What have you done to save money?

[alavergh]

Just looking for some tips on how to save money with darkroom photography. I don't specifically have a question, just want to discover what others have done.

I'm low on cash at this point in my life and I have a slightly makeshift darkroom.

I don't have a 6x6 medium format negative carrier so I cut one from the black boards my old paper boxes are made of.

Don't have 4x5 negative sleeves so I'm using 4x6 print sleeves.

I've stapled fiberglass screens to the wood frames used for painters canvases, the DIY frames where they will usually stretch and prime their own canvas. This is for drying racks.

What kind of thrifty things have you done in the past or still do to save a buck or get by until you can afford better?

[Darin Boville]

I've had several darkrooms in the past, some quite elaborate, but my fondest was the one I had i Cambridge basement when I was in grad school. It was nothing more than a rickety card table, a price of 8x10 Home Depot glass with the edges taped (actually sourced from an old picture frame), three tupperware tubs for the chemicals, another tupperware for the water bath/holding tank, and a 60 watt bulb hanging from ceiling on a cord. I carried water in and out in a bucket. Could only print at night. 4x5 contact prints.

But not much advice, only this: No matter what, never stop working. Don't kid yourself that you're just going to put it off until next year. Don't kid yourself that you will just print them like crap this year and will do it right next time. Keep working. Cut out everything else, but keep working.

--Darin

[Bruce Barlow]

I'm building a house, and want a sink. I'll make it out of a single sheet of plywood, which Home Depot will mostly cut for me, and I'll paint it with epoxy paint. It will be exactly the size I want, and much better than the stainless steel sink I spent thousands on in the early 2000s. The basic plans are in "Build Your Own Home Darkroom." I built one of these in the early 90s, and loved it. This one will be even better.

I also used to keep my enlarger on an old, hollow-core door on sawhorses, until I found leftover kitchen base cabinets, which then also gave me wonderful storage. Eventually, the door was replaced by leftover prefinished maple flooring mounted on inexpensive plywood. Wall-mounted shelves above.

If we go way-way back, I developed film and prints in the bathtub, ruining my back. These days, if I had to do that, I would get a 2' x 4' sheet of melamine, which fits over a bathtub just fine, and be much kinder on my back. Big enough for 11x14 trays. My enlarger was perched on the toilet, in those 35mm days.

I strung red Christmas tree lights around my darkroom as safe light. It was safer after I put them on a cheap dimmer and quelled their cheerfulness a little. Not OC Orange, but usable nonetheless. On a long string it is also very even, with no dingy dark areas.

It might be worthwhile to find the nearest Habitat for Humanity Restore Store, and wander it with an open, creative mind. Our local one had a bunch of photo trays, which I don't need.

Staples or Home Depot clear sleeves are polypropylene, and therefore archival enough and less expensive than PrintFile. I have full-page ones for 8x10 negatives. I don't know if they have other sizes. 5% back if you have their little card. That said, PrintFile sleeves in 100-count from B&H are inexpensive, and worth it for my precious negatives, most of which will never see the light of an enlarger.

I use cheap ring notebooks from Big Lots or Ocean State Job Lot for filing negs. Not archival, but I figure that negs are in archival sleeves, and I'm not sure why they need to survive me anyway. Maybe I'll burn them like Brett Weston, and do a ritual dance around the ashes. I file the proof sheet after the neg sleeve.

I mix Dektol, or any print developer, in gallon quantities and decant Dektol into 16-oz glass Coke bottles, and other developers into liter plastic bottles. These single-serving containers, filled to the brim with no air will last pretty much forever as stock solutions. I had Ansco 130 that was fine after 4 years, stored in a dark drawer. Dektol easily lasts a year. No waste, no oxidation. Use and dump. Except maybe Ansco 130, which after lighter printing sessions I would put back in a 2-liter bottle, working strength, and save for the next proofing session.

Plastic bottles have gotten much better than they were in the 90s, and photo chemicals keep much better in them than they used to. I may splurge and use 20-oz bottles for Dektol, so my working solutions are a little more luxurious. Spoil me, I say!

