Safelight Questions

I'm going to be building a darkroom in my basement this summer (well its being built for me) anyway I currently have one fireball safelight (amber) and it illuminates my area fairly well (though i want a second) but its effective distance seems like 6-7 ft, after that things get real dark. Does anyone recommend another safelight other than that? or would three fireball safelights be ok for a darkroom thats about 10X10 (with a cut out in the one corner about that eats about 3ft on one end and 4 1/2 ft on the other)

IMHO you don't need that many safelights in a 10x10 space. I've got one 5x7 in a bigger space. It's a little dark at the far end away from the safelight but that's the fixer tray.

I have a mix of 5x7 and 10x12 (?) D-style safelights. Kodak and Premier. Amber and Red. Sometimes ortho film will only work with red and not amber. I've got so much stuff and slightly low ceiling in my DR that I have many lights with 15W bulbs to keep the corners lit. My room is 9x12. I think I have 6 safelights.

Dear Ryan,

Personally, I operate with very little safelight illumination. Overkill I admit, but I never have trouble with fogging. After a few sessions of color using no safelight, working with any illlmination is a breeze.

Neal Wydra

It is not difficult to work completely in the dark without a safelight. In fact there can be advantages to working strictly with time & temperature...such as having a fully developed print and no worry about safelight fog. It is not hard to do. If your darkroom has a fairly constant temp. it permits very good process control.