window in my darkroom ?

boyooso · Feb 5, 2006

Hi,

I am getting a new darkroom together in a new location. I have a 3X4 foot north facing window.

I will NOT be working with unexposed film at all, I will only be making prints in this darkroom.

Can I put red glass in the window? rather than covering it?

I think the window would be fun to have in the darkroom.

Thank You In Advance!

Corey

jim appleyard · Feb 5, 2006

I can't say for sure whether you can put red glass in, (not knowing the color of the red, etc.), but in my high school darkroom (printing only; like you, no film) the teacher somewhere found red plastic mylar (???) and covered the window with it. It was great, no safelights were needed.

I asked him once where he got the stuff, but he couldn't remember. He seemed to think it was Porter's camera Stores.

jeroldharter · Feb 5, 2006

Sounds interesting but I would not do it. I would forever be wondering about light leaks and if you don't test you don't know. Also, the intensity of your safelight woud constantly change. That would bother me. You will still need conventional safelights. I would try to put up black out cloth with velcro so that I could remove it if I wanted light in the room.

reellis67 · Feb 5, 2006

I second the blackout fabric. It's cheap and easy to work with. I have it over the window in my darkroom/bathroom (very convenient at times...<cough>) and it works great. I use it as a curtain over the outside of the door as well and between that and closing the door, no light! I develop sheet film in there and have never had light problems. The only time you might want to keep the film away is if the sun is shining directly on the fabric, in which case a second layer will stop the faint glow.

- Randy

Bob F. · Feb 5, 2006

I don't think this will fly... The only realistic option would be to use a red plastic foil such as Rubylith. Apart from the aforementioned factors, there is also the problem that it will be exposed to a lot of UV which will make it brittle and will make it fade - you will be forever having to check to make sure it isn't fogging your paper.

Much better to blackout the window and use a normal safelight as suggested. One thing you want to do, especially at first, is to remove as many imponderables as possible...

Have fun, Bob.

gnashings · Feb 5, 2006

I think you underestimate what a HUGElightbulb the sun is. And what a little one you have in a typical safe light. Besides, even at night, there may be circuimstances beyond your control that may cause things to get out of hand and ruin prints. Its shame to cover it, but I would not risk it otherwise.

Donald Qualls · Feb 5, 2006

What you might consider is making a cover that fits the window but can be taken down quickly and easily. I made one from a 30x42 inch sheet of black foamcore, some strips of matt board, and a lot of black masking tape; I cover my bathroom window with it when I want to use the darkroom, and it's easily dark enough to handle high-EI film (I've handled Tri-X that was being pushed to EI 5000 in there). I can put it up in 2-3 minutes (sliding it behind the curtains and making sure nothing gets bunched up and hangs, etc.), take it down in the same time and my wife can still see light outside when she's using the bathroom for its designed purpose.

Yes, a window covered with red (rubylith would be the desired material, unless you can find red plexiglas and test it), but intensity is an issue, even with a north-facing window, and reglazing a window is a major PITA.

boyooso · Feb 5, 2006

Thanks for the inupt!

I should point out that the window is currently filled in with slump block (kind of like cinder block). We are doing a major renovation and looking to do something fun and off the wall!! This will be a printing dedicated darkroom. There will be another for film processing, so no worries there.

I understand most safe lights with red glass have like a 15watt bulb in them... and the sun, even if coming in an indirect way from the north is still quite a lot of light.

Using hte window as a safelight isn't really the idea, I currently use a Thomas Duplex, which is like being in subdued sunlight already

I have never used rubylith and can't remember what it looks like... is it like that deep red tape? Can you see through it? Might it go between two sheets of Plexi or glass, or perhaps two layers of ruby liith. Of course all these things would be tested before going with it as a final option.

Thanks Again,

Corey

gnashings · Feb 5, 2006

It does sound like a fun idea - how about giving yourself the facilty to black it out just in case, and make the window you want? I have some dark-room curtains I am not using, if you want them, let me know.

Peter.

boyooso · Feb 5, 2006

Peter,

I do like your stick figure... Have you seen www.sftd.com (stick figure death theatre website) It isn't for the faint of heart...

That certainly sounds like a great idea, curtains...even if it is not 'just in case'. I will let you know if I need some curtains or an idea

Corey

Kevin Caulfield · Feb 6, 2006

Corey,

I'm assuming you're in the northern hemisphere? So that would be why the window would be getting indirect light only?

boyooso · Feb 6, 2006

Yes, I am in North America...dare I mention my country of origin?...usa.

Which way does the water swirl down your toilet?

Corey

Monophoto · Feb 6, 2006

Not an original idea.

I remember reading about a fashion photographer in New York who had a darkroom in a mezannine above his studio. He had a window ini the darkroom that allowed a person there to look down into the shooting space below. He equipped with window with red glass to allow black and white printing to take place with no additional protection, and had blackout drapes to provide further protection for film and color printing.

