This may be a stupid question but...

campy51

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My basement is setup so that if I want to develop it would be a royal PITA every time I want to use it to make it light tight. This may be a stupid question but what if I set up safelights so the are pointing at the light coming from a window, would that make the light safe for printing paper? I looked into safe light material on rolls that I could put in front of the windows but they are around $330 for 32 foot rolls. BTW I do not want to put up walls.
 

cramej

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No.

Do you have a bathroom? They are much easier to make safe.
 

REAndy

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I have my dark room in my basement. and I got some wide tin/aluminum foil and duck tapped it to the window frame to block out the light. Window is only about 18 inches X 24 inches (aprox)
 

pentaxuser

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It would not work as I understand matters. What might work is putting red transparent gel on the windows. A lot might depend on how strong the light was. Nightlight is likely to be quite different from daylight. Les McLean allegedly tells the story of someone he knew who had a photographic shop at street level and a darkroom in the basement which allowed the owner to see if anyone( feet to knee level) entered his shop from street level. He did darkroom work during slack periods and had a red covering on the basement window sufficient to keep the paper safe but light enough to see "feet" by his shop doorway.

The shop was just over the border in Scotland so that's Scottish daylight and not the glare you get in Hadleyville at High Noon The latitude meant that one of his customers might have been Chill Wills but never Hot Tex Ritter

pentaxuser
 

Neal

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Dear campy51,

I use this. It works great but I only print in the evenings so if the sun is shining directly at the window you might need 2 layers.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra
 

AgX

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Fighting light with light... an interesting concept... but would not work.
 

Sirius Glass

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I put up two folded cardboard boxes over the venetian blinds and then cover with a darkroom cloth attached to the wall with Velcro in the dry darkroom.

In the wet darkroom, I put a board [with two handles] in the window frame with the darkroom cloth on the window side and extending 1 foot out in all directions. Then ends of the dark cloth are held by gaffers' tape.
 
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campy51

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I forgot to mention it would only be used at night so the light coming would be minimal.
 

tezzasmall

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I've used cut open 'rubble bags' (which means that they are thicker than ordinary 'rubbish bags') and taped them to make a sheet or two big enough to cover two windows and even DURING THE SUMMER AT THE BRIGHTEST PART OF THE DAY, my room was lightproof.

Ask / have a look at your local hardware store. I got a packet of 10 for just a few pounds / dollars.

Terry S
UK
 

removed account4

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hi campy51
why not get drapes ?
black canvas or felt is
cheap at the fabric store
ez to make your own even ...
 

cliveh

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I believe the war photographer Tony Vaccaro use to develop his film at night and hang the negatives from a tree to dry.
 

Sirius Glass

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cliveh said:
I believe the war photographer Tony Vaccaro use to develop his film at night and hang the negatives from a tree to dry.
Click to expand...

I do not think that the OP is at war or fighting anyone. I hope that his home life is peaceful too.
 

Patrick Robert James

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You can get blackout curtain material at a fabric store. If it isn't good enough for you during the day, you can paint it with black fabric spray paint. That will do the trick. It should be more than adequate at night though. Even a garbage bag should do the trick at night.

Aluminum foil is light tight as well. Cardboard can work fine at night but might not work during the day.

The best solution I have come up with is blackout curtain velcroed to a frame around the window. With black paint on it, even the sun won't get through. I looks a lot better than the alternatives too if that is something you are concerned about.
 

removed account4

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cliveh said:
I believe the war photographer Tony Vaccaro use to develop his film at night and hang the negatives from a tree to dry.
Click to expand...
i think the professor from gilligan's island did something similar
not only that he had a combi plan processor that was run by gilligan on a stationarry bike
and mr howell feeding him extra dry martinis ...
" keep pedaling my boy i'll give you another martini after lovie goes to
my footlocker to get me another jar of pimento'd olives! 7 minutes and 5 martini's go to ! "
 

jvo

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i wrapped black room darkening curtain around black foamcore, cut to size, edges glued, to fit large windows. pop them in and out as needed... sometimes i use gaffers tape on some edges. it blocks bright, florida sun as it shines directly in the window! "bob's your uncle" - as they say across the pond
 
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campy51

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The problem is I have to climb over things to get to the windows and don't want to leave them up all the time.
 

REAndy

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campy51 said:
The problem is I have to climb over things to get to the windows and don't want to leave them up all the time.
Click to expand...
Ah, more information. That does change things...
You won't like my duck tape aluminum foil idea now. That's more of "leave it up all the time" solution.
 

MattKing

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campy51 said:
The problem is I have to climb over things to get to the windows and don't want to leave them up all the time.
Click to expand...
Roller blinds and a second layer of curtains.
 

RalphLambrecht

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building a light trap for a window doesn't take a rocket engineer.
 
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campy51

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Any scientific reason why the safe light pointing at the window won't work? There would be minimal light coming in from the windows at night but I will have to cover the walk out basement door.
 

MattKing

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campy51 said:
Any scientific reason why the safe light pointing at the window won't work? There would be minimal light coming in from the windows at night but I will have to cover the walk out basement door.
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The light coming from the safe light won't interact in any (measurable, real life, not quantum physics) way with any light coming in from the windows.
So the questions to be asked really are:
1) will the light from the windows create a problem? and
2) is it a good idea to point a safelight at a window?
The answer to the first question is: probably - the existing light at night may be enough to cause problems, and if not all it takes is for a car's headlights to hit the window for there to be a real chance of fogging.
The answer to the second question is no, because it will just waste the safe light. It is usually best to point a safelight at a larger, semi-reflective light surface like a ceiling, in order to maximize the benefit of the safe light and to increase the effective distance between the safelight and the paper.
 
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campy51

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CMoore said:
Wowuldn't it be easier to cover them on the outside.?
Click to expand...
That might be the easiest, as long as there's not much snow. I could actually do it during the day when I know I will be developing that night.
 
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