Home Studio and Darkroom Survey

[jetcode]

Since I am in the process of putting together a combo studio darkroom (film only) I thought it would be interesting to see how others have put together their studios (lighting, commercial, portrait, etc) and the backend; i.e. darkroom, digital labs, etc.

Right now I cook film upstairs in the kitchen using a Calumet tent, Unicolor drum and a cupboard dedicated to drying film which by the way I was inspired by on this forum and it is pretty much dust free. Downstairs I have my scanner, a pair of 2200's one with Septone inks. That's about it. I wish I had a real studio so I could setup my lighting and work portraiture and product shots. I have a small shooting dome for product shots and that's upstairs at the moment.

[Turner Reich]

I wish you would do your own printing and stop all that scanning stuff!

[Greg Lockrey]

I have a garage converted to a wet darkroom but now I use it only to develope slides and negatives. All my printing is digital up to 44". One bedroom is paper storage and 2@ Epson scanners and copy stand made from a Beseler 45 enlarger. Second bedroom is 2 @ 17" printers and 1 @ 44" printer and computers not counting the HP scanner and HP 8 1/2" printers. The front room has 2 @ Kodak 1400 dyesublimation 8x14" printers and a photo studio set up with motorized background and 4@ Photogenic flashes w/soft boxes. The family room has 2 @ 44" printers and a large photodome for seamless small product photography. The rooms not used for the studio are the kitchen, dinet, and one bedroom and master bath.

[jetcode]

I wish you would do your own printing and stop all that scanning stuff!

I am doing my own printing, with pigment and Septone inks. In case you haven't heard you can actually produce archival quality prints that stand up well next to traditional prints made by hand tediously in the dark with messy toxic chemicals and such.

[davidb]

I love messy toxic chemicals. They go well with inkjet printers and CPU boards.

[windpointphoto]

I am doing my own printing, with pigment and Septone inks. In case you haven't heard you can actually produce archival quality prints that stand up well next to traditional prints made by hand tediously in the dark with messy toxic chemicals and such.

You're just beating your head against a wall with lots of these folks. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've made 8x10 negatives and the same scene in a digital file. Made an 8x10 contact print and an 8x10 inkjet print. Mounted, matted and framed both of them under glass. No one can tell the difference. They both look great. I've even scanned the 8x10 negative and did the same experiment. This endless argument just gives some people a reason to feel Oh So Superior, Look At Me, Aren't I Special.
My studio is in the basement along with the wet darkroom. Digital printing is done in a spare bedroom.

[jetcode]

You're just beating your head against a wall with lots of these folks. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've made 8x10 negatives and the same scene in a digital file. Made an 8x10 contact print and an 8x10 inkjet print. Mounted, matted and framed both of them under glass. No one can tell the difference. They both look great. I've even scanned the 8x10 negative and did the same experiment. This endless argument just gives some people a reason to feel Oh So Superior, Look At Me, Aren't I Special.
My studio is in the basement along with the wet darkroom. Digital printing is done in a spare bedroom.

They don't know any better. They think they're right and they are, in their world. Not a problem to me except for hijacking a thread politically. A far as darkroom printing that's why I bought a car. I got sick of driving a donkey to work. This is why film has all but disappeared much like the dinosaur. One day this dinosaur will be extinct too. Not likely for quite a while.

[jetcode]

I love ...

Do you have a studio?

[Turner Reich]

Quick! Look! You missed the last upgrade!

[Greg Lockrey]

Quick! Look! You missed the last upgrade!

Oh Shucks!