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.

[Kirk Gittings]

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.

If I was standing up the whole time my back would go on strike too. I will work till I get a reasonable test print, dry it in the microwave, pin it on the wall, grab a cup of java or tea and sit with it awhile, decide how I want to proceed and then do the same cycle fine tuning the print till I get what I want.

[BarryS]

I envy any printers that can get productive work done in a couple hours. My sessions usually last 5-6 hours in the evenings, or 8 hours on the rare occasion I have a full day to print. I've been steadily upgrading my darkroom and processes to increase my productivity and have had some good 3-4 hour sessions lately. My own experience is that a lot of time is wasted because of inefficient practices--so I'm trying to improve on my workflow.

[Vaughn]

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.

For 22 years I ran the darkroom for a university...4 hrs a day (10am to 2pm). So after an all-night session, after putting all my gear away by 7am so that I would not be in the way of classes/students, I would walk into town, have breakfast, then walk back to start work. Students knew if I had a glazed sort of look, not to ask too complicated of questions. And when I got home, my three boys would see me in the Lazyboy with my eyes closing -- they knew it was 'freetime'! It is amazing what three 6 year olds can do when Dad is not paying close attention! I have opened my eyes to find them 'cooking' -- making cookies out of anything they could find in the kitchen...flour, pepper, you name it. We'd try to cook them up just for fun.

Before the boys were born, I could do two or three all-night sessions a week, no problem...with naps in the afternoon before the sessions. With the boys, one, and sometimes two a week was the limit. The boys are older now (almost 17) but I am afraid that with aging, one all-night session is all I can do in a week. But I no longer operate the university darkroom and am working on building my own. I am looking forward to being able to spend spurts of time -- 3 or 4 hours, then get busy with other projects, then another 3 or 4 hours of printing...that sort of thing. With carbon printing there is a lot of waiting for various processing steps to finish. Looking forward to increasing my work efficiency!

[Kirk Gittings]

For 22 years I ran the darkroom for a university...4 hrs a day (10am to 2pm). So after an all-night session, after putting all my gear away by 7am so that I would not be in the way of classes/students, I would walk into town, have breakfast, then walk back to start work. Students knew if I had a glazed sort of look, not to ask too complicated of questions. And when I got home, my three boys would see me in the Lazyboy with my eyes closing -- they knew it was 'freetime'! It is amazing what three 6 year olds can do when Dad is not paying close attention! I have opened my eyes to find them 'cooking' -- making cookies out of anything they could find in the kitchen...flour, pepper, you name it. We'd try to cook them up just for fun.

Before the boys were born, I could do two or three all-night sessions a week, no problem...with naps in the afternoon before the sessions. With the boys, one, and sometimes two a week was the limit. The boys are older now (almost 17) but I am afraid that with aging, one all-night session is all I can do in a week. But I no longer operate the university darkroom and am working on building my own. I am looking forward to being able to spend spurts of time -- 3 or 4 hours, then get busy with other projects, then another 3 or 4 hours of printing...that sort of thing. With carbon printing there is a lot of waiting for various processing steps to finish. Looking forward to increasing my work efficiency!

seriously? 3 six year old boys?

[Mark Woods]

Hey Vaughn, hang in there with the carbon. I like to see it, but don't like to do it.

[Heroique]

One session per day for me – four to six hours long.

This is for enlarging w/ my Omega D2v + traditional tray processing. (I'm not counting print drying time on the drying screen).

After 4-6 hours, I start making mistakes, some little, some big. Even when I was younger w/ greater stamina, 4-6 hours was still my limit before I began making mistakes. I'm glad the limit hasn't come down as my birthdays keep coming, but I'm prepared for the inevitable slide in my powers of concentration, and keep watching for it. I hope it never drops to, say, one hour – but maybe strong coffee will help!

Also, while I often work on two successive days, I never work three days in a row – for very similar reasons. That day of rest on the third day seems to make a difference when I resume work the fourth day...

