I am a new member and would like to see other darkrooms. Here is a few pictures of mine.
Printable View
I am a new member and would like to see other darkrooms. Here is a few pictures of mine.
Good looking installation, Richard.
Easy to understand why you are so proud of it.
Here are a few shots of my darkroom.
My small space
http://www.f64.nu/albums2007/album151/DSC4780.sized.jpg
http://www.f64.nu/albums2007/album151/DSC4781.sized.jpg
Nice looking darkrooms of the previous posters... Mine is a little smaller (probably 7x8 feet), but was designed as a darkroom from the start when the house was built.
ic-racer, very nice set up. I am jealous.
I noticed you also have a Omega D5500 with the three lens turret.
I tested my turret with the laser alignment tool. I have to re-align each lens separately, I was surprised to find out, as my turret is not a precise instrument.
That is one reason I have 2 chassis. The one without the 3 lens turret is for Minox through 35mm. Each lens cone is shimmed to get correct alignment, with the lens cone for the 25mm lens taking priority.
The enlarger with the turret has a 75mm, 105mm and 150mm for 4x5in and 6x9cm work and because the enlargement ratios are less, it is less sensitive to turret being slightly off.
Also note that I have 'flase' baseboards on top of the regular baseboards. Each corner of the 'flase' baseboards has a setscrew adjustment to get a precision alignment of the paper easel.
Richard,
Welcome to the LF Forum. That is a beautiful set up you have. You might enjoy the thread called “Darkroom Portraits” over on APUG.org. At this writing they have 863 posts and 182,306 views. Someone must like the thread.
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/1...portraits.html
I’ll have to shoot some of my space. At this moment I only have a pic of the 8x10 enlarger.
John
I love this photo of André Kertész in his darkroom in 1927. Not meant in any way to disparage more technologically advanced darkrooms, I find this image inspirational in its simplicity. Kértész is one of my favorite photographers and this helps keep things in perspective for me. That being said, this photo is not a master plan for the darkroom I'm building.
This image is published by the J. Paul Getty Museum on the back cover of a small book simply entitled André Kertész as part of their In Focus series. (And yes, I am using it here completely without permission.)
http://wfwhitaker.com/tech/kertesz002.jpg
How many of you, like Kertesz, always wear a suit and tie when you print?
Here's mine
Tim
Does climbabout's darkroom get any bigger or is it just very small? It doesn't open for me.
He's wearing a suit in the darkroom.
One (possibly one-and-a-half) steps up from three-trays-and-a-naked-bulb... This is 3 trays and a D2V in a bathroom. :)
Shown configured for 8x10. Easily reconfigured for up to 16x20 (the largest I presently do).
Can honestly say I've never worn a suit and tie while printing (in fact in mid summer in Sydney its more likely to be a pair of "budgie-smugglers" and little else - no a/c!)
Regards
Here is mine, bit cluttered but I know exactly where to find everything.
Attachment 33386
Attachment 33387
Attachment 33389
Attachment 33390
Gee now that enlargers are so cheap I guess you could set one up for each format and just leave them at that!
I no longer have these images on my computer - but you can see them enlarged here:
http://www.apug.org/forums/forum43/1...tml#post438314
Thanks for asking.
Tim
My "Hybrid" Darkroom ...
My darkroom is space limited at 8'x8.5' so it gets pretty cozy, especially for two people. (However, it does have an 18' vaulted ceiling.) There are two processors, the Jobo CPP2 and the DoMac 16" roller processor plus the Nova vertical tank.
The Beseler/Minolta 45A has been replaced by a D5500 because I can no longer obtain the flash tubes. I use the Vivitar for 35mm and 120 (because I like the condensers for these films). The D5500 is for the 4x5 and sometimes the 120 if the negatives are too contrasty.
There is a small adjacent bathroom where I load film holders and developing tanks. It has a small shower stall where I hang my negatives to dry.
Out in the rest of the loft I have shelves where I store accessories and bulk chemicals, as well as tables for matting and framing my prints. There is also the refrigerator where I have what is becoming a life time supply of film and papers.
For comfort I no longer wear my suit in the darkroom. Do you suppose that's why my work isn't popular?
Al,
I that is my kind of fridge! :)
These are from 3 years ago and really need to be updated as I, upholding the ever expanding to fill all space concept, have added a few things to the darkroom since then... like 4 more enlargers, improved water, shelves, etc. etc.
http://www.roberthall.com/newdr/
When we moved from Denver to our current location in the Colorado mountains, I had to construct a new darkroom. On the lower level or our new home was a large storage room. I subdivided it and used approximately half of the space for a darkroom. The other half is used for a workroom, library, and storage.
My darkroom is about 9 x 14 ˝ feet. The dry side has a 10 foot counter top and a large storage cabinet. On the counter top are my two enlargers: a Zone VI with both 5x7 and 8x10 heads; and, a Saunders/LPL Super Dichroic 4500II. I use the Zone VI for 4x10 and 5x7 negatives, and the Saunders/LPL for 4x5 and smaller negatives.
