harald
Hello everyone,
I’ve got another question about setting up my very first darkroom.
I’ve been diligently collecting everything for a year now and have gathered almost all the necessary darkroom equipment.
I’ve been to Alte Schönhauser in Berlin several times
and picked up film, paper, chemicals and other bits and bobs, so now it’s finally time to get started.
The lab is going to be in my basement. Keeping it dark isn’t a problem. But...
- what about ventilation? Do the chemicals smell strongly? How long can you go without airing the room?
- what kind of coating should I choose for the worktop to prevent stains?
- how much space do you really need?
- what about storing the paper? What level of humidity is still acceptable
(not that my basement is damp...), but everywhere it says ‘store in a cool, dry place’!?
- And how do you keep your baths/solutions at the right temperature?
I think that’s enough questions for now.
Thanks in advance for what I hope will be lots of replies.
Regards, Harald.
Sandra
Hello Harald,
As for a coating, smooth cabinet foil, for example, seems suitable. It’s easy to wipe clean.
Regarding space requirements: you’ll naturally need enough room to move around the enlarger, as well as storage space for the trays. If possible, set things up so that you have the dry workstation on one side and the wet workstation on the other.
Personally, I’ve put a small stool in the basement so I can sit down for a bit in between.
The working height is also important. It shouldn’t be too low, otherwise you’ll quickly get neck pain :(
Old kitchen units are very practical. They offer storage space, washable surfaces and a comfortable working height, whilst being nice and sturdy.
I don’t want to commit to a minimum square footage. I have about 6 square metres of usable space, which is already very cramped :P
I store the paper in the flat. Not just because of the lower humidity, but mainly because of the fumes from the chemicals. So always store paper separately from chemicals.
Wishing you lots of fun,
Sandra :)
harald
Thanks a lot, Sandra,
I’m grateful for any advice I can get.
Hopefully that’ll help me avoid a mistake or two.
Over the last few months I’ve read quite a bit about labs and such,
but they always seem to assume some sort of ideal conditions and probably
plenty of available space and capital as well.
The reality for most people is surely quite different.
Let’s see if a few more people have some advice for me.
Bye for now. Harald. :(
Urnes
Hi Harald,
Well, old kitchen units are pretty much ideal. I use some myself. But it’s also practical to just get some very large photo trays and place the smaller ones inside them. In my lab, I have two large 50x60 trays into which I place the smaller ones; OK, with the 30x40 ones I have to put something underneath so they fit, but it’s a neat solution and, if needed, you can also use the larger trays as a water bath with an aquarium heater.
As for ventilation, in my basement with a ceiling height of just under 2m, I keep it at around 1–1.5, depending on the chemicals used. But if necessary, I can also take a break and air the room briefly.
I also store the paper in my darkroom; there’s simply plenty of space in the old kitchen units. The low temperatures between 14 and 18 degrees when unheated and the slightly more humid air haven’t affected it so far. I imagine that I also have fewer problems with dust in this climate.
Baths and solutions are brought up to temperature using a Jobo processor. If in doubt, I heat up double the amount and swap them out in between.
What Sandra says about working height is certainly true, but with a 2m ceiling height I have little room to manoeuvre, so the 4x5" enlarger sits on the floor to get the maximum extension; that means you have to kneel down to print large formats. My advice is to test beforehand what your maximum extension is, otherwise you’ll be annoyed later if you do need it to be bigger.
Regards, Sven.
Regards, Sven.
Gast
Hello Harald
This link might be of some help to you
:
http://www.phototec.de/erler.htm
It describes a compact laboratory.
I’m currently giving a lot of thought to how one could fit a darkroom into a sort of wooden box measuring 1.6m x 1.6m x 2.0m. In my opinion, it should be possible, and you’d then have around 1.5m² of floor space.
Many photographers don’t really have much space for a darkroom!
Good luck with the planning and implementation.
cfb_de
Hi Harald,
As I’ve just finished dismantling my Duka: my conditions are far from ideal, so I have to rearrange my bathroom every time. I fit a 155x60cm worktop on top of two Ikea bookcases, with all the bits and bobs on top of that. Because three 30x40cm basins don’t fit side by side, the fixer sits on a rack above the stop bath.
The board has a beeswax coating – I just happened to have some to hand and it’s good enough for me. The stains don’t bother me; if necessary, the plate will go in the oven and a new one will be brought in.
As my bathroom has light-tight supply and exhaust ventilation, I can stay in there for almost as long as I like whilst enlarging. The time is limited only by natural needs, as the worktop is positioned above the toilet bowl.
I store paper in the cellar at 10–12°C and 55–70% relative humidity.
If I were to set up a permanent darkroom, I’d make sure there’s no cupboard underneath the enlarger. You’ve got to have somewhere to put your feet, after all.
I’d tile the work area with a slightly raised edge all round, so nothing runs onto the floor.
I once saw what I consider to be the smallest, yet ‘ideally’ equipped darkroom at the Bundeswehr: Tetenal had a ready-made cabinet set up as a darkroom. Approx. 90 cm wide, 200 cm high and 60 cm deep. It was darkened with a cloth, and the ‘work area’ was entirely vertical, with three trays stacked on top of each other. The unit accommodated up to 20x30.
Best regards,
Franz
Gast
Hello Harald,
I can only congratulate you on your project. A permanent darkroom is the option least likely to cause frustration in the long run.
My tips:
1) Once you’ve made the room light-tight, you should bear in mind that it will also be airtight. The air will stagnate and – as you’re handling liquids – become saturated with moisture. These are ideal conditions for mould to grow. In the long run, mould spores are certainly just as unhealthy as inhaled chemical fumes. That’s why the door to the lab must always be left slightly ajar when not in use. If you know anyone with allergies, take them into your darkroom. If they start sneezing, you’ll need a mould spray and better ventilation.
