Lets See Your Darkroom

[Torontoamateur]

Please be careful to encapsulate the fiberglass insulation so you cannot possible breath in any of the fibres. A cheap layer of Drywall is a necessity for your health.

[Torontoamateur]

Nice article. I will have to examine the photos closely. I have all the materials, but continue to procrastinate on building the damn UV exposure area in my DR. Honestly I'm not 100% sure how to wire the ballasts.

The plan for my area is the same as yours, but upside-down. Exposure unit will be under the desk in a drawer, with both normal and UV bulbs. Two switches, for each type of bulb. Normal bulbs will make it a light table, UV bulbs for alt processes of course. Mine has space for a 20x24 print. Just need to wire it and buy some glass for the table.

Please us an electrician to do the balast wiring. Overall that is a safety issue. and electricians are not expensive .

[neil poulsen]

I'm envious!

While my efficiently organized, 6'x8' darkroom works "fine" for me for printing up to 16x20, it would be lovely to have more space.

[Jess C]

My latest (and probably last) darkroom was completed a little over a year ago to fit a spare bedroom that measures 11x12. I custom built a 10 ft sink and all the cabinets and counter top to my enlarging station. I also tore out all the carpet and coated the concrete floor with a 2part industrial grade epoxy. My current enlargers are the Beseler 45MXT with the Oriental VCCL Head and a Beseler 45VXL fitted with the Beseler 810 cold light head. Last week I cleaned and reorganized my darkroom.

[Tin Can]

Very nice!

[Pieter]

No sink/plumbing?

[Louis Pacilla]

No sink/plumbing?

On the left wall. Study the photo posted and you'll see signs of plumbing (left side)all the way down by the print washer is a mixing valve. Heck all I see on the left side are sinks.

[Ulophot]

Jess, that's one beautiful darkroom. Mine's in a bedroom, too, adn similar in size, but I couldn't custom build a counter top to save my life, let alone cabinetry. Enviable!

[Jan Normandale]

One of the perquisites of being retired is you finally get time to build and use a darkroom. This is my first “personal” darkroom. I have used several shared darkrooms in the past. The space was part of the design requirements when we had our new retirement home built. Aside from the re-purposed desks on which the enlargers stand, I built the DR furniture myself. It finally got finished several weeks ago.

Some of the features:

-the room is 9 ft x11 ft with a blacked out window (window put in for re-sale reasons).
-a purpose built DR sink lined with fiberglass and epoxy. I refer to it as my “inside-out” kayak, because that is the technique I used when I built my kayak.
-the sink is 96” x 26” and can hold four 16x20 trays plus the 11x14 Kostiner archival print washer. It drains nicely to one end.
-the room has a built in bathroom fan for ventilation and two lighting circuits one for room lights and one for safe lights.
-at the end of the sink, on the other side of the gable, are five home built drying screens with a shelf on the top that holds a Seal Commercial 210 Dry Mount press.
-over the dry mount press is a removable shelf that hold a Technal hot air RC print dryer.
-a 4x5 enlarger (Omega D5XL) and a 5x7 enlarger (Elwood). I don’t shoot 5x7 but do have a 6x17 back for my 4x5 Chamonix 45N1. The Omega column still needs to be fastened to the wall in order to hold it steady, but I wanted to get a feeling for the “working space” before I did that.
-besides the enlargers is an Amergraph V28-1200SE UV plate burner for alternative process work.

To prove that the DR actually does get use, I have included an “action shot” which shows my first four sheets of 4x5 film, which were developed in this DR, hanging to dry. You can see the Uni-roller on a temporary shelf on the sink. The film was developed in a Jobo 2521 tank manually flipped on the Uni-roller, to reverse direction. The negatives appear to have turned out very nicely, but my printing skills still leave a lot to be desired. But now I have a place where I can conveniently practice.

It is a real treat having two water taps so that you can clean your containers while the film is washing with the water from the second tap.

Attachment 100503Attachment 100504Attachment 100505Attachment 100506

Frank...

very very nice situation. Congrats.. proof that a dream can be realized! I'm envious. Now get busy ... make that busier LOL!

Cheers Jan Normandale

[Ulophot]

In case it may be useful to others, I attach a plan for my darkroom/workroom, which is what would otherwise be a bedroom. In an ideal world, we'd all have separate darkrooms and workrooms, but this one is for me a big improvement over the days of a one-bedroom apartment when my wife would tell friends that we slept in the red light zone, and when I had to carry trays and tubs of chem and water to the bathtub, having no darkroom sink.

In my present set-up, the sink is across the room from the bathroom, which allowed fairly easy, if very simply plumbing installation: a single faucet and drain on my 5' Delta sink (of which I posted a photo a year or two ago), showing shelves and underneath storage.

Underneath the enlarging table I have some negative storage and film storage supplies, along with some non-sensitive equipment, supplies, frames, etc. -- nothing that should be on the wet "side," which is all at the sink. I'm rigorously strict about wet- and dry-side separation.The shelves near the art table have odds and ends of equipment accessories, art supplies, etc., and there is some storage space below the dry mounting table for print storage supplies, etc. The file cabinet holds prints and contacts in acid-free document folders.

I use print drying screens, stored vertically at the back side of the enlarging table with a plastic sheet covering them when not in use. For use, I lay them across the door-end of the sink.

I did not show the window blocks (insulation boards) and some other items that take up space, making it a bit more "cozy" than I'd like, but it's fairly functional.