I don't go cheap on film, or film developer. Film has to be right, while a print can always be remade. "Film is cheap, the opportunity is dear!" I don't want my cluttered brain to be more cluttered by having any doubt about whether the film or film developer is reliable.

Hope some of these ideas are useful.

[mdarnton]

I never bought a darkroom-intended bottle until recently. If you keep your chemicals in a dark place (and that's what a darkroom is supposed to be, right?) clear, from something else, will do fine. Also, I started using Yankee trays because they were cheap, but over time, working in different darkrooms, decided I liked them best, anyway.

Also, you can skimp on just about anything in a darkroom, but when you buy an enlarger lens, buy the best. Not the best you can afford: the best.

[John Kasaian]

I've been looking to scavenge a piece of granite counter top for use as a weight to flatten newly dry mounted prints.
My brown glass storage bottles for chemicals were free, from a pharmacy (Robitussen syrup originally came in them.)
A string of red led Christmas lights bought on end of season close-out for my safe lights.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I never bought a darkroom-intended bottle until recently. If you keep your chemicals in a dark place (and that's what a darkroom is supposed to be, right?) clear, from something else, will do fine.

Air can still penetrate many plastics, so not all plastic bottles (if that's what you use) are good for chemical storage.

[jnantz]

$1 store storage containers for my chemistry
as well as cheap tupperware lidded trays and storage bins for development
( had the tupperware stuff for 25 years still use them )
and i use a developer i mix on my own out of coffee
i also use ansco 130 for film and prints ...
no stop bath, so i dont need a ton of chemistry ..
the coffee and ansco last about 200 films / prints through it
or about 5-6 months before i mix new into a seasoned batch ...

and i use expired film which people tend to think is not good
but on the cheap it works just fine ..

god luck with your thriftiness!
john

[Richard Wasserman]

I'm currently building a darkroom and found very inexpensive used white laminate kitchen cabinets on Craigslist. For a counter under my enlarger I'm using an old solid core exterior door which was free. It's 30 inches wide and weighs a ton—it is very solid. I too will be constructing a plywood sink, although I haven't decided what to coat it with yet.

[HMG]

I've been looking to scavenge a piece of granite counter top for use as a weight to flatten newly dry mounted prints.
My brown glass storage bottles for chemicals were free, from a pharmacy (Robitussen syrup originally came in them.)
A string of red led Christmas lights bought on end of season close-out for my safe lights.

Most granite countertop fabrication places have a bin full of pieces. If you're lucky, you'll find a sink cutout.

My most recent purchase: a print drying screen (aka aluminum frame window screen) for $2 at the Habitat ReStore. But, given how cheap used darkroom equipment is now, with a bit of time plus Craigslist and Freecycle, you can get almost anything for pennies on the dollar.

[Tin Can]

Like others suggest, it can be done many ways. When I started in this 3 years ago, I searched Craigslist within 500 miles and found great deals. Where you are located is just about ideal. There are 1000's of old darkrooms near you. This is the start of Spring cleaning. Be ready.

Also posting WTB ads here, on APUG and on your local Craigslist may shake something loose. Don't think about the stuff with high asking prices, giveaways pop up and you must be the first caller. A lot of people will give this stuff to a good home.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised if somebody simply reading this post has not contacted you. It has happened to me, thrice. There are many lurkers who can be very helpful.

[ROL]

Just looking for some tips on how to save money with darkroom photography. I don't specifically have a question, just want to discover what others have done.

Not only is there not specifically a question, you haven't specified what kind of "darkroom photography". B/W only, contact or enlarging? That would help pin things down for you pretty fast. A DR for my dreams (or anything else for that matter) is realized fiction for me. Tray process your film. K.I.S.S. The biggest concern should be the DR space and wet area (sink) itself. You may want to read this (http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/pages/a-darkroom-portrait), where you may find some useful tips discussed in the building, economies and tradeoffs of one DR.

[Roger Hesketh]

I built a darkroom utilising an old touring caravan. It is. I still have it though not used it for many years, a 1970's Sprite Major caravan, the body of which is 17ft long by 6ft wide. I bought it for fifty quid due to somebody having taken it under a low bridge and having knocked off the skylight and put a ripple in the roof. I did not know they made bridges that low. I fixed the roof and it has not let in a drop in the what must now be the best part of twenty years I have owned it.

