[HN Gopher] How to build a darkroom for PS100 or less
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How to build a darkroom for PS100 or less
Author : lelf
Score : 49 points
Date : 2020-04-22 18:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.35mmc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.35mmc.com)
| klodolph wrote:
| > If you don't have a ticking clock, you can even play a ticking
| soundtrack on your phone - just keep the screen facing down.
|
| Or you can just buy a metronome, or get a free metronome for your
| phone. Set it to 60 or 120 BPM. I use a metronome and a
| footswitch. The hard part is remembering to count from zero,
| instead of one.
|
| I love working in the darkroom, but I've sworn off 35mm and
| haven't touched it in years.
|
| There is an immense body of knowledge associated with darkroom
| work. If you are interested, it's not too hard to find people who
| will share all their techniques. Everything from tips on how to
| most quickly find the correct exposure and contrast, to chemical
| techniques for preserving prints in an archival way.
|
| Film gets a bad rap for being slow and
| piffey wrote:
| Darkroom printer here. This is one of my joys in life. Dumped all
| my digital cameras because printing my photographs gets me off
| the computer and the tangibility solidifies the work as important
| for me.
|
| You can actually get away with printing without all of this
| equipment just to give it a try. I used to print 4x5 contact
| prints with nothing more than the light in the bathroom and a
| piece of photo paper.
|
| To this day there remains nothing more magical to me then seeing
| the silver in the developer slowly produce an image on a page.
| Happy printing to anyone starting out.
|
| Edit: Also of note that depending on your volume if you develop
| and print at home it can actually be cheaper than chasing the
| latest sensor every few years. I just barely crest what it would
| cost me with sensor upgrades to 2 bodies every few years this way
| because I am a pretty low volume shooter (2-300 rolls of HP5 a
| year).
| ant_li0n wrote:
| When my first child was born, I packed up the darkroom because
| I couldn't afford to set aside several hours in a shot for
| printing. Went to digital and it basically killed the love of
| photography for me. It's just too easy to take too many
| pictures, and then you're stuck spending hours and hours in
| photoshop or lightroom. I still have thousands of images that I
| need to cull through and sort. Probably never will.
|
| While I've gotten rid of most of my equipment, I still have my
| old 4x5 and I've been thinking of just making contact prints.
| Probably start this summer! Wish me luck.
| squidfood wrote:
| It's been over 30 years since I spent much time in a darkroom
| but just starting to read that article and my smell-memory
| conjured up that very distinctive developer/darkroom chemical
| smell and all of the associated memories - for me too it was
| always evocative of magic.
| kqr wrote:
| I can only chime in with everyone else so far: being able to turn
| a bathroom into a darkroom is one of the finest privileges there
| are. Due to living situations I cannot anymore, but I really miss
| having the opportunity to just take an evening and get a print or
| two out of it. Watching it develop under the safelight is as
| close as I've ever gotten to magic.
|
| Edit: by the way, if you have older relatives, make sure to ask
| around if anyone already has an enlarger. They are big machines
| that normally just collect dust these days, so most people are
| happy to give them to you. (I made the mistake of buying one on
| EBay for non-trivial money, shipping and delivery was a big
| hassle, and two weeks later three different people had offered me
| theirs for free.)
| Finnucane wrote:
| Some enlargers for 35mm only are not that big and can be had
| for half-nothing used. I've got a 4x5 Omega here, which is a
| big beast, but you don't need that unless you're going large
| format.
|
| When you're doing darkroom work, what kills you cost-wise is
| paper. There's not really getting around it: good paper is not
| cheap.
| i_am_proteus wrote:
| For those who shoot 4x5 (or larger), it's reasonably simple to
| use a view camera as an enlarger. In a weekend, I built a mount
| to hold a negative and a light in place of the usual graflok
| back. Primary materials were laser-cut wood, RGB LED strips, and
| diffusion paper. I built an Arduino-based controller for use as a
| variable contrast timer (changing the blue/green mix on the LED
| strips when printing). The whole rig was about the cost of a good
| set of contrast filters and took 15 hours of my time.
|
| The back holds the negative on the camera, which I put on an old
| aluminum tripod and point straight down in a blacked-out
| bathroom. I develop through a 150mm Nikkor W 4x5 lens; held open.
