Comments/ideas re Atlanta/ULF darkroom rental

[Robert McClure]

Hello Again!

(I am a ULF newcomer who has decided he WILL do this before he meets his Maker.)

Finally decided to find suitable darkroom facilities outside my home. My gracious wife would be willing to live with the disruption to our one full bath in the 101-year-old home we have remodeled over the past few years. No really appropriate alternate location to build a formal darkroom into the existing floor plan. Separate darkroom out-building is too much $$. Plus, we are trying to leave the home in 1904-like architctural form in anticipation of attracting purist home-buyers to command best dollar in an already flat market here in the Deep South.

My google search has turned up a few sources for rental in Atlanta which I plan to contact next week. (I live in Grantville, one hour south of the ATL.) I know I will have to become more efficient, do good planning, etc. Then there's having (same day) dry negatives with suitably re-hardened emultions that will be ready for contacting a few hours after they're developed. The idea is to take a bunch of negatives to Atlanta (2-hour plus r/t) Then develop, dry, print, wash, dry etc.

I would be indebted to you all for any ideas, tips, cautions, etc. BTW - sell present house and find another more darkroom-friendly? Yes. But I have to get rid of this one first.

Best Regards,

[jerry brodkey]

I do 7X17 and 11X14 in our apartment and print on platinum paper. The only perfectly
dark room I need is enough space to load film holders and put the exposed film in JOBO
tanks. I store the JOBO CPP2 in a storage area in the basement of our apartment building
and wheel it in to the common laundry area to develop the film. The cart on which the JOBO sits has a lower shelf to store all the chemicals needed for film development. An area for platinum printing
only needs to be moderately dark with no flourescent lights. I use a bug light to lighten up that area and it has no effect
on the sensitized platinum paper. I suspect that you could work out such a system in your house without using the one full bath except perhaps for loading and unloading film. If you have a basement I'm sure you could darken an area enough to do platinum prints..........

[Jim Noel]

Jerald's solution is a very good one. If you are using an 8X10 a used Uniroller 8x10 drum can be rolled on the kitchen counter for processing.
I first learned to make platinum prints in a partial basement with very large north facing windows. It is amazing how much light they will tolerate if it is not a direct UV source.
Good luck!

[Scott Holt]

Robert - I've used the rental facilities at Showcase (www.theshowcaseschool.com) off and on for years. They have a community darkroom, but may have space where you can tray process your negatives (they once had private darkrooms which were tight, but workable). As for printing, the do have a couple of stations that could be used for contact printing ultra-large negatives. The washing facilities can easily handle 11x14 prints, and I have seen folks do 16x20 there with some minor effort. Most of the folks who do their work there are very conciencious and follow good dark room discipline (i.e. keeping the tongs in the right tray, etc). The down side is that they won't be available for long... they are ceasing dark room rentals in October.

I'd be interested to hear about anything you find, as I am looking for an alternative - the amount of traditional printing I do each year really doesn't warrant the expense of building out my own facility.