When I built the darkroom in 2003, I found a used 10 foot stainless steel sink in Rock Springs, Wyoming. I bought it and hauled it home, and it now makes up the wet side of my darkroom. It has four water outlets: two thermostatic valves with one hooked to the film and print washing tanks, and one used for mixing chemicals; and, two mixing faucets for other chores.
Each darkroom I have built (this is the fifth) is an improvement over the last and this is the best yet. I do hope that I will not have to build another.
My first post on the forum--greetings all!
I just spent ~1 yr. building this darkroom. I enclosed a section of our garage, about 8' x 21', and fortunately there is a little room left over for the cars!
I did the work myself, which saved me a little money at the expense of a lot of my time. But it's finished now and I'm enjoying my time working in it.
wet side: two 8 ft. sinks for trays, one 5 ft. sink for the Jobo and print washer, all plumbed with hot/cold faucets and homemade water-tempering panel. At some point I may install a real water-tempering valve if I can bring myself to cough up the $$.
dry side: 15 ft. countertop with a Beseler 45V enlarger bolted to the cabinet. At some point I'd like to convert the enlarger to 8x10 with beseler's conversion kit, and with all of the sink space I'll have no troublr printing up to 20x24, but for now I'll be happy with 8x10s, 11x14s and the occasional 16x20.
Drible drible, i am very envious. Very nice job on your new darkroom Glenn.
that is one. long. sink. wish mine were that nice and roomy ;)
Thanks Robert for the compliment, and also for the info on Beseler. B&H still lists this item for sale, along with at least one other merchant (Calumet?) but perhaps they haven't gotten word yet and/or updated there websites. It's sad to see LF manufacturers end product lines, but I guess that's business, and progress...
Guess I'll have to find a used beseler 810 head, or build a workable facsimile myself...
The overall wet-side length was pretty much dictated by the space I had to work with. Didn't make sense to me to not use the whole length for sinks, and it feels luxurious to have the space. It's the first time I've had the Jobo plumbed up properly in a sink and it's very convenient.
Looks great Glenn. I have a similar amount of sink space and use every bit of it. It's great to have if you have the space. What's powering all those ventilation grates? I'm interested to see what you did there.
Hi Dave,
I installed a fairly large in-line exhaust fan in the garage--a Panasonic rated at something like 400-600 cfm. The inlet and outlet are 8" ducts. I ran the inlet 8" duct along the wall between the darkroom and the garage (on the garage side) and ran three separate 6" ducts through the ceiling to the wall where my sinks are. Then I ran these three ducts down the wall using 'wall stack', which is rectangular ductwork designed to fit into stud cavities. These are connected to the exhaust plenum also made from wall stack which runs the length of the sinks. I have nine intake ducts (visible in the photos) which I can open and close in different areas to maximize the airflow depending on where fumes are being generated.
There is a separate duct that connects the darkroom to the house (with filtration) for makeup air. In practice, there is a lot more air exiting the system than entering through the intake filter, because overall the darkroom is quite leaky with respect to air. This is obviously a negative pressure system--I didn't think it would be a good idea to potentially exhaust fumes into the house proper, as could happen with a positive pressure ventilation setup.
I haven't noticed any major problems with dust in spite of the fact that I'm pulling air into the darkroom from the garage, and through electrical and light fixtures. Also, because I located then fan outside the darkroom it is pretty quiet, although not silent which is what I was shooting for. Most importantly, the system does a pretty good job of pulling the fumes off of the trays.
Thanks for the interest, and sorry for the lengthy reply!
Back couple of years ago my d/r was just in kitchen:
http://www.reznitsky.info/files/LJ/darkroom/en_01.jpghttp://www.reznitsky.info/files/LJ/darkroom/en_02.jpghttp://www.reznitsky.info/files/LJ/darkroom/en_03.jpg
This enlarger was from late 80's or even 91-92, the last attempt of Soviet industry to make a replica of some Durst.
Later on, it was 2x2m toilet+bathroom (yeap, with bath) in Leiden, Netherlands, in a typically Dutch small restroom. There were two(!) of us printing at the same time, helping and disturbing each other, but the result was great:
http://www.reznitsky.info/files/LJ/A...nts-prints.jpg
About the suit. My grandfather always wore a suit. I never saw him in any other clothes. He was a tool-and-die maker. Even when he worked on his lathe in the basement, he wore his suit. Sign of the times.
Fred Picker made a crack about one of his friends always wearing a tie in the darkroom. He said that he (Picker) didn't wear a tie, but: "I have to shave"
Nice darkrooms
I envy you guys with the endless sinks, what a luxury. I can only fit 4 16x20 trays in the sink proper. If I print bigger I have to use skinny troughs and roll the paper through the chemicals. My space is 10x10 only but serves me well. Most of it was cobbled together with either a hammer and nails or a welder. Nothing hi tech about this space:) A peg board vacuum frame is that white thing on the wall that is used for horizontal printing with a not shown portable 8x10 enlarger.
regards
erik