Winter printing

JBoontje · Dec 8, 2009

Winter has arrived, the temperature is dropping and its getting colder every day.
If the weather forecasts are correct, it will be very cold in January - February over here with temperatures below zero.

I cant wait to start enlarging my negatives. But I have some questions about what temperatures can do to chemicals - I have no idea.

- Should I store my fixer + stop chemicals in my plastic accordion bottles, and keep them in the darkroom (located in the attic) ?
I know for sure that its very cold over there, even at this very moment. I dont think they will be usable if temperatures will drop below zero, resulting in frozen chemicals. But I could be wrong, I dont know.

- This brings me to my next question, should I take my bottles to rooms with room temperature? (like my bedroom).
If I would do that, I would wrap them up in plastic, just to make sure.

- Should I avoid enlarging and/or developing film in a cold room?
I think my carefully heated chemicals will drop in temperature by the second after I start using them.

Getting a heater up in there is out of the question.
I do have a scale/dish-warmer that seems to work pretty well. I think I will be needing that one alot.

Thanks in advance

jeffreyg · Dec 8, 2009

I would store the chemicals at room temperature. If they are too cold in your darkroom ( I would think 68 - 72 or so F would be best ) you can place the developing tanks and/or the trays in a larger tray that has warm water to maintain a constant temperature. Incidentally it is 85F here today -- sorry.

Stan160 · Dec 8, 2009

I have a pair of slot processors in my loft darkroom. Plug them in 20 minutes before printing and the chemicals have stabilised to 20C by the time I start.

The problem is more in the summer when the darkroom reaches 30C or more!

Ian

rmolson · Dec 8, 2009

winter darkroom

Winter in the darkroom

I have a basement darkroom against an outside wall, And some winters in Ohio it has gotten down to 50 degrees and possibly lower in that room .I have had gallons of fixer concentrate freeze and could not reconstitute it. I now use a small room heater 1500 watts to heat the darkroom when I am working there, And use a water bath of warm water in trays for my developing solutions,. 11x14 for 8x10 trays and 16x20 for 11x14 trays I once had a 24 hour 400 watt panel heater that kept the room about 60 degrees at night 24/7 Now I use a small ceramic oil heater to do the same thing it also only uses 400 watts. too and keeps the chill off the room and the chemicals in solution, Before I kept all of my solutions upstairs in a heated room, taking them to the darkroom only when I needed to use them,. a real pain.

keithwms · Dec 8, 2009

There is the question of what you can do, and then there is the separate question of what you should do. This kind of work requires patience, careful thought... and you really should be enjoying yourself as you do it. If you can't bring the room temp up to a reasonably stable and comfortable working temp then it just isn't going to be fun at all.

For me, winter is printing season, it's when I more often feel like working on the finer details of a print. If I had to work in a cold room, I really doubt I'd look forward to doing it as carefully as I should.

And schlepping warm chems up from downstairs isn't much of an option, if it means that you have to work very quickly, knowing that the temp is constantly changing. if you really must do it this way then store large amounts of chems in big bottles and keep the fluids moving... let the high specific heat of the water work for you. But I am more worried about your patience than your chemicals!

You might consider a big tempering bath or 'bains.' I have two giant ones for food service, maybe 50+ L each. Big enough to put all the chems in, in bottles. You could do everything in the bain... dip the film into vats in there.

dpurdy · Dec 8, 2009

I work everyday in a cold basement darkroom. The warm water bath idea is good but the temperature in the water baths is constantly going down. I got myself a submersible hydroponic temperature control device off ebay that I can put the heat element in the water bath and turn the control to 72 degrees and forget it. It stays the same temp all day long. If I know I am going to process film next morning I put the heater element in my developer tank and in the morning it is whatever temperature I set it at. then there are the pig warmers or seed warmers that you could sit your chemical bottles on and keep them from freezing.
Dennis

Denis R · Dec 9, 2009

read this

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

JBoontje · Dec 10, 2009

Alright, thanks for all the replies.
Lets see if I can get myself at least some kind of heater, maybe a heat element of some kind.

jp80874 · Dec 10, 2009

Is the attic well insulated? If not you could add insulation to the rafters. That would hold in some of the heat coming up through the house and lower your heating bills. Hanging insulation will initially stir up a lot of dust, so a good cleaning well be needed afterwards to avoid dust on your print work.

