Poll: How long is your average darkroom printing session?

[Vaughn]

The recent process thread got me wondering...

How long is your average darkroom printing session -- from selecting the negative to hanging your prints to dry (or putting them on drying screens)?

My average would be about 12 hours (range of 10 to 14 hours), either silver gelatin or alt process. The reasons for the long sessions are 1) darkroom is not in my home so I have a lengthy time setting up, and tearing down to print (hauling everything out of cabinets, etc), 2) being a stay-at-home-dad I do not have a lot of opportunity to print so I make the most of each opportunity, and 3) with alt printing, my exposure times can be up to 2 hours per print.

[bob carnie]

6-8 hours is the max these days, I book on a day rate and never need to go beyond the 8hours or even have the endurance to do so.

[Kirk Gittings]

12 plus if you include toning washing etc. I print one negative a day, take my time and sit with the test prints (dried in a microwave) and maybe try and get 4-5 good copies finished and on the drying rack by late that night. I never carry any chemistry over from one day to the next except selenium toner and hypo clear-prefer to start fresh with fresh chemistry each time so I am not chasing my tale with weak chemistry.

[Andrew O'Neill]

4 to 6 hours, but sometimes longer.

[Vaughn]

12 plus if you include toning washing etc. I print one negative a day, take my time and sit with the test prints (dried in a microwave) and maybe try and get 4-5 good copies finished and on the drying rack by late that night.

Yes, this was my silver gelatin procedure -- one negative, one pack of ten 16x20 sheets of paper, 12 hours...and a lot of time looking at each test print -- but not dried in the microwave. But I tend to start the printing session at about 8 pm and finish cleaning up at around 7 to 8 am. Can't say the hours between 3am and 6pm are as productive as they could be. If things are going fast, I ended the session with a test print of a second negative to get a leg-up on my next printing session. Like Mark, below, I tone in a separate session.

With carbon printing (and long exposure times under the UV light sources), I will get two to three UV light sources going and work with a few negatives at a time.

[Mark Woods]

I work about 6 hours on printing. There is additional time for toning on another day that I only tone prints.

[IanG]

Around 4 hours, sometimes more up to about 8 hours, but often shorter. But at the moment I'm without a darkroom although hopefully if my house purchase goes through OK I'll have a decent sized space for one.

Ian

[ataim]

I normally dedicate Tuesday evening to the darkroom. I get start right when I get home (5 ish) and don't stop until the 10 pm news comes on. I'll stop down to eat and that's about it. If I get a weekend free then it can be up to 8-10 hours total, with lots of breaks though.

[Jan Pedersen]

Voted 2 to 4 hours but have gone longer but that would not be an average. 12 to 14 hours is some hardcore sessions, my back would give up long before that.

[Colin Robertson]

I don't have a dedicated darkroom, and use the kitchen. Quick set up, so I have little wasted time. Mostly print at the weekend or on a day off, so I can experiment and work through a negative. A good session will run 8-12 hours (including wash time) depending on how challenging the negatives are.
Short sessions are less productive, so work days are no use. Once upon a time, too long ago, I could have printed all night then gone to work. No more- the paying job needs to much concentration and focus for me to get away with that.