The wet and dry benches are at one end of the van opposite each other. The other end of the van is the print preparation / mounting area. It was all kitted out with scrounged bits. The dry bench top is an old hardwood fire door that was being discarded by the school I worked at as did the large Belfast sink and teak wood surround that make up the wet bench. The darkroom is fitted throughout with a mains and 12 volt electric points as well as also having gas for the lights stove and fridge.

I did the conversion for very little but the biggest savings have resulted from having a facility separate from the house. My house does not have to be as big as it might otherwise have had to have been. Saving on mortgage , property rates etc. It is mobile. There is no mains electricity where it is stored but moving it to where their was one as never been a problem . I also at one time converted some of my enlargers to 12v operation to save me having to do that. The main drawback is the low headroom. So wet bench and dry bench are set at the level of the original caravan seating which is less than ideal but overall the advantages outweigh the disadvantages especially where my pocket is concerned.

I have however only used it for 35mm and medium format work.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I've been looking to scavenge a piece of granite counter top for use as a weight to flatten newly dry mounted prints.

Good idea. Where I live is a travertine quarry with literally tons of milled scrap, but shipping costs are a killer.

How about a bookbinder's press? Works for me. Search the auction site for book press.

[DrTang]

giveaways pop up and you must be the first caller


heck..for darkroom stuff - you don't even have to hurry on it anymore - plenty out there to just pick up

[Jac@stafford.net]

heck..for darkroom stuff - you don't even have to hurry on it anymore - plenty out there to just pick up

In this part of the USA, the days of cheap, free dumpster darkroom stuff passed eight years ago. That is how terrible it is. Gone are tons of process lenses, temperature controls, nitrogen burst systems ... you know the litany.

OTHO, dIgital dumps are beginning now, and IMHO within their paradigm there is NOTHING to redeem.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Fate, and a confident mentor has made one part of imaging possible - film: any format, no realistic limits. The last was 400 sheets of 8x10 film.

Given the unfortunate prognosis of my lifetime it may all fall into an estate sale.

So be it.

[Tin Can]

I always tell the vultures, 'Not dead yet!' I think I got it from Monty Python. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A


Fate, and a confident mentor has made one part of imaging possible - film: any format, no realistic limits. The last was 400 sheets of 8x10 film.

Given the unfortunate prognosis of my lifetime it may all fall into an estate sale.

So be it.

[ic-racer]

My biggest money-saving measure has been to not waste any money on digital equipment.

[Tin Can]

+1


My biggest money-saving measure has been to not waste any money digital equipment.

[alavergh]

Not only is there not specifically a question, you haven't specified what kind of "darkroom photography". B/W only, contact or enlarging? That would help pin things down for you pretty fast. A DR for my dreams (or anything else for that matter) is realized fiction for me. Tray process your film. K.I.S.S. The biggest concern should be the DR space and wet area (sink) itself. You may want to read this (http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/pages/a-darkroom-portrait), where you may find some useful tips discussed in the building, economies and tradeoffs of one DR.

Thanks for hunting for more info. I'm not necessarily asking for my own help, just to have a conversation and see what kinds of ingenuity people have shown if they're low on cash or resources.

[DG 3313]

Marry into money and keep her happy......

[dsphotog]

Marry into money and keep her happy......

Good one!
.... Does she have a sister?

[dsphotog]

Mixing chem. from scratch.

[DG 3313]

Good one!
.... Does she have a sister?

Her cousin is a biscuit......I don't do a lot of in camera doups and I use a Beselar drum to develop my 4x5 negs to save chemistry.

[tgtaylor]

I don't skimp when it comes to hardware and materials such as lens, cameras, tripods, film, paper, chemistry....etc., but try to purchase the best quality of each that does the job and which I can afford. I mix much of the chemistry I use from scratch but not to save money but because of the sense of satisfaction I get from having "done it myself." Where I do "skimp" and become cost conscious is in the actual exposure of the negative. If the subject strikes me as being emotionally and artistically attractive, I'll shoot it; if in doubt, I still shoot it. In either case I'm very careful with the set-up and composition and my intent is to "nail it" with one exposure that will produce a "perfect" negative that is easy to print. But even then the real motivator is the desire to achieve quality over the accompanying cost saving benefit. I'm not doing photography to save money.

