Help with my new Darkroom

[ndwgolf]

Hi
I'm currently living between Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Phuket Thailand. At my home in Thailand I am planning to add to my home a ~400 sq/ft dark room for developing 8x10 Contact prints and using 6x6 or 4x5 negs I plan to make 24x24" & 36x24" prints...all B&W.
I have a basic idea for my darkroom layout with sinks and work tops. What I don't have a clue about is what enlarger lenses will I need for my 36x24" prints...........basically everything I will need to do all of the above.

Now Ive done a Darkroom course with Paul Gauld at the Printroom (http://theprintroomkl.com) in KL and it was fantastic, so I have the basics already, I have also been shooting 6x6 for over a year and 4x5 for the last 5 months and do all the developing myself in Malaysia, I then scan and print digitally.........but its not the same, I want to get my hands wet :smile:

While I am waiting for my darkroom to be built in Thailand I want to experiment contact printing in my house in KL but there my darkroom is only 8" x 6" so barely room to swing a cat in. Anyway I'm a determined kind of guy so I want to give it a go. I saw on Tim Layton blog how he improvised with a household lamp, a timer and a few 8x10 trays so that is where I am going with this........I want to initially be able to do some contact prints in KL from my new 8x10........What do you think??

Neil

[xkaes]

Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you. I use 35mm and 4x5, and love very large prints. For "regular sized" prints, I use a Fujinon-EX 50mm f2.8 and a Fujinon-EX 135mm f5.6. These are air-spaced (6/6) designs and produce superb results. But for "super-sized sized" prints -- my easel goes up to 5x8 FEET -- I use a G-Componon 50mm f2.8 and a Rodagon-G 150mm f5.6. These are designed for higher magnifications and produce superb results. There are "G" lenses for 8x10, as well. But any good lens, when used correctly, will produce fine results at just about any magnification -- I should know. My biggest problem with large prints is movement. My BIG easel hangs from the ceiling and with the long exposures that large prints require, movement can be a problem -- as well as boredom. My advise, install a nice music system!

[Luis-F-S]

Like my last post to you, there are a lot of Darkroom threads in the darkroom section, you just have to read them. You should also buy one of the many, many darkroom books. They available used for next to nothing. Good Luck.

[Leigh]

Generally speaking, an enlarger lens should be the same focal length as the standard lens on the camera.

There's a really simple way to figure out the enlarging configuration for large prints:
Tape a piece of paper to the wall, the same size as the prints you want to make.

Put the camera on a tripod with its standard lens.
Move it around until it images the rectangle accurately in the viewfinder or ground glass.

The geometry of that system is exactly the same as for the enlarger in your darkroom.

- Leigh

[jp]

You may wish to have two enlargers if your darkroom will indeed be that big. A smaller one like a Omega C760 with a 80mm componon-S for medium format printing, and a 4x5 enlarger with a 135-150mm lens for 4x5 printing. But I have no idea if that enlarger will print that big. I have a 135 el-nikkor on my 4x5 enlarger and it's great. I like the componon-S on my MF enlarger as it has a lighted aperture dial which is handy, and a lever for opening the lens up for focusing and returning it to the selected aperture. It'd be a good option for LF in a longer focal length but nothing is wrong with my el-nikkor.

Contact printing does not require anything unusual for equipment; start playing with it.

[ndwgolf]

A little update. My darkroom is just about complete. Today I picked up my new 8x10...... wow frigging wow. After getting it all set up I took two pictures, one of my wife the second of the same flower arrangement that I took with my 4x5.
Because I'm using TRIX320 I had to mix my first batch of D76.......... that did not go to plan. Because I don't have a gallon container I decided to make a 1/2 gallon concentration instead. I added the bag of chemicals to 3 pints of cold water and 20 minutes later I couldn't understand why the chemicals hadn't devolved. I checked the packaging and noticed that I was meant to have used hot water. So I put that mix in the microwave on 800 for 5 minutes and warmed that puppy up. Twenty minutes later I had 600ml in the freezer waiting for it to get to 20 deg.
After 15 minutes it was ready so into the darkroom I popped and developed my first sheet of 8x10 in trays.......... wonderful :)
The neg looks amazing with lots of shades of gray....... it's currently drying now and tomorrow morning I'm going to make my first ever contact print......... pictures to follow :) :) :)
I've come up with a neat way to time this process in the dark.
I use the iPhone app massive Dev which gives me the first 6 minutes time along with tick tock tick tock
I set the grabxxx timer to 12 minutes and start both clocks.
I then I remove the film from the holder and pop it in the Dev. The time it takes to get it out of the holder and into the Dev is my 10 to 15% reduced devolving time.
Once the iPhone app bell goes off at 6 minutes I pop the neg in the stop and count that one minute in my head. I then put the neg in the fix and the gradxxx will stop me after the 5 minutes is up.
Later

[xkaes]

Congratulations.

Two things.

#1 -- what kind of enlarger is that?

#2 -- your safelight may not be at a safe distance. You want it as close as possible, but no so close as to fog the paper. There is a simple test you can run to determine if you need to move it or change the bulb. See:

http://www.subclub.org/darkroom/henry2.htm

[Eric Woodbury]

Ndwgolf, darkrooms are never complete. Looks as though you have a great start. EW

[ndwgolf]

Ndwgolf, darkrooms are never complete. Looks as though you have a great start. EW


Congratulations.

Two things.

#1 -- what kind of enlarger is that?

#2 -- your safelight may not be at a safe distance. You want it as close as possible, but no so close as to fog the paper. There is a simple test you can run to determine if you need to move it or change the bulb. See:

http://www.subclub.org/darkroom/henry2.htm
Thanks guys
I will check that out in the morning :)