Lets say I wanted to set up a dark room....

wyogirl · Oct 30, 2013

theoretically speaking...
I'd like to set up a "mobile dark room", meaning I'd like to use my son's bathroom as a dark room when I need one and then take everything out when it needs to be a bathroom. The bathroom has no windows and the door can easily be made light tight. This would be for black and white film developing and printing.

Questions:
1. Is this feasible?
2. What does the cost look like for something like this? (full setup, enlarger and whole 9 yards)
3. are there safelights that are "portable" so to speak?

Any answers or suggestions are very much appreciated. Thanks!

Derrel · Oct 30, 2013

A "daylight changing bag" can be used to load film onto reels and then into developing tanks, so you can develop film in broad daylight. $25 on one of those, maybe?

Light-proofing an inside the house bathroom is easy...couple of towels for the door-bottom, maybe some wide painter's tape. Black paper and tape over windows if needed.

Safelights...yes, there are some that screw in to standard Edison-base light socket. Kodak used to make them.

Entire darkroom sets are CHEAP these days...$150 ON CRAIGSLIST.

amolitor · Oct 30, 2013

It is absolutely feasible.

My current setup was probably a few hundred bucks. I bought some guys 35mm darkroom "setup" off eBay, which came with an enlarger (not a good one, alas) some trays, tongs, etc etc. Then I bought some good lenses, and a 6x7 negative holder, since I have a camera that shoots 6x7, and a good easel. I've since aligned the enlarger, and get quite decent results up to 8x10 now.

I use a safelight bulb that I pop into a standard bedside table lamp which I wedge into the bathroom cabinet when the bathroom is in darkroom mode. I'm pretty sure you can buy portable safelights, though.

wyogirl · Oct 30, 2013

This is very encouraging! I forgot how much I like the process of developing your own film. I recently got back into film by taking a film class at the local community college.
Now to sneak all the equipment past my husband! LOL. Too bad I don't have the option of converting the spare room into a permanent setup. I think there is only so much my marriage can take!

ronlane · Oct 30, 2013

wyogirl said:
This is very encouraging! I forgot how much I like the process of developing your own film. I recently got back into film by taking a film class at the local community college.
Now to sneak all the equipment past my husband! LOL. Too bad I don't have the option of converting the spare room into a permanent setup. I think there is only so much my marriage can take!

Trade that for a man cave complete with beer fridge and multiple big screen tv's.

limr · Oct 30, 2013

The developing setup is cheap, easy, and doesn't take much space, and you don't need a safelight to do it. You can surely get to developing even before you get your printing set up.

I don't do printing from film so I don't know about the logistics of using and storing an enlarger, but hopefully that will be in my future as well! I use this portable safelight Paterson PTP760U Safelight for Bench, Wall PTP760U for when I'm developing my pinhole pictures shot on photo paper. I've done this in my windowless bathroom with a towel stuck under the door. I don't tape the sides of the door, but I just make sure the hallway lights are off. That hallway doesn't get much light. Sometimes some sunlight is coming through a window in a room across the hall, so I'll close that door too, but sometimes I forget and I haven't had any issues.

amolitor · Oct 30, 2013

It's surprising how leaky a darkroom can be and still be usable.

Basically very small light leaks, the kind where you can see that there's light coming in through there, and there, and there, but when you look at your work surface you still cannot see a darn thing even after dark-adapting for a few minutes, will be OK for all but the most critical work. They'll probably still steal some contrast from you, but not much. If you're working with an enlarger, you'll probably get more bang for your effort sealing IT up than the room. A not-very-great enlarger tends to spray light all over the place while it's running, which bounces all over, and exposes the paper (slightly) with a random scatter of light, which steals contrast from you (I think).

Also, learn to work fast and efficiently! Get your paper out, expose it, do it NOW, don't monkey around. Keep the rest of the paper in a dark place, in its bag. Develop NOW, face DOWN, get on it! That will minimize the damage done by light leakage.

ronlane · Oct 30, 2013

My experience with developing film was in highschool and a little in college back a LONG time ago. With that said, wouldn't developing the negatives and scanning them allow you to print with one of the online companies like mpix.com? That way you get the hands on of developing and be able to take advantage of the good pricing and availablility of the sizes that mpix could offer in printing.

wyogirl · Oct 30, 2013

I'm really going to miss the nice big dark room at the college after December. But I'm glad to know that I don't have to rely on a lab if I want to continue with film.

Designer · Oct 30, 2013

You only need a safelight when printing B&W. For film transfer, you will need complete darkness, so either get a changing bag or make the bathroom completely dark. I used a closet myself to load the reels.

It is very common to use a bathroom, but not very practical. You mainly need some counter space and a place to dump used chemicals. You can dry your film strips by hanging from the shower rod. Ordinarily, bathrooms have less airborne dust particles to stick to the film as it's drying.

Now printing is another operation that needs to be fairly dark. That is when the safelight is used to get the paper out, align it in the printing easel, find the timer and enlarger switch, etc. You will mostly need counter space enough to set out three trays and the enlarger. The paper is commonly kept on a shelf or in a cupboard. Then you'll need a place or some kind of setup to dry the prints. A sweater dryer will be ideal, but you'll need space enough for all your prints.

runnah · Oct 30, 2013

ronlane said:
My experience with developing film was in highschool and a little in college back a LONG time ago. With that said, wouldn't developing the negatives and scanning them allow you to print with one of the online companies like mpix.com? That way you get the hands on of developing and be able to take advantage of the good pricing and availablility of the sizes that mpix could offer in printing.

But seeing the picture appear on blank paper is half the fun!

Plus side is the bathroom already has a vent.

amolitor · Oct 30, 2013

I use the bathtub for trays. This means kneeling. Which sucks, especially as I age, but I can still do it.

limr · Oct 30, 2013

My biggest issues with the bathroom at the moment is keeping the cats away from the drying film.

I also have to remember to stick a towel I don't care about under the door. Thing gets shredded when the little brats are trying to claw their way in.

With that said, wouldn't developing the negatives and scanning them allow you to print with one of the online companies like mpix.com?

That's what I'm doing at the moment - developing and then scanning. When I want to print, I order from Adoramapix. But some still enjoy the look and process of wet printing. I know I'd certainly be doing it if I could, but it's just not viable at the moment. So I make do with the hybrid work flow.

wyogirl · Oct 30, 2013

I have to agree that seeing the print come up is half the fun if not 99% of the fun. I just won an enlarger on ebay and of course right after I found one locally...ugh! Now I just need everything else.