New found respect

Travis Nunn · Sep 28, 2006

Ever since I started printing in the darkroom, I've had the luxury of using a community college darkroom with plenty of room and all the equipment I need. Since the darkroom I go to is in a building that is being renovated and has been closed since August 1 and won't open again until December at the earliest I haven't been printing lately.

I just finished my first printing session in my new "darkroom" (set up/tear down darkroom in my small bathroom, actually) and boy do I have lots more respect for those who do all of their printing in a darkroom such as this. I always knew I had it good at the community college darkroom, but I didn't realize how good until tonight.

It'll take me a while to get used to it, but at least now I can print if I want to rather than having to wait until the darkroom opens back up.

David Brown · Sep 29, 2006

I spent years in the bathroom/kitchen/laundryroom. As have so many others. However, as I've said a number of times to people who are thinking about a real darkroom, or are building one but just haven't finished it yet (you know who you are): when you do finally get a real darkroom, you'll think you've died and gone to photography-heaven.

Quality work can be done in the bathroom, but a real dr is heaven.

Cheers!

Mr_Rocketkiller · Sep 29, 2006

I just started my first printing this last week at my local community college. While the luxury of a large facility is great, I find it can be aggravating at times with the number of students that will cram in there to work on prints. Just last night, I had about 40 min of solitude that was wonderful; I worked on prints with no distractions. But some students came in and popped that balloon. While I didn't mind the company, I prefer working alone. Especially if other in the darkroom tend to be loud.

Congrats with your setup; I plan to do the same thing once the semester is over...

Chan Tran · Sep 29, 2006

I currently use a bedroom for my dry side and the bathroom for my wet side. I have to run back and forth to do my prints. Before I had my dry side in a closet and wet side in the kitchen. At one time when I do B&W I exposed and developed the print in the bedroom but had to run to the bathroom to wash. It's a lot of pain but I much rather do that than in a college darkroom which I have to share with other students. Also the equipment/technique I use are not available in a college darkroom.

John Bartley · Sep 29, 2006

I also use my office for an "enlarger room" and then slide the paper into a black bag to carry it to the bathroom which I have light sealed to use as a dark room. Like others, I know that there's a dedicated darkroom not too far into the future and I am really looking forward to it.

cheers

Travis Nunn · Sep 29, 2006

The best thing about my community college darkroom is that almost all of the students will only do their darkroom work during class times. When I open the darkroom for students (with the exception of a few Saturdays near the end of each semester) there is rarely more than 1 or 2 persons other than me.

I may play around with the idea of an "enlarger room" seperate from the "wet side" room.

Black Dog · Sep 29, 2006

Your own space.........pure bliss

Dave Starr · Sep 29, 2006

David Brown said:
I spent years in the bathroom/kitchen/laundryroom. As have so many others. However, as I've said a number of times to people who are thinking about a real darkroom, or are building one but just haven't finished it yet (you know who you are): when you do finally get a real darkroom, you'll think you've died and gone to photography-heaven.

Quality work can be done in the bathroom, but a real dr is heaven.

Cheers!

In 04, after 20+ years in improvised darkrooms, I finally built a dedicated darkroom. For the first few months, when I wasn't doing any processing, I'd spend about an hour a day just sitting there. looking around & smiling.

David Brown · Sep 29, 2006

Dave Starr said:
In 04, after 20+ years in improvised darkrooms, I finally built a dedicated darkroom. For the first few months, when I wasn't doing any processing, I'd spend about an hour a day just sitting there. looking around & smiling.

My current lab is 10+ yrs old. I visit it almost every day just to make sure it's still there. (Don't stay for an hour, though ... )

Anupam Basu · Sep 29, 2006

Looking forward to a real darkroom in the future. But I love my bathroom for 35mm work. I have optimized it so that it takes 7-10minutes to set up or dismantle.

But now that I have started 4x5, I have to resort to the university darkroom if I want to enlarge those.

-a

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 29, 2006

I had a real darkroom (no running water, but still not a bad arrangement) when I was in high school, and we lived in a suburban house with lots of space and a spare room. Haven't been able to do that since then, but when I saw what some people were able to do in Eastern Europe in tiny apartments during the last years of Communism, I realized that it was possible to set up a darkroom anywhere, if you had the will to do it. An even more extreme case is that of North Vietnamese war photographers, who might be issued one roll of 35mm film to be used over a period of months and developed in a teacup at night in a tent.

The more you use it, the easier the setup and breakdown get. You find little ways of making it more efficient. I can usually be ready to work in about 15-20 minutes, depending on what I have to do.

Eventually, though, we'll have more space, and I'll build a proper darkroom.

New found respect

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