David A. Goldfarb · Feb 6, 2006

I've heard of this being done in 19th century portable darkroom tents. Of course they were working with less sensitive materials in general than we do.

I'd probably be tempted to do it, if I were in a situation where I had a window in the darkroom, using a sheet of rubylith with some ND lighting gel behind it to reduce the amount of light coming in, and a blackout curtain or shutter for total darkness.

Marco Gilardetti · Feb 6, 2006

I agree on the fact that redlight's intensity should be extremely, EXTREMELY low. The idea sounds cool, but I wonder where you could find such a dense red filter to decrease light transmission so much. Unless, eventually, you would pile up layers and layers and layers of red plastic, which is not very convenient.

I, as well, have a window on my darkroom; but I ended up adding two extra wooden blinds that totally block light out.

Les McLean · Feb 6, 2006

I did some darkroom demonstrations for Ilford a few years ago at Focus the Annual Photo Show here in the UK. We built a darkroom with viewing windows covered in a red gel supplied in roll form by Lee filters. I have the remainder of the roll here and it is described as "Bright Red" Ref Number 01278 026

We put two layers of it on the plain glass windows and had no problems with fogging we also used it to cover 2 ordinary 5ft Fourescent tubes so that we could use them as safelights, again without any fogging problems. I also use this gel to cut negative masks for the odd neg that I don't have a carrier for without any light leak or paper fogging problems.

At Selkirk in the Scottish borders there is a local photographer who runs the family portrait business and still uses the abcient darkroom that has a red glass window beside the wet bench so that he can see customers as they come into the shop. He also has the old neck clamps that his great grandfather used when making portraits, thankfully they are not in use today.

avandesande · Feb 6, 2006

A lot of darkroom work depends on judging the brightness of things. It only takes a few seconds for me to look at the image on the baseboard to judge how much exposure to use. I wouldn't want the brightness in the darkroom to change over time.

Claire Senft · Feb 6, 2006

It will be now help as a safelight but my darkromm is in the basement and the windows are painted black.

Loose Gravel · Feb 6, 2006

I had a darkroom that had a 2x4 foot northern window over the sink. I covered it with some red plastic that I got at a plastic shop. I think it was ransparent red vinyl, about a number 25 filter. I cut it the exact size and glued it around the outside with black silicone. It was too bright and I could only use it for twilight. The rest of the time I had a hinged board that dropped in front of the window. My new darkroom has a small red window in the door.

I think you could make it work by getting some lighting gel, such as Rosco, in red. To this I would add some neutral density or some other color, such as green, to increase the overall density to acceptable levels.

I liked my window the best at night when it could just be wide open on a warm summer night. The rest of the time, it occupied too much wall space where I couldn't store chemicals and such.

Peter Rockstroh · Feb 6, 2006

Corey,

Leave the window and attach a hinged, lightproof lid. I installed one in my darkroom and it is great to have a well lit and ventilated room to work in, and just lowering the lid to have a functional darkroom. I glued a neoprene frame surrounding the window and the wooden lid fits into the neoprene frame. The windows are always open, except for developing and printing. I think there are some photos of it in the Darkroom Portrait thread.

Peter

boyooso · Feb 6, 2006

Thank You all fro your comments.

Les, It sounds like the windows you covered were windows from the darkroom to another room inside. Is that correct? If so, do you think it would work on windows from the outside?

It sounds like this might be a leap of faith and we should trust that it is possible or in the worst case senario we'll have to put a hinged light proof lid on the window. The airflow sounds like a nice added feature.

I appreciate all your comments! I would love to hear more.

Thanks Again,

Corey

Kevin Caulfield · Feb 6, 2006

boyooso said:
Yes, I am in North America...dare I mention my country of origin?...usa.

Which way does the water swirl down your toilet?

Corey

Ours swirls the opposite way to yours. I think ours is clockwise.
Did you ever see the episode of The Simpsons when they were in Australia and Bart had his hand down the toilet trying to make the water go the "right" way?

boyooso · Feb 7, 2006

Kevin,

I just checked and my toilet swirls clockwise! That is to say the water goes in a clockwise motion.

Please check your and confirm.

No, I haven't seen that episode of the simpsons... I would like to though

Corey

vet173 · Feb 7, 2006

I have a sliding glass door to the outside in my darkroom. It's covered in alunimum foil.

pentaxuser · Feb 7, 2006

boyooso said:
Kevin,

I just checked and my toilet swirls clockwise! That is to say the water goes in a clockwise motion.

Please check your and confirm.

No, I haven't seen that episode of the simpsons... I would like to though

Corey

A travel programme about Kenya and the equator line on the BBC about a year or so ago filmed a couple of guys who to earn some money from the tourists demonstrate with buckets and matches that just a couple of feet either side of the line the swirl is in different directions but exactly on the line there is no swirl at all. Of course all this is assuming that it wasn't a camera trick just for the programme.
Pentaxuser

window in my darkroom ?

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