I considers smaller framing because it just needs to block the light, but after visiting the lumberyard there was no strait pieces to be bought! Even the 2x4 are twisted and warped. Hopefully the sheet rock goes on flat.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
Moving forward the framing is done and the door hung. I also tentatively mounted the vent fan to the side of the darkroom so I can visualize where it should go. I got the fan at the ReStore and I think that it was for a stove blower, but I am not sure. It moves lots of air and isn’t too loud.
I rolled the enlarger into the space it will go and was pleasantly surprised that there is more room than imagined.
Next comes the wiring. I will work a little on it tomorrow.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
That's coming along nicely...
Congratulations!
Finished the electrical this morning.
For the enlarger, timer, color analyzer.
Over the sink for processing equipment and fan switch. I need to find a good 100w incandescent bulb for the light. Also the little green LEDs on the ground fault outlets may be a fog problem. Any thought on this besides black electrical tape?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
A piece of black electrical tape over the green LED on the GFI plug has worked for me for years. Keep it simple.
More progress.
Finished sheathing the inside of the darkroom, the fan baffle, and the vent hole. I always like some peg board over the sink to hang tools and hoses.
When I put up the ceiling I measured the tiny size of the room. 4x5.
Does that count as a large format darkroom?
Now it is time to plaster over the cracks and screw holes and to make the room dark. It is to be a darkroom after all.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
I am prepping for painting and need some more thoughts on ceiling paint.it is a small room and know that just painting a dark color over the enlarger would be a big chunk of the ceiling. Should I just paint the whole thing gray?
...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
That's what I did. My ceiling is high so I haven't touched it. For the walls, I found a color at the paint store labeled "Rochester Skies" (that's a joke son, a joke!). More or less middle gray.
Originally Posted by Ironage
With such a small room I would paint the whole thing black, above benchtop height. The light bouncing off the paper during exposure needs to not be bounced back on the easel from the surroundings, else you will lose the lighter tones of the print. In a larger darkroom, most walls would be far enough away for just the immediate surrounding of the enlarger to be black, but IMHO you don't have the space for that choice.
There are many ways. I have always painted my darkrooms white to get good safelight bounce and maximum visibility with minimal safelight power. It's just a personal preference but I've found black painted darkrooms oppressive to work in especially if I'm in there several hundred hours a year. Enlarger light-spill should be fixed at the enlarger itself. And I always wear a black shirt to prevent light bouncing off the enlarging paper during exposure getting back to the paper.
The three personal darkrooms I've built without asking advice followed the usual trajectory: the first one was for an enemy, the second for a friend, and the third for myself.
Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks