The Makings of a Darkroom

All photos and text © 2002 - 2004 Glenn E. Stewart. All rights reserved.

This page last modified 18 Aug., 2004

from: Stumbling around in the Dark(room)

by Glenn Stewart

In my first column I mentioned "portable" and "permanent" darkrooms. Some of you may have asked yourselves, "Can I really do this at home?"

Sure you can. I've been doing my dark room work in closet and using a spare bathroom for the "wet side" work for almost 30 years. That doesn't count the film I developed in the machinery space of the U.S. Navy destroyer I was stationed on in the '70s. A darkroom can be anywhere that has running water and darkness. A dark room can be used to load film into the developing tank, and a lighted room with plumbing can be used during film development.

Some people don't even have a dark room. They use a device called a changing bag to move their film from its container to the developing tank. A changing bag is a black cloth bag that is lightproof and has openings to allow a person's hands to enter from each side. The openings are elasticized to make a tight fit around the person's wrists. The film and tank are placed inside, then the operator's hands. Now the film can be removed from its container, loaded onto the developing reel and placed in the developing tank, all in a fully lighted room. Once the tank's light-tight lid is in place, the operator can remove his hands from the changing bag, along with the tank, the empty film container and anything else that was placed in the changing bag. In addition to serving as a place where one can put film in the developing tank, a changing bag has other uses. The film in a malfunctioning camera can be salvaged by removing it from the camera in a changing bag before turning the camera over to the repairman.

What if you want a real "dark room", instead of a changing bag? When I say "dark", I mean completely dark. Some will say that any light leaks, even tiny ones, will destroy your work. In theory, this is true, but in practice, a little light leaking around the doorframe, while not an optimum situation, can be tolerated. If at all possible, seal off the door. If not, make it as dark as possible by stuffing a towel across the bottom of the door to eliminate what is usually the biggest leak, then turn your back to the door and handle your film in the shadow of your body. It helps to turn off lights in the room outside the dark room, and during the daytime, to close the curtains to darken as much as possible the rooms outside the dark room. This reduces the amount of light that can leak into the dark room. As a side note, I've always been fascinated with the fact that light always leaks into a dark room, but dark never leaks into a lighted room. It's a mystery.

The dark room can be used to load film into the developing tank and can be used for making enlargements. The film tank is light-tight once the lid is on, but the chemicals can be poured in and out through a "light trap" in the lid, allowing you to do the actual processing in a lighted room. There are print processing drums that work in a similar fashion. This lets you make the print exposure in the dark room, load the print into the drum, then do the development in a lighted room. These eliminate the need for sloppy print processing trays and a dedicated darkroom, but they must be cleaned and dried between each print. This can be very time consuming. So, a dark room, light-tight film and print processing tanks/tubes are the basic elements of the portable setup.

A complete, permanent, dedicated, photographic darkroom makes the photographic process a lot more convenient. While anything required by the photo/chemical process can be done in a portable setup, unfortunately, after completing the work, the portable setup must be taken down to return the temporarily used spaces to their original intended use. My wife is never really happy about having a bathroom full of photo tools and chemicals, even if it's only for a few hours. While most of your darkroom tools must be cleaned and put up to dry between sessions, the infrastructure of a permanent photographic darkroom is dedicated to photo work, so it doesn't have to be changed back into a bathroom, or whatever, between sessions. This saves a lot of time.

A dedicated darkroom will have the following, and may have as many more convenience features as you can afford. The room should be laid out so that it has a "dry side" and a "wet side". Dry side activities and amenities include loading the film into the tank, exposing the print paper using an enlarger, and print and film drying. There are probably a number of other tasks that can be accomplished on the dry side, but I think you get the point. The wet side tasks are related to the actual chemical process. This includes film and print development and washing. Space should be reserved underneath the darkroom sink on the wet side for chemical storage. This separates the chemicals from the unused photographic materials that are typically stored on the dry side and reduces the possibility of contamination of those materials in the event of a chemical leak.

Dry side equipment may include the enlarger, a light table or light box, print and film dryers, a paper cutter or a cutting board where prints can be trimmed with an Exacto knife, storage areas for printing easels, an electronic printing timer, unexposed print paper storage, some table top space where you can mount prints, and whatever else you need to do your dry work. A few other things you may find useful on the dry side are a refrigerator and a microwave. The frige will extend the storage life of your film and chemistry and the microwave, judiciously used, will help you get the chemicals up to processing temperature quickly. The refrigerator has other uses, as well, but I'll leave that to your imagination. It's good to have a comfortable chair you can relax in after spending several hours on your feet. Lots of folks like to have a nice stereo in the darkroom to make the time go by more comfortably.

The wet side will require a sink with hot and cold running water and a sewer connection, a table top area that has fluid barriers (walls) several inches high around the perimeter to keep spills off the floor, storage areas for print trays, developing tanks, graduates, squeegees and thermometers, drying racks for the tanks, trays and graduates, towel racks, process timers and film and print washers if you use them. The darkroom walls should be outfitted with enough cabinet space so you can organize your equipment and keep it clean and dust-free. An exhaust fan should be installed on the wet side to help keep the fumes down. It is important to have it on the wet side so fresh air is pulled past the darkroom worker, over the mixing and developing area and then out the vent, taking chemical smells and dust with it, rather than pulling the smells and dust past the worker, then out the other side of the room. Generally, the chemicals are quite safe, but the smell can be annoying to some people. An exhaust fan makes it easier to work for long periods.

Both the dry and wet sides will need some amount of safelight service and switches to control both the safelights and the white room lighting. For the newcomers, a safelight is a light that is of a color that the photographic material being handled is not sensitive to. Safelights are almost universally limited to use with black and white materials, since by definition, color materials are sensitive to all colors. Most black and white papers can be handled under a dim red or amber light. The paper is, for all intents and purposes, "blind" to those colors and will not be exposed by them. But the human eye can see them, so you'll be able to walk around the darkroom without bumping into things. The safelights must be "off" while handling black and white film. Almost all black and white film is classified as "panchromatic". This means it is sensitive to all colors and would, therefore, be exposed by the safelights, just like color film.

Any windows in the room must be sealed against light leaks. The doors should be outfitted with weather seals to eliminate light leaks. The room should have adequate electrical service and all outlets in the wet area should be GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) protected for safety. If possible, the darkroom should have positive ventilation. This means that filtered air is pumped into the room and escapes through inactive vents, rather than having unfiltered outside air sucked into the room around the doors and through cracks and crevices in the walls. This will reduce dust problems.

In a future column, I will describe my "dream" darkroom. If things go well over the next few months, I will be able to photo-illustrate the article because my "dream" darkroom will be under construction.

That's a more detailed look at changing bags and portable and permanent darkrooms. If you have questions, please send them to me so I can include the answers in future columns. This will help everyone learn.

Best regards,

Stew

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