Who here abosultly love thier darkroom.. ?

[JeffreyConley]

I still love working in the darkroom. It's kind of a sanctuary for me. So much of our lives is fast paced and seemingly now-driven, but making darkroom prints is wonderfully slow and nuanced. For myself, it's a very meditative process.

 

[zsas]

I feel like the luckiest guy alive to have a DR. I love getting some time to print and sometimes if I've little time I enjoy simply straightening/organizing/cleaning etc, getting ready for my next print session.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

Isn't it where the magic happens?

 

[removed account4]

yes, and i will be there soon ..

 

[Mike Wilde]

I love the space, I just don't presently have much time in my life to use it much. Between my elderly mom, and my active tweens, along with everyday things like housework and the day job, me time to dive into the darkroom and not feel rushed is in short supply at the moment.

We have been reviewing our financial plans, and have just had my conservative presumptions and projections independently confirmed.
It presntly looks like we are on track to maintain our currently comfortable to us lifestyle with me stepping away from working full time in another 5years, and then ramp down to nothing if I feel like it after another 6 years when my wife is ready to retire.

Todd B has been by my place 6 or more years ago, to buy some wash test solution I had mixed. up.
He knows that I have lots of space to nest in the dark, and lots of gear to fill it, and the rooms next to it.

 

[darkroom]

Yes, Yes, Yes

 

[HowardDvorin]

I live in a small condo. My dark room is a combination of a closet and a bathroom. I use a changng bag and the kitchen counter for developing film and washing prints.

I agree with all of the comments above. A warm glow, a cold brew and some good music rounds out the experience.

 

[NedL]

Mine's a tiny closet with a footstool to sit on. The enlarger barely fits in there. It probably won't be too long before I partition out a bigger space in the garage. Like everyone else, I love the slow patient quiet process of making a print. What I really like about it is that it's always ready. If I can find an hour, I can go make a print. I'll probably make one after dinner tonight, just like I did last night!

 

[John Wiegerink]

I have a very nice darkroom. Not as big as SEPIAREVERB's, but big enough. Hmmmm, are they ever big enough? It's my "Man Cave" and it's the only room in the house I don't mind cleaning. In fact I rather love cleaning it. When my door is locked my wife knows enough to steer clear. Sometimes I just use it as a think/read room and it works just fine for that too. JohnW

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Im on my second revision of my darkroom in the basement, its small and pretty cramped as half of it is storage space, but still I enjoy being in it and the convenience it is. I hope to setup an area for a 4x5 enlarger in the future opposite my 6x7 enlarger in the future. I have equal love and hate for it at this point! haha

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I love it. I've had a few darkrooms in different locations but the nicest set up I had, I was able to spend 6+ hours at a time in there. Comfortably. That was a luxury.

 

[naaldvoerder]

love it, have to have one, can't do without it...... and hate it.....

 

[Henning Serger]

I absolutely love it, too.
Because
- it is so relaxing; I have to work at the computer in my job several ours each day, therefore my darkroom is like holidays from my job
- because I have made my pictures 'with my own hands' I have a very close and emotional relationship to the prints I've made in my darkroom
- I can get outstanding quality
- we've tested all imaging chains in our test lab: Optical printing with APO enlarging lenses, slide projection, hybrid workflow with the best drum scanners.
Result:
You get the best detail rendition and highest resolution with both optical printing (classic wet darkroom) and slide projection; scanning with the best drum scanners deliver significantly worse results. So the optical, classic imaging chain (printing and projection) is still the benchmark and unsurpassed in film land.

Optical printing in my darkroom is my preferred method for 'middle' enlargements.
For really big enlargements ( 1 meter x 1,5 meter, 1,5 x 1,5 m, 2 x 2m ) I go for slide projection (BW and colour). It is by far the best method for big enlargements, because of its unsurpassed quality and the extremely low costs (well a 2 x 2m picture cost me less than one Euro in projection).

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Tony Egan]

My first darkroom in 1981. And I still love her just as much.

 

[dpurdy]

My entire full basement is dark. One room for film with a 6 foot wet sink another room for platinum with coating and drying area, another room with a 14 foot wet sink a dry area with enlarger and counter spaces. A bathroom and the laundry room where I steam platinum prints. I sort of lost the sense of magic when prints come up in a tray many years ago but I still love seeing a print finished and framed. One thing I love about my darkroom is that it is nice a cool in the Summer heat. Also that I can walk out of the film room in the middle of a process and answer the phone in another room. Or I can leave a print in the developer and go to the bathroom and turn on the light. Or I can go with a beer and play darts.
Dennis

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Whoa!

Me!

I've got darkroom envy.

 

[MattKing]

My first darkroom in 1981. And I still love her just as much.
View attachment 68527

So Tony, you refer to your darkroom as "her"?

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I love mine very much. Actually, I didn't use it for a few years from being burned out as a pro printing other people's stuff. I've been back for a few years now with a fresh eye. I built it in my mom's garage in the mid 80's. It's a wonderful therapeutic place to do art. It's a strange place where hours turn into minutes. It's only 10'x6'.

 

[bsdunek]

Like agnosticnikon, I designed my darkroom into our new house, back in 1970. I wish I'd made it bigger, but I love it. My previous darkroom was about four feet square, so my 12 X 14 one seemed really big at the time.

 

[k.hendrik]

Me!

I've got darkroom envy.

For the time being only film developing these days (in the bathroom) but when I see "Sepiareverb" ............Now I know what I miss !!

 

[pdeeh]

I hate mine ... not because I don't enjoy printing, but because I have to build it every time, it's extremely hard to make light-tight and is cramped and physically very uncomfortable once I'm in there, and then when I've finished I have to break it all down and clean up - so an hour at the beginning and an hour (at least) at the end of each session.

As a result I only print for a couple of hours a month and I can't learn fast enough. The idea of having a room where I just walk in, shut the door and have everything at my fingertips is beyond thinking ...

moan moan moan moan moan moan.

 

[Tony Egan]

So Tony, you refer to your darkroom as "her"?

Matt, the "her" could also be my newlywed in our apartment bathroom where I made my first print!?

 

[MattKing]

Matt, the "her" could also be my newlywed in our apartment bathroom where I made my first print!?

I thought that might be the case

 

[jvo]

ditto!

I've got darkroom envy.

size matters!!!

jvo

 

[sepiareverb]

And I downsized a little in my last move