Darkroom wall colour (or color if you prefer) safe or not?

[Ed Bray]

I've had a thought, if you had blue walls in your darkroom, would any safelight hitting it be reflected as unsafe light?

[vinny]

White's a better option if you have it, but no color would be a reflected light problem.

[Daniel Stone]

You can also do a light yellow. A friend did this, and when in "normal" room light(like when toning or washing prints/processing film) it provides him with a more 'welcoming' atmosphere and feels less sterile.

Dan

[ROL]

I dunno, this seems pretty 'welcoming', while (actually) toning, etc:



White with incandescent halogen lighting. Seems less 'jaundiced' to me.

[Cletus]

I think white walls are the only way to go if you're planning to paint your darkroom. I started out a long time ago in a black walled (and ceiling) darkroom. That was just about the gloomiest, depressing experience I've ever had with darkroom work and nearly ended my film career before it really started.

White walls will reflect safelight and help 'even out the exposure' throughout the room, making it MUCH more comfortable to work in, as well as generally improving your overall visibility. As long as your safelights are tested and safe, the greatly increased visibility will have nearly zero impact on the time you can spend on the baseboard before your highlights start to take a hit. (Assuming you're doing B&W printing.)

...I see now that I'm not answering your question at all, with my little white walls in the DR soapbox lecture. But I would agree that colored walls would not "convert" reflected safelight into paper fogging wavelengths.

[jk0592]

I painted my darkroom with white paint, twenty-five years ago, and never regretted it. When I need it "dark", as when putting film in film holders, no lights on, the gralab inside a cabinet, it is completely dark. When i develop paper, the amber light makes it a nice place to work.

[Cor]

Light yellow on the wet side, zone V grey around the enlarger..

Best,

Cor

[Drew Wiley]

Black, black, black. It's called a darkroom for a reason. Maybe around the toning station
you might want something else. Different types of paper and film have different light
sensitivities. Don't want to paint yourself in a corner in this respect, if you'll excuse the
pun. Most enlarger leak a little light. It can lead to fog. Film work is even fussier.

[Leigh]

White, white, white. Makes it much easier to see what you're doing. I have a single Thomas Duplex safelight near the ceiling at one end, and I can read the small print on a bottle label anywhere in the room.



If you have a light leak, fix it. Don't blame it on the color of the walls.

If you want dark... That's why safelights have switches.

- Leigh

[Roger Cole]

White, white, white. Makes it much easier to see what you're doing. I have a single Thomas Duplex safelight near the ceiling at one end, and I can read the small print on a bottle label anywhere in the room.



If you have a light leak, fix it. Don't blame it on the color of the walls.

If you want dark... That's why safelights have switches.

- Leigh

Same thing I was saying over on APUG, not sure if it's the same OP or not.

White is the best color for darkroom walls. You might have to reduce the intensity of your safelights but you will still have the same maximum safe illumination levels - the paper doesn't know what color the walls are, only the amount, duration and wavelength of light falling on it - and you'll have much more even, pleasant illumination.

I built my permanent darkroom back in TN with white walls and ceiling. My current temporary darkroom is made by hanging sheets of black plastic (because it only comes in black and clear, and black allows me to print and even develop film and load holders in daytime with the rest of the basement just "mostly" light sealed.) The difference is substantial. The basement build out has started though it will probably be the latter part of the year before I have plumbing and my new permanent darkroom. The walls and ceiling in it will be white.