[Curt]

Two experiences have provided me with abilities that are useful. One is military, the other is medical. That is, be prepared, setup, ready to go, and work with an economy of motion. I prepare the darkroom ahead of time so that I can walk in and go right to work. One negative at a time in one session. For silver, selenium toning follows later. Printing to dry down takes time so the actual work must be done effeciently. Carbon is different, it has built in work and stop components. A third experience is education. It's not the degrees, I have several, but to the degree that the knowledge is applied.

[Sal Santamaura]

seriously? 3 six year old boys?Yup; Vaughn has triplets.

[Kirk Gittings]

Wow.....he is a brave man. But based on my experience better boys than girls!

[Mark Woods]

Oh Kirk, I don't have experience with a son, but I have a great daughter.

[Kirk Gittings]

I have a boy and two daughters. They are all great people.... Now.....but those daughters nearly gave me a heart attack a few times.

[Pawlowski6132]

2-4 hours. But, NEVER enough time. I would guess I'd need a good 8-10 to do everything the way I wanted to from start to finish.

That's my dream. Maybe when I retire.

:(

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I have to set up everything in my bathroom and darkroom where mu NuArc is. I only print carbon and try for four negatives per session. Most times I nail the prints....... or I'm real close and then final prints the next day. With carbon it takes a long time from start to finish but the fine print does come without a lot of waste.

[John Olsen]

I keep the wet time to 4 hours so I can maintain full mental concentration - after that I'm not sufficiently critical of my work. But since I have a home darkroom, I can set up my first negative and put out all my trays and the night before. Then in the morning I can get right to it and work through to a late lunch. Clean-up, setting up the next day's negatives and drying prints go on for another 4 hours. I set a modest goal of working only on 2 or 3 negatives each day, so that if one turns out to be a beast I won't get impatient. It's a leisurely pace, but I want to love it, not be manic about it.

I've talked to other photographers who boast of doing all-nighters or marathon sessions. Half of those refer to it as a former hobby - wonder why? The other half are just more driven than I, I guess.

[Vaughn]

seriously? 3 six year old boys?

I was talking of yesteryear. The boys are almost 17 years old now. The situation changed dramatically 4 years ago. The boys are now with me for a fortnight, then with their mom for a fortnight. Keeps one on one's toes! Balancing the boys, work, photography, new house (needs work!) and a girlfriend...keeps you young by killing you before you have the chance to get old!

Mark -- perhaps I'll drop by with some prints someday. I head to SoCal once a year or so. But it is difficult to get me out of San Clemente once I arrive there to visit family. I was born and raised in Alhambra, so I use to know your part of the woods. The boys and I prefer to just hang out at the beach.

John -- it is just a matter of doing it when one can! As the saying goes, an artist gets to work when the pain of not-working gets too strong. People just have different pain thresholds...

If I ever think I can legitimately complain about my working conditions or trying to find time to print, I just think of Jim F. -- he is nuts! But in a great way!

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Yes, I am nuts!!! Now I've put my three boys through college so I can now do my thing! I find ways to print however I can. My workshop students have no excuses after they have seen how I have to work. One day soon a real darkroom!!

[Kirk Gittings]

keeps you young by killing you before you have the chance to get old!

:)

[Curt]

Or, I'd rather wear out than rust out! Either way is a difficult path.

[mathieu Bauwens]

I take a day of six hours, generally 3h on morning, then go to walk with the dog, another 3h session on the afternoon. I tone on an other day.

[Cor]

It depends..I have a tiny darkroom with the Nova 8*10 set up as a standard, filled with chemistry, so I can start printing in 1-2 minutes. I usually have a few short sessions during the week (after dinner, before putting the kids to bed), mostly proofing 4*5 negative on 8*10 RC paper or developing something. These proofs are the base (some of them at least) for FB enlargements (mostly 30*40 cm) in longer sessions, and before such a session I remove the Nova, install 4 trays (will just fit) and print for 4-6 hours. When doing a lith print session, all day until the chemistry is exhausted (20 minutes or more development time)

best,

Cor