| Since I use the timer for timing and never touch the
| camera/enlarger while exposing the print, the setup is rock-solid
| and vibration-free.
| jacobush wrote:
| Intrepid sells a kit which converts a camera to an enlarger.
|
| https://intrepidcamera.co.uk/products/intrepid-enlarger-kit
| quietdean wrote:
| As an amateur and untalented photographer, my results have
| benefited a lot from being able to shoot hundreds of photos and
| maybe get a single composition I'm proud of. Exposure, contrast
| etc has always been flexible to a point.
|
| However, I really miss my bedroom darkroom from when I was 16-19.
|
| Sheets pegged over the window, rags taped roughly over the door
| edges. Good enough for B&W print with a red dull light, but still
| had to load my rolls inside a hot and sweaty duvet cover because
| otherwise the negatives would get clouded in my ghetto setup. A
| PS20 used enlarger bought from the local classifieds, a rough
| bench built with planks and rough-cut legs, nails and glue.
|
| Got some great prints. Not many. Miss those days. I still have my
| Olympus OM2SP, best Camera I have ever used.
|
| There's something to be said for knowing you only have a limited
| number of shots, and using another roll will cost money and real
| effort to develop. Makes you stop and think, in my opinion.
|
| On the flip side, my entire "career" with 35mm I got 4 prints
| that I still love uncritically. My digital career has given me
| about 50 that I am happy to pay to have printed and put on the
| wall.
| frompdx wrote:
| You could call me a serious amateur and I have done two very
| cheap set ups similar to what the article describes.
|
| First Setup: Windowless bathroom
|
| What I learned from this is that you need a really rock solid
| bench or counter to put your enlarger on or very small vibrations
| from focusing or triggering the timer might cause blur in the
| printed image. Monorail designs like the one in the article are
| very prone to this already.
|
| Second setup: A basement
|
| I went to an art supply store with a flashlight and inspected
| each piece of cardboard they sold until I found one that the
| light did not shine through (Elemer's, I think). I cut these to
| the size of my windows and then used electrical tape to make a
| light tight seal. Electrical tape is just terrible for this but
| it blocks the light. I had a nice bench for the enlarger and a
| table for the trays. There was a utility sink already installed
| that I used to rinse my prints and film. This was way better than
| a bathroom, but it was not dark enough to change film because of
| the pilot light on the hot water heater.
|
| Future:
|
| My plans are on hold at the moment, however, I now have a
| basement with a great room for a dark room with nearby access to
| water and sewer. I'm planning to go the whole nine yards this
| time and install a dark room sink plus dedicated lighting and
| ventilation. Not exactly a $100 project though.
| lokl wrote:
| If my local makerspace had a darkroom, I would be significantly
| more inclined to join.
| gwittel wrote:
| I'm glad that film/print has seen a resurgence in recent years.
| For a while it was hard (expensive) to get decent supplies. This
| is a nice ad-hoc setup. Darkroom equipment is definitely like a
| gas; I think my enlarger timer was around $100 alone.
|
| I have a full darkroom packed away, but just don't have the
| time/space for it. I miss it. There's something very special
| about seeing images appear.
|
| I find some darkroom edit methods like burning/dodging more time
| efficient vs software like Lightroom (much faster to 'mask' with
| your hand in many cases). But dealing with spot removal -- no
| contest I'd rather just do that digitally. I don't miss trying to
| paint chemicals on a negative :)
|
| If getting started, I suggest a class or some good end to end
| books. Knowing the basic principles is quite helpful (digital or
| not). You'll also learn a lot about the decisions (+debugging)
| that ensue. Example -- RC vs fiber paper, properly winding your
| film onto the dev reel (done by touch), over/under agitating,
| weak/old chemicals, under fixing, washing, etc.
|
| The more right you get it in camera, the easier time you will
| have in the darkroom. On average, large sensor digital cameras
| can be more forgiving than film. That said, there are tricks to
| fix your mistakes or work around limitations (e.g.
| pushing/pulling film, printing contrast filters, dodging/burning,
| exposing multiple frames onto single print, etc.).
|
| If you don't print a lot, a vacuum or accordion container will
| help preserve your chemicals' life span. Your paper usually likes
| a cool/steady temp; too hot and it can get fogged. Check your
| city/county on how to properly dispose of the spent chemicals;
| usually they don't want spent developer or fixer down the drain.
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