Standing up or sitting down?

darkroommike · Jun 29, 2017

I print standing, I process sitting.

LAG · Jun 29, 2017

Standing up, not still

guangong · Jun 29, 2017

For reasons that are to complicated to describe here, it should be noted that no matter how active the upper body that sitting for more than fifty minutes at a time is not healthy. I do enlarging, painting and sculpting (marble) standing, although much of my picture taking is done sitting in bars and coffee shops. Standing also gives greater freedom of movement than sitting.

adelorenzo · Jun 29, 2017

Standing. Being somewhat tall (6-6) I built my sink and counter heights at around 40 inches to allow me to work comfortably.

dpurdy · Jun 29, 2017

Sitting down makes me yawn. I prefer to stand for most any activity. You have more energy when you are standing than you do when sitting. Sometimes when standing at the sink processing prints I throw darts at my red light lit dart board. I have a few times moved my exercise bike over in front of the developer tray. When I have my stereo playing music I sometimes dance while sloshing prints.
Dennis

paul ron · Jun 30, 2017

darkroom work is a dance from light table to mount negs in holders, set up the enlarger, test print over to the trays, back to the enlarger for adjustments n exposure, back to the trays.... print wash n dry....

hey just put on a good jazz station n have fun for 6 or 8 hours till the sun comes up.
the only sitting in my sitting is a nice breakfast n a great cup of coffee... then its nap time all day while enjoying the prints i made last night.

faberryman · Jun 30, 2017

For most work standing; though when lith printing, I do admit to sitting on a small step stool when the prints are in the developer for 6-8 minutes. Lots of time to think while watching the Graylab dial go round and round.

sepiareverb · Jun 30, 2017

Another dancer here. My darkroom is on a slab so no fear of jiggling anything.

Jim Jones · Jul 1, 2017

If I should work standing up, my feet would be as big as my butt. Therefore I prefer to work sitting down.

Harry Stevens · Jul 1, 2017

I hang from the ceiling, I was bitten by a bat last year and it as resulted in some odd behavior from me.......Can I come in.

silveror0 · Jul 1, 2017

Bill Burk said:
And dogs do it on three legs.

My high school Physics teacher (and football coach) was an ex pro football player; he posed a question to the class one day "What does a football player do to achieve a stable position?" I had no idea what he was talking about, because my mind was envisioning running/jumping/etc rather than when the ball was "snapped."

Question: When is a football coach ever a physicist (or even a Logic instructor)?

Regarding sitting/standing, I too have a folding chair in the darkroom but rarely use it and only when room lights are on - too easy to run into things moving around SLOWLY as my darkroom was built with dark gray walls unknowingly.

wiltw · Jul 1, 2017

silveror0 said:
My high school Physics teacher (and football coach) was an ex pro football player; he posed a question to the class one day "What does a football player do to achieve a stable position?" I had no idea what he was talking about, because my mind was envisioning running/jumping/etc rather than when the ball was "snapped."

'Sit or lie down' ?!

wiltw · Jul 1, 2017

MattKing said:
And I was being strong and avoiding such a reference!
I've worked in a lot of darkrooms, and with one exception, I have always worked standing up.
A couple of those darkrooms were designed to permit several photographers working side by side. In at least one case, there were bar stool height chairs on castors in the darkrooms, which you could choose to use.
When I used to have trays in my bathroom/darkroom at the same height as the rim of a (low) bathtub, I sometimes either perched on the toilet lid or brought in a low chair - primarily when I was printing batches of prints (such as with the postcard exchange). I now have the trays higher, and prefer to stand.

I am curious...('and dog do it on three legs') Who are all these many people that you guys are shaking hands with in the darkroom?!

act12 said:
At my home, sitting on foot stool. The enlarger is on the toilet seat.

And to the fellow with the enlarger on the toilet seat...You must have become obsessive about planning very well all of your activities in advance, to minimize disruptions to your darkroom sessions.
A long time ago, I put my Jobo on a sheet of plywood I would place over my bathtub, but then I never felt the sudden need to take a bath in the middle of a printing session.

silveror0 · Jul 1, 2017

MattKing said:
...darkrooms were designed to permit several photographers working side by side...

