Sans darkroom... I can still print? How?

NikoSperi · Dec 6, 2005

Ok. In a few posts of mine the subject came up about how I don't have a readily accessible darkroom. I have a room set up at my Mom's which I visit every other month or so. In itself, that's a good thing that prones a hearty selection process of the negs that I take with me to print, but that's another story.

But, nonetheless, a few people have mentioned to me, and to others saying they're losing their rooms, that the solution is to contact print.

What? How? You mean I can contact print my 4x5" negs without a darkroom? Is that with paper only sensitive to UV light? Please, pray tell... and I will reclaim the bathroom I gave so generously to my wife! Is it true... I can print my contacts?

***Honey! I moved your makeup... hope you don't mind!

Flotsam · Dec 6, 2005

Most rooms automatically become darkrooms at night. Sometimes curtains or blinds or even towels are needed to keep the street light out. After that, a lightbulb a piece of glass and a few dishes for your solutions are all that are needed for contact printing. A slow paper is best but any enlarging paper will do.

David A. Goldfarb · Dec 6, 2005

Check out the "Darkroom Portraits" thread for lots of darkrooms in tiny spaces, mine included.

nick mulder · Dec 6, 2005

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(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

The only time you need a darkroom is for loading film in/out of box into film holder and/or dev tank - but a dark bag will do nicely

John Bartley · Dec 6, 2005

I don't have a darkroom. I keep an Elwood 5x7 enlarger in my home office and I black out the window and door bottom when enlarging. Once exposed, the paper goes into a black plastic envelope for the short trip into the bathroom just down the hall. I put a sheet of plywood over the bathroom tub to serve as a surface for the chemicals trays and I also black out the bathroom window and door bottom. When I contact print, I put a board over the toilet seat to serve as a surface for the print frame and the halogen lamp sits above the frame on the toilet tank. It all sounds pretty crude, and it really is, but the point is = you don't need a darkroom, just some imagination .

cheers

Nige · Dec 6, 2005

Nico, when I used to use my bathroom and wanted to do a few contact sheets (of roll films) and was to lazy to get the enlarger out of the cupboard, I'd use the bathroom light as a light source to expose the contacts on the floor underneath the room light.

What Flotsom suggest's is more controllable... get a simple light fixture (desk lamp), a low wattage globe (say 25W) and a piece of glass big enough (and heavy enough to flatten the neg onto the paper). A safelight makes life easier... you can get bulbs that replace the room light or use another desk lamp. Make your paper/neg/glass sandwich and flick the desk lamp on and off, counting alligators or whatever to make it roughly repeatable!... a couple of tests will get you zeroed in. Place your dev/stop/fix trays either in the bath, or wherever they fit. I used to have a couple of boards I sat them on above the bath to make it a little more user friendly, although I sat them in the bath for many years. And away you go...

glennfromwy · Dec 6, 2005

My "darkroom" cosists of a 3X6 foot counter top. It holds two enlargers and 8X10 trays for paper developing. Washing, etc is done downstairs at the kitchen sink. Film loading is done in a closet. Where there's a will, there's a way. I should mention that if you want to contact print your 4X5s, you could make up a kit that would fit in a small case. A box of Ilford Multi Grade postcard paper, 3 5X7 trays, 3 one liter chemical bottles, 15 watt safelight bulb, 15 watt light bulb, small print frame or sheet of plate glass. That, a sink, and any dark closet will put you in business.

NikoSperi · Dec 7, 2005

I guess I had this coming to me... allow me to qualify. I have in my distant darkroom my Durst 670 VC enlarger and all that surrounds it. I also have in storage until I find accommodation for it, a 5x7" IFF Ampliator. What I do not have at home is ANY option to use an enlarger. None.

What I could possibly swing, is a little lamp (UV?) which I plug in and expose a contact sheet. I can get dark, or reasonably dark. I can fit tiny trays to develop my 4x5" contacts.

Question is, what paper/light source allows me to do this without having an enlarger? Normal paper would flash in a fraction of a second under the Ikea lamp.

Ole · Dec 7, 2005

POP takes quite a while, even in sunlight. Fun to do in the summer, a long-term project in Norwegian winters (20 minutes exposure over several weeks?).

Just about any alt. process is also exposed by sunlight.

And there's also Azo...

Nige · Dec 7, 2005

NikoSperi said:
Question is, what paper/light source allows me to do this without having an enlarger? Normal paper would flash in a fraction of a second under the Ikea lamp.

A normal (tungsten) low wattage lamp, normal enlarging paper (RC or FB) will let you do this. Just move the lamp back a bit to lengthen the exposure times, or insert a dimmer device in the power cord to give an even lower wattage lamp. Pretty sure you don't want to diffuse the light source.

In my case, I used to use a 40 or 60W globe in the roof mounted fixture (so about 2.something metres above my paper/neg/glass sandwich. I think I used to count to 3 or 4 using the 1-alligator-2-aliigator method

nick mulder · Dec 7, 2005

NikoSperi said:
Question is, what paper/light source allows me to do this without having an enlarger? Normal paper would flash in a fraction of a second under the Ikea lamp.

The Sun (on cloudy days even) - and any of the myriad alt. processes...

I personally love pure palladium prints, but there are many cheaper and just as cheerful other types of processes to get into.

They may seem very technical - but they dont need to be, cyanotypes are even easier than yer darkroom silver gelatin papers

Sans darkroom... I can still print? How?

NikoSperi

Flotsam

David A. Goldfarb

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nick mulder

John Bartley

Nige

glennfromwy

NikoSperi

Ole

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Nige

nick mulder

Sans darkroom... I can still print? How?

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