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.