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I like the thread and your darkroom looks great.
Most of all, I like the effect you produced by bringing the darkroom back to the true reality of DIY....
If I ever get a darkroom, I will surely use the "vise grip" replacement faucet handle on the temperature control valve. Very thoughtful of you to offer us a slight imperfection to make us feel at ease. Must also increase the "fine adjustment" through increased leverage :p :p
There are a lot of really good darkrooms in this thread. I think Glenn did an exceptional job of darkroom design. It's interesting to see how each person deals with the issues of a darkroom as well as creating a working space for themselves. Darkrooms are very personal. Also if one is dependent on producing prints as their source of income, a highly efficient and comfortable darkroom becomes a high priority. In my case I have always liked working in an extremely clean and organized environment.
ic-racer, my darkroom is in a house. I built the space for it, as well as my home studio, from the ground up, it was purpose built as a darkroom. I gave a great deal of thought to fire safety because of the value of the gear, negatives and prints stored there. Much of the gear I use is long discontinued and irreplaceable, and the cost and time involved in the production of my images makes my negatives my most valued possessions. So I took their safety very seriously.
As for having 2 dursts, there were several reasons. One is the availability of parts and the length of time required to get parts and repairs, and the other is that once I've placed a neg in the carrier and it is clean and free of newtons I'd rather leave it in place if I get stuck on a print. I can walk away from that image for a day or so and work on another image on the second enlarger. This way the chemistry does not go to waste and I don't spend time fighting with an image that I haven't fully visualized yet.
Will, as building this involved excavation and a serious amount of concrete (we had one of those 75 foot high concrete boom trucks on site, the studio and darkroom are about 1200 square feet and the boom had to go over my house to reach the back wall of the studio) I had this project outsourced to a general contractor.
The furthest enlarger is about 15 feet from the dev tray and as I go through the chemistry I end up about 7 feet from that enlarger. But it's not bad because I don't make more than 12 final prints a day, and all are from the same neg so in the course of a session I maybe run through the chemistry about 30 times.
I contemplated making all the walls black or dark gray but I find it better to work in a lighter walled darkroom. I find that eye fatigue is less. However I have the room lights on a dimmer that brings them up slowly because all of that light and white walls can be a shock to the eyes when you've been in the dark for hours.
I have called both places as well as beseler. They may be listed but they just are not available.Quote:
Originally Posted by gteeter
I have found a gentleman who makes an inexpensive head for the beseler, it runs around $800 IIRC.
His name is Bill Himes. His email is billhimes66 at peoplepc dot com
I have not used one but his solution looks interesting.
810 Beseler Head
As I understand it, Beseler's right to use the patent has expired. And the general downturn probably didn't help. On the good side, they are not that complex and if you are handy with wood, metal, and plastic, you could build a fine 8x10 adapter for your Beseler. Before they were cast from aluminum, the prototype was build of black plexiglass.
Have you ever seen one in person? Are there good pictures around? Did you want to project 8x10 or 5x7? The other issue on making your own might be getting a light source from Aristo. They are in limbo still, AFAIK.
These darkrooms show quite a wide variation between order (everything in its place and a place for everything) and chaos (everything wherever you feel like dropping it). Do you suppose the order vs chaos in the darkroom is positively or negatively correlated with order vs chaos in the photographers' compositions?
Pictures of my darkroom sink and how I made it are posted here: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...facturing.html
Mike
I would think that there would most often be a direct correlation between the style of the photographer and the style of their darkroom.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Sims
In my own work ethic I need a clean/neat darkroom to ensure that the final prints have even borders, no fingerprints, no dust, no scratches, no stains etc. In my case I don't think it has much influence on picture content, though.
I think it makes a difference in quality, as each step toward a final print will be affected by one's attention to detail, or lack thereof. As to composition, I don't think it would have a direct effect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Sims
Or to put it another way...
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” -Gustave Flaubert
Food for thought Ari.
/me heading to clean the darkroom :)