour photographic processes. My enlarger(which I still have) is a 2nd hand floor standing Durst Laborator 138S condenser with point source light, covering half plate, 5X4, rollfilm and 35mm. Just now, I'm very excited getting hard-to-print old colour negs and faded transparencies to scan and "tease out" decent colour with high quality scanning and Photoshop. One ambition is to have a "darkroom shootout" with difficult B&W negatives between wet processing and my scan-tweek method.

I still love hand printing, especially colour. Maybe I will set up again if there's a way to make a bit of money...

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning;

The bathroom is being set up as an occasional dark room. It does have water and electricity, and there are no windows. When I put the rug by the bottom of the door, it gets dark. There is a reinforced 3/4 inch plywood "table top" to go onto the bathtub. It is a bit low for someone 6 feet 3 inches (190 cm) tall, but it is workable. The enlargers are Durst 606, M600, and M607. The film ranges from 16mm through 4 by 5, and most of the film processing equipment is stainless steel, except for the 16mm reel at this time. I am only contact printing the 4 by 5. It was depressing to learn that the Eastman-Kodak Company stopped making most of my old favorite chemicals from the 1960s. Oh, well.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington