Making my dark room darker

[Rick A]

You can tape a blach trash bag over the window. As to the door, hit Wally world for a length of the heaviest black material you can find to cover it with. I found a heavy black nylon type material with a black vinyl backing at Wallys and velcro'd it up. I can remove when not in use, and slap it up when necessary. I used an off cut from it to cover my window

[Jim Noel]

You can tape a blach trash bag over the window. As to the door, hit Wally world for a length of the heaviest black material you can find to cover it with. I found a heavy black nylon type material with a black vinyl backing at Wallys and velcro'd it up. I can remove when not in use, and slap it up when necessary. I used an off cut from it to cover my window

Not all black trash bags will work. I had a student who set up a darkroom in her apartment and had severe fogging problems. I went over to see if I could help. Trash bags had been doubled and taped over the window. Within 2 or 3 minutes i could have read a newspaper in the room.

[Steve Smith]

Not all black trash bags will work. I had a student who set up a darkroom in her apartment and had severe fogging problems.

Slightly related, when there are roadworks being carried out near me and road signs need to be covered up (e.g. to temporarily make a one way street into two way) workmen cover up the signs with black bin bags.

When they go home and it gets dark, these signs which are illuminated light up and the bags covering them are so thin that they might as well not be there.

A good tip I learned a while ago is that it is difficult to get material which is 100% light proof. Most materials have some pinhole sized holes. However, with two layers of the same material, the chances of having pinholes in the same position are equal to winning the jackpot on the lottery and can be considered 100% light proof


Steve.

[imagedowser]

A side benefit to black plastic used in large sheets is it attracts dust which then can be wiped off with a damp cloth. "...plastic practically sucked dust out of the air and was easy to clean with a damp cloth." Ctein, Post Exposure 2nd ed. Chapter 13, My Darkroom.

[Scott Walker]

A side benefit to black plastic used in large sheets is it attracts dust which then can be wiped off with a damp cloth. "...plastic practically sucked dust out of the air and was easy to clean with a damp cloth." Ctein, Post Exposure 2nd ed. Chapter 13, My Darkroom.

I built a temporary darkroom in the unfinished basement of a rental home a long while ago. I used a double sheet of heavy black construction poly to partition the darkroom off. It was stapled to the floor joists above and I had 2x4s holding the sheets down on the concrete floor. The door was a simple double light trap using the poly. The material proved to be completely light tight but it caused such an enormous amount of static that I finally resorted to misting it and the floor with water prior to printing or unloading/loading film in order to control the dust. I imagine the 30 feet of poly 9 feet high in a double layer that constantly rubbed together every time a door opened or shut anywhere in the house contributed to the problem, but I certainly did not find the poly sucking the dust out of the air.

[Pete Roody]

Delta makes 10 mil blackout vinyl. I close-off my alley kitchen opening with it and velcro. If you can live with velcro around your openings, it makes for quick set-up and take-down of the material.