Sounds like opening day of trout season. And conjures up scenes from the Three Stooges.

MattKing · Jul 1, 2017

It was the darkroom for the Vancouver Sun, the then afternoon daily paper for Vancouver, BC.
There could be as many as half a dozen photographers and darkroom technicians printing at the same time, although two or three at a time was more common.
I've also spent a little bit of time in school darkrooms where up to ten people could work at the same time. With ten students, it could be crazy!

M Carter · Jul 4, 2017

wiltw said:
And to the fellow with the enlarger on the toilet seat...You must have become obsessive about planning very well all of your activities in advance, to minimize disruptions to your darkroom sessions.

I do mostly lith printing, sometimes development can be 30+ minutes per print.

Yeah, I've peed in the sink plenty of times!

That said, I can't imagine sitting in the darkroom. Between dodging, burning, grabbing cards and dodge tools, swapping out masks... can't see it for myself. And developing lith, I spend a lot of time leaning over the tray with a red torch. When boredom sets in for a long lith print, I clean things, prep things, and pass the tray every minute or so and give it a good shake, To each their own of course...

Arklatexian · Jul 6, 2017

dpurdy said:
Sitting down makes me yawn. I prefer to stand for most any activity. You have more energy when you are standing than you do when sitting. Sometimes when standing at the sink processing prints I throw darts at my red light lit dart board. I have a few times moved my exercise bike over in front of the developer tray. When I have my stereo playing music I sometimes dance while sloshing prints.
Dennis

Once had a professional photographer friend who put an old B&W television equipped with a darker orange than normal transparent plastic sheet over the screen. When he was printing, he would also watch TV. He took it out, however. He said that when he hired a darkroom flunky, the flunky would get interested in the program and forget to watch the timer or agitate the print. Those of us who knew him thought that he was the flunky that screwed up......Regards!

Ronald Moravec · Jul 26, 2017

Stand unless you have a tall column enlarger that you put on a special build short table. 4 x 5 Omegas are on a short table and Leica enlargers are on 38" benches.

Depending on the day, I stand to process prints but have a tall stool if I am tired.

tedr1 · Jul 26, 2017

I stand at the enlarger bench, which is about 33inches high. The wet side is 30inches, I often stand, there is a stool so I can also sit.

c41 · Jul 28, 2017

Like others, I mostly stand/dance, sometimes sitting for a minute or two on a high chair when the print's in the developer.
Always with sound - mainly music, sometimes Radio 4 or the cricket.

With music, the repetition of the print cycle, plus the sound of running water and the constant ticking of my clockwork timer, it all gets pretty rhythmic.
Reminds me of the scene in Delicatessen, though the print is maybe never quite as good as that(!)

I couldn't sit down the whole time but I do notice those times I forget to wear decent shoes and my back starts aching (my darkroom is a tiled laundry, the floor is hard)

Robin Guymer · Jul 28, 2017

Sitting is the new smoking which is why digital imaging and "Photoshop" is just not good for your health. With a worn out builder's back I now use raised benches and mostly stand.

pcyco · Jul 28, 2017

often standing. sometimes sitting. at last (one) time lying on the floor .

thomas

RalphLambrecht · Jul 28, 2017

Martin Rickards said:
I started enlarging self taught before any Youtube videos that always seem to show photographers standing and bending down to make copies. I always found it more comfortable to sit down surrounded by the enlarger, trays etc. Some 20 years later I have returned and now it'd be a pain in the back to work standing. How do others feel about this?

standing up seems to work better for my back but I can recommend a soft rubber mat to stand on to help the feet; they use them in factories for the same reason.

Sirius Glass · Jul 28, 2017

RalphLambrecht said:
standing up seems to work better for my back but I can recommend a soft rubber mat to stand on to help the feet; they use them in factories for the same reason.

That is what I do.

cliveh · Jul 28, 2017

Standing gives you a more objective view of the overall image. If you sit, you may become more introspective about certain areas of the image and lose the sense of the picture as a whole.

Standing up or sitting down?

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