OK, for the last time, once and for all, what color to paint the darkroom?

harlequin · Sep 15, 2017

Dear APUG/PhotoRIO Analog Members.

Got a few hours to go to Home Depot or Sherwin Williams this weekend.....WHAT COLOR do I paint the darkroom?

a) Area measures 9x11 with 12' ceilings
b) Has small window with covering for fresh air intake or exhaust
c) The area is all fresh primed drywall, nothing exotic.
d) standard door is light tight.
e) Shall be using Kodak can safelight on one side and Patterson red globe on other wall.

I remember 30 years ago everything was painted flat black, (high school), is that the best solution today?

I did venture into a big lab in Los Angeles (LaBrea/Highland) that was painted faint pink, don't know
why but was pretty soothing. They did paint the area behind the enlarger flat black for no excessive light
spill I presume? Looking at other darkrooms they go from plain concrete to bright white to Kodak yellow.

Someone said "gloss black". Another person said "18% grey".....there has to be some consensus. Maybe PE can
chime in to hear what they did in Rochester during America's dominance in the photographic race...

I really appreciate the feedback and opinion since I intend to spend less time watching CNN and more time
with my medium format negatives in my newly finished and painted darkroom. My printing time would be 2-3 hours
at a time, not an 8 hour shift...

Many Many Thanks!

Harlequin

cliveh · Sep 15, 2017

White.

Benoît99 · Sep 15, 2017

"There was never any benefit to the old idea that all darkroom walls should be painted black. Modern darkrooms have ceiling and walls painted in white or any other light and friendly color, except for the area around the enlarger, which should be painted flat black. A light color helps to diffuse and evenly spread general darkroom illumination and safelighting. Black walls serve no practical purpose but create an unnecessarily depressive atmosphere."

http://masteringphoto.com/darkroom-design-creating-a-practical-and-creative-environment/

Svenedin · Sep 15, 2017

Mine is light yellow but it does have to serve as my home office as well. I'm not aware of any problems caused by the colour.

Rick A · Sep 15, 2017

Kodak yellow, or any color you like really. I think sheen plays a more important role than color, so I used a flat paint, lessens light reflections.

Greg Heath · Sep 15, 2017

Paint it Pink. When your wife divorces you, she will make a sewing room out of it.

Slixtiesix · Sep 15, 2017

As others said, white with a black space around the enlarger works best. There´s really no need to paint everything black. The light in the darkroom is a safelight. That means even if the light is reflected by a white wall, the colour remains safe for paper work. Having white walls makes everything brighter. In the end you will actually need less light, which makes it even safer! Since most enlargers slightly leak some light somewhere, a black wall behind the enlarger cannot be bad.

Eric Rose · Sep 15, 2017

Black

MattKing · Sep 15, 2017

Reflections matter, but the colour itself doesn't much. So paint with flat paint in a colour that you will be happy with when the lights are on, because we all have to spend time in the darkroom with the lights on as well. Personally, I prefer a lighter colour, like beige, because it maximizes the efficiency of the lights that are there.
If you paint it a really strong, bright colour like lime green, with the room lights on everything would probably acquire a green hue, in which case it would probably be hard to do good colour balancing when printing colour, so you might want to take that into account.
And the paints that glow in the dark aren't a good idea.

Andrew O'Neill · Sep 15, 2017

My walls are all middle grey, including floor and ceiling.

darkroommike · Sep 15, 2017

A one person darkroom can be any color you like, I am leaning towards light yellow for mine, it is a color I like a lot, very cheerful. Black, dark gray, etc. are depressing.

Wayne · Sep 15, 2017

Zone IX

jim10219 · Sep 15, 2017

Paint it whatever color makes you happiest. It'll improve your workflow. I bought a house once that had grey/brown walls and made me depressed just being in it. I repainted the walls light blue/green and loved being in it after that. All my friends complimented me on having such a happy house! I sold it two years after buying it and made a pretty good profit, largely because of that paint. That's how I learned that color theory was more than just a hypothetical theory they teach art students.

My current house is eggshell. It's okay. I like it well enough not to repaint it, but it's not what I'd choose.

Alan9940 · Sep 15, 2017

Mine has been white for nearly 40 years. Bright and pleasant place to work and I've never had any issues with reflected light fogging paper, etc.

rrusso · Sep 15, 2017

I have mine painted a light gray, which I found at Home Depot as a customer reject, heavily marked-down. My darkroom doubles as my wife's craft room, so it needed to be a lighter color to provide her decent brightness during the day. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but I've grown to like it a lot.

Johnkpap · Sep 15, 2017

I painted 3 walls white and the roof and back wall grey

.......Why?

This was colour of the paint I managed to get for free !!! :- there was not enough to paint everything one colour.

