What I’ve Learned from One Year of Consistent Darkroom Work – Amanda Shopa, PhD

[FilmIsCheap]

I am a sucker for “Here’s what I learned after doing [X] for [amount of time]” posts. In that spirit—What I’ve Learned from One Year of Consistent Darkroom Work

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[warden]

That was an enjoyable read. Thanks!

 

[Trask]

I'm glad to see you are sticking with your project -- it's inspiring to us all.

 

[LenB]

Thanks for that!
I hope I enjoy my trip back as much.

Cheers!

 

[Daniela]

So many things ring true on your post! I hadn't considered how the darkroom lighting could be affecting my photos and I'm often surprised at how different they look once I get home. I'll be taking this into account now!
Best of luck with your project. What a positive way to reaffirm what's important during these challenging times.

 

[MattKing]

Somewhere deep in @RalphLambrecht and Chris Woodhouse's excellent "Way Beyond Monochrome" is a recommendation for a print viewing light set to a standard illumination level. If ever I have a permanent darkroom again, that will be one of the first things I install.

 

[FilmIsCheap]

That was an enjoyable read. Thanks!

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[FilmIsCheap]

I'm glad to see you are sticking with your project -- it's inspiring to us all.

When I came up with it, I didn't think the four years would feel so... long.

 

[FilmIsCheap]

Thanks for that!
I hope I enjoy my trip back as much.

Cheers!

I hope you do too! Would love to hear how it goes!

 

[FilmIsCheap]

So many things ring true on your post! I hadn't considered how the darkroom lighting could be affecting my photos and I'm often surprised at how different they look once I get home. I'll be taking this into account now!
Best of luck with your project. What a positive way to reaffirm what's important during these challenging times.

It's a little embarrassing how long it took me to figure out the light was too bright. I kept thinking the postcards looked a little too dark, but it wasn't clicking in my brain that I was looking at them under a bright white light.

I started taking notes on what looked good in the darkroom vs my living room. I do f/stop printing and use 1/3 stop times for my test strips. I quickly figured out that if I go about 1/3 stop lighter than I think looks good in the darkroom, it looks good in my living room. (That's for RC--I haven't done enough with fiber to figure out dry-down and all that yet.)

I also figured out if I block the single lightbulb in my darkroom with my body, and view the photo in shadow, that gives me about the same result as removing 1/3 stop.

 

[FilmIsCheap]

Somewhere deep in @RalphLambrecht and Chris Woodhouse's excellent "Way Beyond Monochrome" is a recommendation for a print viewing light set to a standard illumination level. If ever I have a permanent darkroom again, that will be one of the first things I install.

That's a good idea, and it's definitely one of my darkroom wishlist items.

 

[warden]

That's a good idea, and it's definitely one of my darkroom wishlist items.

And while you're at it, Get the book too if you can. It's a great resource.

 

[FilmIsCheap]

And while you're at it, Get the book too if you can. It's a great resource.

Oh I've got it! @RalphLambrecht has been so generous in sharing PDFs here for various chapters that I read a few and knew it was worth the price. It's one of my go-to books.