Thomas

Thomas

[Bruce Barlow]

I've been looking to scavenge a piece of granite counter top for use as a weight to flatten newly dry mounted prints.
My brown glass storage bottles for chemicals were free, from a pharmacy (Robitussen syrup originally came in them.)
A string of red led Christmas lights bought on end of season close-out for my safe lights.

I bend prints against the emulsion (and against the curl) and put them sideways in half a print box to flatten. Leave them for a day, and they're fine enough. It's similar to the print flattener idea that Zone VI used to sell. I can do five to ten at a time. Free, and a good use of an old box. Most of the time, after they're flat, they go into same box, lid applied, and placed, with honor, on a shelf...

[Bruce Barlow]

Air can still penetrate many plastics, so not all plastic bottles (if that's what you use) are good for chemical storage.

I prefer Diet Coke, and have had no trouble with air penetration at all. They come in several handy sizes.

I make sure that there is no air remaining in them when I fill them with chemicals. Toner solution is another good example. I keep it in a 2 liter bottle, and replenish when I need to. It lasts a looong time.

[Bruce Barlow]

I'm currently building a darkroom and found very inexpensive used white laminate kitchen cabinets on Craigslist. For a counter under my enlarger I'm using an old solid core exterior door which was free. It's 30 inches wide and weighs a ton—it is very solid. I too will be constructing a plywood sink, although I haven't decided what to coat it with yet.

I bought the stuff at the hardware store that you use to recoat your bath tub. Epoxy. Inexpensive. Nasty fumes, so use outdoors and then bring the thing inside. Inexpensive and it works. Caulk the seams before painting, and I don't think I even primed. Regular paint on the outside.

Photographer's Formulary had their workshop sinks sprayed with pick-em-up truck stuff, dark grey, cushioned, and lovely. The local price for me to do that is about $300. I'll use the epoxy, thanks.

Over time, the epoxy stained pinkish, but it was in the dark most of the time, so I sure didn' care

[Peter Collins]

Yes, don't skimp on lenses, etc., as Thomas says. But you can get the very best as secondhand stuff.

I have purchased everything in my darkroom secondhand. The Saunders 4x5 VCCE enlarger for $300, for example.

For example, I went hunting for cheap tables, found 2 at a university property disposition warehouse.

Later, I went to Lowe's and found a damaged formica-top counter for $60, and put it on the two tables. 8-ft counter for enlarger and printing area.

Saw a plastic darkroom sink on Craigslist for cheap, got it, and built my own 'stand' for it out of 13s. The darkroom is dry, but it is next to the utility tub in the basement. So set-up and take-down for a printing session is a little slow.

It took time. It will take you time, but it seems to me that you have more time than money right now.

[Tin Can]

I have stopped buying digital cameras. KEH just sent me 'Deal of the Day' a Nikon D100 in EX grade for $99. It sold new for $1999.00.

LOL

Digital Rat Race is over for me.

[ROL]

Thanks for hunting for more info. I'm not necessarily asking for my own help, just to have a conversation and see what kinds of ingenuity people have shown if they're low on cash or resources.

Yes, I appreciated that. Just expanding your box. For my part, there wasn't much challenge in the 'hunt'. :rolleyes:

[evan clarke]

God, I have worked for 52 years, saved and now the modern world is going to crap my savings away..you can't do the right things anymore.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I save money by bicycling when I can. I have an on-board app for my car that shows the cost of every automobile trip and it is intimidating!

As for photography the savings are incidental - Rodinal, and a mentor who pays for film.

[John Koehrer]

Two pieces of Formica covered MDF glued together, covered sides out & handles from IKEA(fancy schmancy!) Sink blanks are fine.





I've been looking to scavenge a piece of granite counter top for use as a weight to flatten newly dry mounted prints.
My brown glass storage bottles for chemicals were free, from a pharmacy (Robitussen syrup originally came in them.)
A string of red led Christmas lights bought on end of season close-out for my safe lights.

[Tin Can]

I did not buy a f6 30" lens. But I almost did...