Small safelight question

Jedidiah Smith · Mar 8, 2015

Hurray, our copy of Way Beyond Monochrome 2e finally arrived form Barnes & Noble! And the only big thing I'm missing now for the new darkroom project is a safelight. Looking at the wavelength curves he lists on page 429, am I right to think that a red 1A safelight will be just that much "safer" than an OC amber light would be?

The space we are making into the new darkroom is small - a 5ft x 7ft utility area in the condo, that is entered through a side door in the bathroom. The good news is that even though it's small, there are water hookups and a vent already in there! If I did the math right, he states we should limit the bulb to 15W per 2sqM, so that would mean we want to anywhere from 15 - 24W max.

Thanks for a suggestion on this. I guess it might not matter, but the space is so small that I'm sure a red light would be enough illumination if you all think it might be worth it to go that route.

snapguy · Mar 8, 2015

happy

I'm not so sure you'd be happy with a red safelight. Why not buy both? If you look around you can get such things for peanuts these days.

Rick A · Mar 8, 2015

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/12185-Premier-Safelight-5x7-Red

DWThomas · Mar 8, 2015

Maybe it's old age and cataracts developing, but I've been using a dark red (No. 2) filter to handle Fuji HR-T X-ray film and I can just barely see enough to avoid sticking a sheet in the wrong tray. I find my visibility greatly enhanced working under an OC safelight when printing. Maybe since the 1A is a lighter red it would be better, but I would definitely lean toward the filters closer to the middle of the visible spectrum as long as they are OK for the material being handled. That is, I like to be able to see what I'm doing! :confused:

Jedidiah Smith · Mar 8, 2015

OK, I just thought the 1A red filter was what he listed in the book. I'll have to go back and check. So there's no advantage to having a red filter vs the OC filter then? Because it seems like the OC filter would definitely give more light to work with, but I didn't want to run the risk of fogging the paper with it.

pentaxuser · Mar 8, 2015

Which paper will you use. Most VC papers are fine with OC but Foma IIRC suggest that red is needed. Others here on APUG seem to say that OC is fine for Foma. It is not paper I have used so I cannot speak from experience

Everyone seem to agree however that OC is a better light so if your paper is Ilford, Adox, Kentmere or Fotospeed then OC is fine

pentaxuser

Bill Harrison · Mar 8, 2015

If you are going to use x-ray film (large format) Red is required for dev. by inspection.

Wade D · Mar 9, 2015

For Arista Edu VC RC (Freestyle) I use a no. 2 dark red filter. For everything else I use an OC filter. 15W is the safe maximum for my small setup.

Jedidiah Smith · Mar 9, 2015

Thanks, we'll be using RC paper from Ilford and Adox, and maybe some Kentmere which I tried in the past and really liked. OK, sounds like a bit of a toss up - the OC will give more light to work by, but the red (dark 2A) will be safe for all papers...I'm beginning to see why there is no consensus in anything related to Art. haha!

wildbill · Mar 9, 2015

I use a red 11W light bulb I got from Freestyle about 10yrs ago. It cost me $4. All you need is a lamp socket. http://www.freestylephoto.biz/12622-Halco-11-Watt-S14-Red-Safelight-Bulb. It works with every paper I've ever used. Keep it simple.

JBrunner · Mar 9, 2015

Test for your process. If you change your process test again. Test. Test. Test. All the talking in the world is just that (and nobody talks louder or longer than me). Test.

What was that I said? Test.

David Brown · Mar 9, 2015

JBrunner said:
Test for your process. If you change your process test again. Test. Test. Test. All the talking in the world is just that (and nobody talks louder or longer than me). Test.

What was that I said? Test.

+1

Jedidiah Smith said:
...I'm beginning to see why there is no consensus in anything related to Art. ...

The thing is, having a proper tested safelight is not art, it's science. With a few possible exceptions, it is hard to go wrong with a Kodak OC or the Ilford equivalent, and they are readily available on the used market. There are also some LEDs that have been tested and proved usable by me and others. But the bottom line is one must test for themselves, and having a proven filter is a good place to start.

Rick A · Mar 9, 2015

I've been using a dark red safe light since the early 60's and have never had any problems fogging any photo materials. I have an OC light, and have used it with OC safe materials, but it makes me nervous. Actually it freaks me out a bit, being able to see things with more light is strange to me. I still prefer the red, especially since I use ortho film, x-ray film, and some papers that require it.

M Carter · Mar 9, 2015

I go through a fair amount of cheaper RC paper for contact strips and dialing in a print, then I go larger and move to fiber.

I've used Ilford RC and also Adorama's RC paper (very cheap). I got some Arista EDU and thought it was fogged... turns out my safelights just bake the stuff!

I stuck some red lighting gel over my (already red) safelights and it seems better now...

ac12 · Mar 9, 2015

Another MAJOR factor is what color is the walls, floor and ceiling?
My old darkroom was white, and I could light it completely (no dark spaces at all) with 2 small safelights with 7-1/2 watt bulbs.
Whereas my high school darkroom was a cavern, BLACK everything, and even with 6 safelights most of the darkroom was black. Really not a pleasant place to work in. Which I only realized after visiting another high school and seeing their nicely list darkroom that used light white and green paint on the walls (I have no idea why the green).

darkroommike · Mar 12, 2015

There are some VC papers that require a red safelight (most do not) the good old OC safelight pumps out light in the part of the spectrum that our eye is most sensitive to so appears much brighter. I have both a Thomas and an Osram Duka and either is way more light than a small darkroom requires.

jamespierce · Mar 14, 2015

As others have said you just must test. Also you need to do a valid test - for every material you are testing you need to build up some base fog first, and then cover half - and test with a strip on the other half. All material will fog eventually and unless you test like this you don't know the impact on real prints etc. The old coin test suggested in so many books doesn't tell you this - you are probably in effect pre-flashing all your paper to some random degree otherwise.

Practically speaking I use 2 x Kodak 1As with 15w globes in my 12ft x 10ft darkroom because I use mostly Foma Paper (OCs are fine for Ilford). If I'm doing Ortho masks this is really too much and will fog the film quite quickly - It's probably ok if you work fast, but I still turn off the main safelights and use a small unit to give just enough light to punch, register, expose and then get the film into a jobo tank.

Small safelight question

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