Safelight Question

[5stringdeath]

I've always had an OC safelight on my darkroom but want to use a new paper that requires a red safelight. My question is, if I change to red can I just use that with my normal VC Fiber papers? I'd like to not have to switch back and forth.

 

[Tim Gray]

I use a red light with Ilford MG RC and FB. I think you'll be fine.

I can't think of a paper that I've heard about that is sensitive to red but is safe in OC light.

 

[Rick A]

I've only used red safe lights since the 60's, never had a problem.

 

[5stringdeath]

Great thanks!

 

[Stregone]

I was always under the impression that red was safest for everything.

 

[Anscojohn]

I was always under the impression that red was safest for everything.

It probably is, but not always ideal for darkroom printing. It is harder to judge your print under red light. But as rainphot indicates, it's quite doable.
In ye olden dayz, we were taught that safelight illumination should be such that, after the eyes become accomodated, one should be able to read a newspaper in the darkroom.

 

[glbeas]

One think you might want to do is make the safelight illumination even. One or two bright spots with deep shadows around makes for some hard seeing. I accomplish this by pointing my red safelight at the ceiling with a slightly brighter bulb in it. The resulting glow is pretty easy to see in even though it is not overly bright.

 

[fschifano]

Red is good for just about anything. Most, if not all VC papers will tolerate a longer safe light exposure under a proper red safe light than they will under equivalent OC safe lighting without fogging. See Kodak's document TI0845 and compare the spectral output of various safelight filters and compare it against the published spectral sensitivity of your photo paper. As long as the lamp doesn't put out light in wavelengths that your paper is sensitive you, you're good to go.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Also keep in mind that red is not always red. Or any other safelight color, either.

I did a step wedge test in my darkroom using Kentmere Bromide. It showed grades 2, 3, and 4 responding as grades 0, 1 and 1.5. I was using a single 635nm red LED bulb up near the ceiling.

Say what?

Well, when I went to check the spectral output of the LED - using my high-tech music CD disk as a prism - I found a disheartening amount of blue and green light spikes included. Not enough to actually see. But enough to be disheartening.

So I covered the bulb with a layer of Rubylith as a poor-man's low-pass filter. Of course the overall illumination decreased a bit. But the non-red colors completely disappeared. So I added a few more similarly covered LEDs bulbs to bump the light level and... voila! Grades 2, 3 and 4 magically reappeared.

The moral of the story?

Never work in a darkroom without your favorite music CDs...

Ken

 

[5stringdeath]

It probably is, but not always ideal for darkroom printing. It is harder to judge your print under red light. But as rainphot indicates, it's quite doable.
In ye olden dayz, we were taught that safelight illumination should be such that, after the eyes become accomodated, one should be able to read a newspaper in the darkroom.

I never judge a print under any safelight -- gotta wait til I can hit some nice white light, even test strips.

 

[David Brown]

The moral of the story?

Whatever is used, do a proper safelight test.