Darkroom wall colour (or color if you prefer) safe or not?

[Ed Bray]

I've had a thought, if you had blue walls in your darkroom, would any safelight hitting it be reflected as unsafe light?

[vinny]

White's a better option if you have it, but no color would be a reflected light problem.

[Daniel Stone]

You can also do a light yellow. A friend did this, and when in "normal" room light(like when toning or washing prints/processing film) it provides him with a more 'welcoming' atmosphere and feels less sterile.

Dan

[ROL]

I dunno, this seems pretty 'welcoming', while (actually) toning, etc:

http://www.rangeoflightphotography.com/uploaded/DarkroomProcess.jpg

White with incandescent halogen lighting. Seems less 'jaundiced' to me.

[Cletus]

I think white walls are the only way to go if you're planning to paint your darkroom. I started out a long time ago in a black walled (and ceiling) darkroom. That was just about the gloomiest, depressing experience I've ever had with darkroom work and nearly ended my film career before it really started.

White walls will reflect safelight and help 'even out the exposure' throughout the room, making it MUCH more comfortable to work in, as well as generally improving your overall visibility. As long as your safelights are tested and safe, the greatly increased visibility will have nearly zero impact on the time you can spend on the baseboard before your highlights start to take a hit. (Assuming you're doing B&W printing.)

...I see now that I'm not answering your question at all, with my little white walls in the DR soapbox lecture. But I would agree that colored walls would not "convert" reflected safelight into paper fogging wavelengths.

[jk0592]

I painted my darkroom with white paint, twenty-five years ago, and never regretted it. When I need it "dark", as when putting film in film holders, no lights on, the gralab inside a cabinet, it is completely dark. When i develop paper, the amber light makes it a nice place to work.

[Cor]

Light yellow on the wet side, zone V grey around the enlarger..

Best,

Cor

[Drew Wiley]

Black, black, black. It's called a darkroom for a reason. Maybe around the toning station
you might want something else. Different types of paper and film have different light
sensitivities. Don't want to paint yourself in a corner in this respect, if you'll excuse the
pun. Most enlarger leak a little light. It can lead to fog. Film work is even fussier.

[Leigh]

White, white, white. Makes it much easier to see what you're doing. I have a single Thomas Duplex safelight near the ceiling at one end, and I can read the small print on a bottle label anywhere in the room.

http://www.atwaterkent.info/Images/Darkroom300w.jpg

If you have a light leak, fix it. Don't blame it on the color of the walls.

If you want dark... That's why safelights have switches. :D

- Leigh

[Roger Cole]

White, white, white. Makes it much easier to see what you're doing. I have a single Thomas Duplex safelight near the ceiling at one end, and I can read the small print on a bottle label anywhere in the room.

http://www.atwaterkent.info/Images/Darkroom300w.jpg

If you have a light leak, fix it. Don't blame it on the color of the walls.

If you want dark... That's why safelights have switches. :D

- Leigh

Same thing I was saying over on APUG, not sure if it's the same OP or not.

White is the best color for darkroom walls. You might have to reduce the intensity of your safelights but you will still have the same maximum safe illumination levels - the paper doesn't know what color the walls are, only the amount, duration and wavelength of light falling on it - and you'll have much more even, pleasant illumination.

I built my permanent darkroom back in TN with white walls and ceiling. My current temporary darkroom is made by hanging sheets of black plastic (because it only comes in black and clear, and black allows me to print and even develop film and load holders in daytime with the rest of the basement just "mostly" light sealed.) The difference is substantial. The basement build out has started though it will probably be the latter part of the year before I have plumbing and my new permanent darkroom. The walls and ceiling in it will be white.

[IanG]

I'd agree white is best, although I have black around the enlargers.

Ian

[Ed Bray]

I was not the OP on APUG although I did ask the same question. I am in the process of fitting out my darkroom and will have the walls painted white and black (not stripes, I do not support Newcastle United), but was just curious as to what colour the light would be if the walls were a non-safe colour.

[Drew Wiley]

I think some of you are listening to much to Martha Stewart. She probably painted the
jailhouse darkroom Persimmon with floral wallpaper trim.