I didn't worry about painting stuff black, I have a relative "Modern" pair of Dursts :-L1200 and a AC800 both don't spill any light

My floor is covered with black industrial grade vinyl ( Yes that was free too)

Johnkpap

summicron1 · Sep 15, 2017

my walls are white, or tan, or dirt -- when I change film/load film, etc., it is so dark that the wwalls reflect nothing because there's nothing to reflect, although after a while the dim green glow from the timers does sort of creep me out since I can almost see the film I'm handling. Maybe black walls would lessen that -- dunno, but it's never fogged my film, my thinking on that matter is that if I were trying to take a picture with focused light gathered by a large lens it would still take a looooong exposure on high speed film, so the unfocused light from those dim green lights doesn't matter.

And when I'm printing the light reflecting off the walls is safelight light, so no biggie.

So paint it any color you want.

RalphLambrecht · Sep 16, 2017

harlequin said:
Dear APUG/PhotoRIO Analog Members.

Got a few hours to go to Home Depot or Sherwin Williams this weekend.....WHAT COLOR do I paint the darkroom?

a) Area measures 9x11 with 12' ceilings
b) Has small window with covering for fresh air intake or exhaust
c) The area is all fresh primed drywall, nothing exotic.
d) standard door is light tight.
e) Shall be using Kodak can safelight on one side and Patterson red globe on other wall.

I remember 30 years ago everything was painted flat black, (high school), is that the best solution today?

I did venture into a big lab in Los Angeles (LaBrea/Highland) that was painted faint pink, don't know
why but was pretty soothing. They did paint the area behind the enlarger flat black for no excessive light
spill I presume? Looking at other darkrooms they go from plain concrete to bright white to Kodak yellow.

Someone said "gloss black". Another person said "18% grey".....there has to be some consensus. Maybe PE can
chime in to hear what they did in Rochester during America's dominance in the photographic race...

I really appreciate the feedback and opinion since I intend to spend less time watching CNN and more time
with my medium format negatives in my newly finished and painted darkroom. My printing time would be 2-3 hours
at a time, not an 8 hour shift...

Many Many Thanks!

Harlequin

a darkroom should be painted flat white to have a pleasant environment and good distribution of safe-light illumination with the exception of surfaces near the enlarger, which can be painted flat black to kill potential light reflections of lightbleaks from the enlarger onto the base board.. all the best

Doremus Scudder · Sep 16, 2017

Keep in mind that you will be evaluating the color of your prints in your darkroom. Even if you do only black-and-white, print tone, the effects of different papers, developers and toners need to be evaluated in a neutral environment. If you paint your darkroom yellow or even beige (not to mention red or green!), you'll end up skewing the color of the light you are using to evaluate the prints. (Having a proper light source for viewing is important too; I use a mix of 3400K and 5000K floods in track over my viewing area).

So, white is my color of choice for the darkroom (with flat black around the enlargers if needed). A neutral gray would be alright too, but won't reflect nearly as much safelight. White reflects 90+% of the light hitting it. A Zone VII gray only reflects just over 70%.

Best,

Doremus

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 16, 2017

Flat white with black around the enlarger. I actually have black flocked paper on the walls around the enlarger. You can get it from places that sell supplies for making telescopes, like Edmund Scientific, and it's handy for all sorts of light absorption purposes, like inside lens shades, or inside the barrels of older large format lenses that may not always have good light absorbing surfaces.

Not only can stray light come from the enlarger head, but if your enlarger is in a corner, you may find that light from the projected image on the paper itself reflects on the adjacent walls and then back to the print, causing fog at the print's edges.

Peter de Groot · Sep 16, 2017

White and behind the enlarger black. It should be light enough in there to read a newspaper with safelight.

Gerald C Koch · Sep 16, 2017

As Eric Burdon and The Animals say 'Paint It Black' (Sorry but I couldn't find any decent recording but if you can get part the LONG introduction the song is there.),

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=f067e0e99a7d46c365d6aff5e71c56b4&action=view

I just had to say that but in really paint it white.

Ian Grant · Sep 16, 2017

Like Greg's example black around, above and behind the enlargers and white elsewhere to maximise the room lighting.

Ian

Bob Carnie · Sep 16, 2017

Ian Grant said:
Like Greg's example black around, above and behind the enlargers and white elsewhere to maximise the room lighting.

Ian

I agree with this.. Unless you are doing murals with a horizontal enlarger,,, for that we painted the complete room matt Black.

Patrick Robert James · Sep 16, 2017

I agree with the black around the enlarger to kill stray light, and white for the rest, except you may want to paint the wall behind your sink a neutral grey so you can evaluate prints more easily. If you have a white wall in your field of view you may slightly misjudge the print.

Overall though, the color of your safelight is what is important. The color of the walls doesn't really matter.

OK, for the last time, once and for all, what color to paint the darkroom?

harlequin

cliveh

Benoît99

Svenedin

Rick A

Greg Heath

Slixtiesix

Eric Rose

MattKing

Moderator

Andrew O'Neill

Moderator

darkroommike

Wayne

jim10219

Alan9940

rrusso

Johnkpap

summicron1

RalphLambrecht

Doremus Scudder

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

Peter de Groot

Gerald C Koch

Ian Grant

Bob Carnie

Patrick Robert James

OK, for the last time, once and for all, what color to paint the darkroom?

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