Vick Ko
21-Dec-2012, 08:03
Overall impression: hmmmmpf. This is harder than developing film.
I was dry-running the darkroom in the basement the day before, trying to lay out where trays would go, and where to put the timer and where my dry work space would be.
Then, last night, I made my first two prints - over exposed contact sheets of a set of 120 negatives. That took over a couple hours.
Sure, I'm still ironing out the kinks in the darkroom, like the wet side only being temporary trays on the washing machine and laundry tub.
And the basement is an ambient 15 deg C, and I only had room to temper the developer and stop bath to 20 deg C. I had to temper the fixer in the tub.
Then trying to get used to handling the paper in safelight darkness, and how much light needed to get the right exposure.
And placing the timer so that I could see it from the wet side. My safelight was on the opposite side of the room, which is great for the enlarger, but I couldn't see the time when I stood at the trays. Fixed that by using the big Gralab, not the tiny Kodak timer.
I didn't get time to print a real photo, but did spend time trying to position the negative correctly and frame the easel and still "learning" my Durst enlarger.
I can see how people transition to digital darkroom for printing really really easily.
Developing film is a piece of cake compared to doing a print.
So, in summary, the darkroom experience wasn't a total disaster, but, can't imagine doing colour. Funny, I used to do cibachrome years ago. Maybe because it was tube-developed, it was so much easier.
I won't give up yet, but, I can sure think of easier things to do.
Vick
I was dry-running the darkroom in the basement the day before, trying to lay out where trays would go, and where to put the timer and where my dry work space would be.
Then, last night, I made my first two prints - over exposed contact sheets of a set of 120 negatives. That took over a couple hours.
Sure, I'm still ironing out the kinks in the darkroom, like the wet side only being temporary trays on the washing machine and laundry tub.
And the basement is an ambient 15 deg C, and I only had room to temper the developer and stop bath to 20 deg C. I had to temper the fixer in the tub.
Then trying to get used to handling the paper in safelight darkness, and how much light needed to get the right exposure.
And placing the timer so that I could see it from the wet side. My safelight was on the opposite side of the room, which is great for the enlarger, but I couldn't see the time when I stood at the trays. Fixed that by using the big Gralab, not the tiny Kodak timer.
I didn't get time to print a real photo, but did spend time trying to position the negative correctly and frame the easel and still "learning" my Durst enlarger.
I can see how people transition to digital darkroom for printing really really easily.
Developing film is a piece of cake compared to doing a print.
So, in summary, the darkroom experience wasn't a total disaster, but, can't imagine doing colour. Funny, I used to do cibachrome years ago. Maybe because it was tube-developed, it was so much easier.
I won't give up yet, but, I can sure think of easier things to do.
Vick