[Leigh]

The color of any reflective surface cannot change the color of light being reflected.

However, it can attenuate the reflection, possibly by a large factor, depending on the exact spectrum being discussed.

- Leigh

[Roger Cole]

I was not the OP on APUG although I did ask the same question. I am in the process of fitting out my darkroom and will have the walls painted white and black (not stripes, I do not support Newcastle United), but was just curious as to what colour the light would be if the walls were a non-safe colour.


The color of any reflective surface cannot change the color of light being reflected.

However, it can attenuate the reflection, possibly by a large factor, depending on the exact spectrum being discussed.

- Leigh

This.

There's no harm in the walls being blue, or any other color, if you are using a room that is multi-use or otherwise happens to be that color already and you can't or don't want to paint. But when I create a darkroom and have my choice, it's white for "just a darkroom" and a neutral off white for multiuse which works fine for the darkroom with most of the advantages of pure white while being less glaring for other general use.

[Drew Wiley]

Color can goof up your sense of toning. I once took AA's bad advice about painting
the dkroom beige. My film room is black black. The sink room lighter. I work in complete
darkness except for a pressure-sensitive rubberized footswitch to the safelight. I never
use a safelight except momentarily. Actual judging of prints after drydown is down in a
separate room where I have installed a choice of light sources, since actual display conditions can vary. But if you don't like Martha Stewart colors, you can always opt for
Hirst and paint your wall polka-dots (maybe with a few 18% gray dots here and there).

[Roger Cole]

Beige is a bad choice no matter what the function of the room is.

Why? I tend to prefer beige or off-white for most rooms. Neutral, supports whatever colors you use for other things, fairly light and not gloomy and claustrophobic.

[C. D. Keth]

Beige immediately feels like a hotel to me.

[Drew Wiley]

Beige is horrible because it doesn't take much reflectance from it to screw up your evaluation of selenium or other warm/cold toning balance, even with white room lights on.
I'd rather have either black or real white around the toning station - which in my case
happens to be the sink itself, so the background needs to work for ordinary tray developing
too. A neutral gray might be OK. You could put a stripe of each, from Zone II thru XIII,
for those of you who belong to an orthodox Zone cult.

[Ed Bray]

Beige immediately feels like a hotel to me.

I've never stayed at a hotel with a darkroom.

[Drew Wiley]

Beige is a good hotel color because you don't notice the cockroaches, bedbugs, and nicotine stains as much. What amazes me is the geckos on the Islands - I spook a green
one on the green drapery, and by the time he hits the beige rug, he's a matching shade
of beige.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

White, white, white. Makes it much easier to see what you're doing. I have a single Thomas Duplex safelight near the ceiling at one end, and I can read the small print on a bottle label anywhere in the room.

http://www.atwaterkent.info/Images/Darkroom300w.jpg

If you have a light leak, fix it. Don't blame it on the color of the walls.

If you want dark... That's why safelights have switches. :D

- Leigh

Bingo!

And I prefer "Colour"!

[C. D. Keth]

I've never stayed at a hotel with a darkroom.

Really? Most of them have one. Hotel darkrooms always have toilets though. I guess people needed somewhere to sit between agitations.

[Roger Cole]

Beige is horrible because it doesn't take much reflectance from it to screw up your evaluation of selenium or other warm/cold toning balance, even with white room lights on.
I'd rather have either black or real white around the toning station - which in my case
happens to be the sink itself, so the background needs to work for ordinary tray developing
too. A neutral gray might be OK. You could put a stripe of each, from Zone II thru XIII,
for those of you who belong to an orthodox Zone cult.

Humm, ok. I don't have a "toning station" and generally tone prints outside my current darkroom, to keep the fumes down. But I do it in the open area of the basement, far enough from any walls that their color doesn't matter. That will change as the basement is built out, though.

[Larry Gebhardt]

I went with a light gray. It's pretty nice, but a lighter gray or neutral white may have been a better choice. I didn't want something with a tint to mess up the evaluation of color prints. I have enough trouble in that regard as it is.