Question for those who were/are pros out in the field; Nick Nolte darkroom

GarageBoy said:

Eh, a little bit of debris never worried anyone in the newspaper biz
There were stories of guys who ran their negs through high concentrations of HC110 or even Dektol, rinsed it off, dunked it in some fixer, and slapped the whole still chemical covered mess into the enlargers (note, this destroys your carriers) - made a print and went home

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Yup done that too.

darkroommike said:

I was a just starting out photographer in the 70's, know a lot of the old hands smoked in the darkroom. A lot of the darkrooms I worked in had cigarette burns on every horizontal surface. And I've had to clean that yellow crap off lenses, etc. I've never smoked and it's like working inside an ashtray, a lot of old darkrooms lack the ventilation that modern labs have. That said the cellophane off a pack of cigarettes makes an excellent diffusion filter under the lens when printing portraits.

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All of this talk about smoking in darkrooms reminded me of the time that a good friend of mine asked the company photographer where he worked if he could be in the darkroom when the photographer tray developed some 8 x 10 B&W. In total darkness after the films had been slipped into the developer, my friend had, what we used to call "a nicotine-fit" and without thinking, took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, took out his lighter and lit up. After that he was never allowed in the photo department, much less into the company darkroom. I wonder why. The company photographer had to make a 100 mile round trip to re-shoot those pictures. Smoking in MY darkroom? Not no but hell no!.......Regards!

Eric Rose said:

Yup done that too.

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In the newspaper darkroom that I once frequented, there was one enlarger (Omega D-2) that was used to print rush negatives, still wet from a quick rinse after fixing. After the rush prints were made the same negatives were then well washed and carefully dried and filed for use later if needed. The wet negatives ruined more than the negative carriers. They eventually ruined the enlarger as well........Regards!

Bob Carnie said:

Smoking Pot, Smoking Cigarettes, Drinking, having sex- having a bath in the sink- sleeping - yes these all have happened in thousands of darkrooms.

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Done that and still do. Except the bath in the sink
Ahaha !
Brings some shoobidoo Whop in the darkroom !
Much needed.

I ruined a print when I decided that grabbing a beer from the fridge... forgot about the light that came on! Now I only grab one during the fixer step

Well..I hadn't envisioned hearing all of these great war stories but thanks, that's an added bonus!

I appreciate all of the experienced replies.

Nige said:

I ruined a print when I decided that grabbing a beer from the fridge... forgot about the light that came on! Now I only grab one during the fixer step

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My darkroom 'fridge at school has a red lamp! No beer but lots of non-alcoholic goodness.

Paul Howell said:

I usually carried a quart size Diafine, a quart packet of fixer, a small bottle of wetting agent, stainless steel tank with 2 reels, when covering the revolution in Angola I used 1 liter beer bottles to mix the Diafine water for rinse, washed in the bathtub, hung in the closet to dry.

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I took Rodinal, Ilford Pan F, fixer, changing bag, tank/reels and print-out-paper to Zaire in the mid-1970's -- shot and developed film for two years. Used rainwater, for the most part, as didn't have running water. Made contact sheets with the POP and the sun, as had no electricity -- still got 'em, too. Darkrooms are a luxury when it comes to film developing.

In the early 80s when still working I met a PJ in London who had been a combat photographer for the North Vietnamese army at the same time I was in the Air Force. He shot with a Russian rangefinder, he carried developer and fixer, and a couple of bowls, at night with no full moon he would mix the developer and fix, develop and fix by see sawing the film through the chemistry and wash in a stream, hang on a branch to dry and send the negatives off to be printed in Hanoi. Towards the end of the war he got a captured South Vietnamese Nikon with a 50 and 35mm.

In the 80s, I worked with a guy who was quite a smoker. He learned somewhere a trick.. he would soften b&w portraits of women he made by blowing smoke under the enlarging lens for a diffusion technique. He also used an embroidery hoop with an old women's nylon stocking stretched over it for the same effect.

The part that got me was where he put his butts out in the sink, and that smell along with strong stop bath and fixer... well I could never "un-smell" that smell, rotten eggs and tobacco just don't make for good breathing...

Bob Carnie said:

Smoking Pot, Smoking Cigarettes, Drinking, having sex- having a bath in the sink- sleeping - yes these all have happened in thousands of darkrooms.

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I don't remember sleeping in my darkrooms.

What are pop out prints?

Bob Carnie said:

Smoking Pot, Smoking Cigarettes, Drinking, having sex- having a bath in the sink- sleeping - yes these all have happened in thousands of darkrooms.

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Apparently my darkroom is rather, ah.....lacking.

OP
i was applying for a job with a major archives IDK 20 years ago
and i was sent into the darkroom with their official photographer who was smoking like a diesel
i asked him if it was OK and would throw a wrench in the wheel of "arrival quality" and he mumbled some
sort of "get off my lawn kid, you bother me" kind of stuff to me

Bob Carnie said:

Smoking Pot, Smoking Cigarettes, Drinking, having sex- having a bath in the sink- sleeping - yes these all have happened in thousands of darkrooms.

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happens all the time in this modern era

celluloid films, wet plate, i'd be careful
smoking anything or doing anything seeing it is
cyanide ether and "sensitive materials" ..
one wrong move and BOOM ( or smelling almonds is the last thing you might remember )

GarageBoy said:

What are pop out prints?

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POP stands for Print-Out Paper. Technically I should have written P.O.P. It is -- or more likely these days, was -- a very slow photographic paper that darkened gradually upon exposure to light -- UV, was the key, I believe. Strong light was best, like daylight. The resulting images were brown/sepia in color. In Zaire I had lots of light, generally speaking, and so all I needed was a sheet of glass and a tray for fixer. More info is available by googling Print Out Paper.

Trask said:

POP stands for Print-Out Paper. Technically I should have written P.O.P. It is -- or more likely these days, was -- a very slow photographic paper that darkened gradually upon exposure to light -- UV, was the key, I believe. Strong light was best, like daylight. The resulting images were brown/sepia in color. In Zaire I had lots of light, generally speaking, and so all I needed was a sheet of glass and a tray for fixer. More info is available by googling Print Out Paper.

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must have been fun trask !

centennial POP was the last made, it was taken over by harman/ilford IDK 10-12 years ago
and eventually its production ended. since then people have been trying to figure out a way
to convert regular photo paper into POP paper by soaking it in potassium nitrate and other fun chemicals
so the image would appeaer on the paper and and then fixed with regular fixer, or a buffered fixer
( sodium thiosulfate with a bunch of sodium carbonate (washing soda ) in there. usually the POP prints were
toned in gold or selinum or other fun things i think they were purplish otherwise but i might be remembering sometrhing different.
there have been threads here on apug about converting photo paper to POP
a guy named lars m... ( can't remember his last name, from sweden i think ) had some successes, NedL has also been doing it
and has had some successes. i gave up on preserving the images but i make them anyways, and use the electric beam to preserve them.
YMMV