John Powers

George Collier · Dec 10, 2009

One more experience - my darkroom is in the basement (Virginia, so mild climate), averages 60F in the winter. Chems on the floor in glass or plastic bottles. About 3 hours before the printing (I have a timer if necessary) I start a DeLongi oil based room heater (the kind that looks like a radiator) and an air cleaner. The setting for the heater is trial and error, but eventually you'll know what it should be. When I'm there to do it myself, I also run hot water into the basin of my sink (I have the long kind with ridges, and a deep basin on one end) to about 2 - 3 centemeters depth, and put the chems into it. By the time I'm ready to print, they require slight adjustment. I keep the heater on during the session, and the room stays at about 70F. I don't print every day, so this is not too expensive. If I printed every day, I'm not sure what I would do.

John's advice about the insulation is well worth it, plus some sealing or calking.

DramaKing · Dec 16, 2009

I store all my chemicals in the basement and have never had a problem with temperature (always at least 60°F). I don't know if this is an option for you, but otherwise a walk-in closet or some other secluded area where everything is out of the way will work. As long as they don't freeze, you can warm up your solutions before printing. When you get in the darkroom, I really recommend doing the developing & processing at room temperature.

JBoontje · Dec 16, 2009

DramaKing said:
I store all my chemicals in the basement and have never had a problem with temperature (always at least 60°F). I don't know if this is an option for you, but otherwise a walk-in closet or some other secluded area where everything is out of the way will work. As long as they don't freeze, you can warm up your solutions before printing. When you get in the darkroom, I really recommend doing the developing & processing at room temperature.

Thats probably what I´m going to do now. Getting a heater might be a good solution to start with, but I dont have a job right now and I just bought some chemicals and film so I have to take it easy money-wise.

I think I will take my stuff to another storage room, which is ALOT smaller. That means I completely have to tape the place down to keep the light out, its a very small storage room which my mother uses for her stuff. I dont think she will mind me using it, its next to my room and above all; its got room temperature. I can see myself developing film in there. (probably above some kind of tub to catch my spilled chemicals). You dont need lots of space to develop film, do you?

I think I will still do my printing in the attic though, the scale warmer I own looks promising and it will probably keep my chems warm.

Curt · Dec 16, 2009

I think I got a little lucky on this one, I put the darkroom on the second floor of the garage building. Currently it's the only fully insulated and sealed room other than the first floor shop with it's pellet stove. I use one of those oil filled radiators when it gets too cold to use the baseboard heater that's installed in there. It's an island in the cold around here. I can keep the warm temperature to a nice room temperature but in the summer it is a different question. I have to get the upstairs fully insulated and wall boarded then get the air conditioner that's up there installed and running. It's cold here but the freight driver said that Portland and Eugene, especially Eugene has black ice on the roads, at least last night, and it's too dangerous to drive the big trucks. He got out just in time and my pallet was the next to last to get delivered.

All a person can do is insulate and heat.

Curt

insertclevername · Dec 18, 2009

With a Jobo, I've been able to print in a basement with room temperatures under 60F. It makes temperature control unbelievably easy.

Curt · Dec 18, 2009

What is the status of the Jobo company, do they still make the entire product line? Are they still in business? I was looking into them but couldn't find the one I wanted, that was last year, maybe things have changed.

Curt

paul ron · Dec 26, 2009

When I lived in NJ I used my basement as a darkroom. During witner it got very cold so I used fish tank heaters to keep my chemicals warm since they are built for submersable use. They are very adjustable n cheap.

Winter printing

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