2) As for the work surfaces, it makes sense to have separate wet and dry areas. For the wet area, a coated kitchen worktop is a good option. You’ll probably only be able to prevent the stains that develop over time with stainless steel furniture. The main thing is to wipe the work surface regularly so that the dust from the dried fixer doesn’t contaminate the air in the darkroom. If you have also integrated a laboratory sink here, that is perfect. (If necessary, the positives must first be placed in the water bucket and then washed later.)
In the dry area, the enlarger is set up, the paper is laid out, negatives are spooled, papers are mounted, etc. This area should never come into contact with the chemicals – especially the fixer. A sturdy wooden workbench is acceptable for the dry area. Because of the enlargement, the whole setup should be very stable (to prevent vibrations) and, if possible, anchored to the wall. And as already discussed, the ceiling height must be taken into account.
Basically, you should consider whether you want to work standing up or sitting down (using a rolling stool) and mount the worktops at the appropriate height. Standing for long periods can really take it out of your legs. The total area you need depends on the maximum image formats you wish to produce and the number of containers you use (e.g. developer, stop bath, fixer I, fixer II, hypo bath ...)
3) A good ventilation system is a great thing to have, not only because of the chemical containers, but also because of the air that heats up due to body heat and the enlarger. In a small room (e.g. 8 sq m) with a low ceiling, the temperature can rise by a good 2 degrees within an hour – with a corresponding effect on the print result.
However, as far as I know, no German manufacturer offers light-tight laboratory ventilation systems anymore – and they’re probably not exactly cheap either. For hobby use, it should therefore suffice if you ventilate the room thoroughly at least once an hour, monitor the temperature of the containers (e.g. with tray heaters) and don’t always hold the nozzle directly over the trays.
Well then – good luck
Dierk
harald
Great!
Thanks so much, everyone – that gives me a few good ideas for the next stage of planning.
I’ll give it some proper thought this weekend.
It might be that I’ll still be bothering you a bit more before I get round to putting it all into practice, though, because answers always lead to more questions, such as...
What’s the deal with regulating the temperature for the bears, actually?
I don’t know much about aquariums, and therefore not much about their heaters either, so what should I look out for?
Or are there even better solutions out there?
Bye for now, Harald.
Gast
Hello Harald,
If you don’t want to get straight into fine printing, you don’t need to worry too much about maintaining the correct temperature of the trays, as long as the temperature stays around 20 degrees.
If the temperature is lower than that, it’s best to use tray warmers. One for the developer is enough. For small formats (24x30 tray size for formats up to 18x24), these can be bought second-hand quite cheaply. For larger formats, you can simply use two together. Incidentally, these devices maintain a temperature with a tolerance of around +/- 1 degree, so purchasing them only makes sense if the temperature in your darkroom is significantly below 20 degrees.
Alternatively, you can use a water bath. To do this, place the developing tray in a larger tray filled with water at the correct temperature. An aquarium heater can be used to heat the water. Personally, I wasn’t happy with this solution, as the heater didn’t work very well and I found it too fiddly when moving the developing tray. As an alternative to the aquarium heater, you could possibly use a heating cable, though this would need to be connected to a thermostat. I haven’t tried this myself.
The most elegant solution is if you can maintain a temperature of 20 degrees throughout the entire lab. In my opinion, it’s not a problem if the temperature is 2–3 degrees higher; the developer will simply work faster. The temperature just needs to remain constant at all times to achieve consistent results.
For more precise temperature control, a processor is probably essential, but as I have little experience in this area, I’ll leave it to other lab enthusiasts to comment on that.
Regards
Dierk
harald
Great stuff, Dierk,
I really wasn’t expecting such brilliant answers.
Does anyone else have any suggestions on the subject of fitting out, i.e. things
they’d definitely do differently next time?
There’s no need to repeat all the mistakes if you can avoid them.
Harald. :(
Sandra
Hello,
Well, I see a problem with the aquarium heater. It’s quite simple: although a heater has a built-in thermostat, you can set it roughly to 20 °C and it will maintain that temperature to within plus or minus 1 or 2 °C, BUT... you also have to bear in mind that, unlike in an aquarium, there’s no water movement in a beaker like this. As a result, the water will get nice and warm right around the heating rod, whilst it stays cold all around it :( You’d also need to make sure the rod is submerged to its minimum depth in the water, otherwise it could burst.
However, there are heating mats designed for aquariums; that might be a viable alternative.
Right, what else is there? Have you already found out where in your town you can dispose of old chemicals?
You’ll also need such mundane things as a bin (not just for the misprints – just a little joke from a brain fogged by chemical fumes after a few hours of fiddling about in the darkroom). Since, like me, you want to work in the basement, you should also think about heating...
You’ll also need something to remove dust from the negative and the negative stage. A thick bellows or a negative cloth. Then you’ll need something to write with – a pencil – to note down the exposure time, aperture and gradient on the back of your prints (don’t use a ballpoint pen! That’s one of the things I’d never do again). Keeping a lab log is highly recommended! You can number all the images you take and note down all the relevant details in the book, including paper size, brand, developer, etc.
Also make a note of the settings for contact copying somewhere clearly visible. Once you’ve worked them out, you can stick to them (obviously, if you always use the same paper). For contact copying, a simple glass plate is sufficient – in my opinion –; the expensive contact copying frames aren’t necessary.
A funnel to transfer the chemicals cleanly back from the trays into the bottles.
Brilliant and, in my opinion, indispensable: Protectan spray. You spray this into the chemical bottles to displace the air. This gas protects the chemicals from premature deterioration due to oxidation, as it is heavier than air. It goes a long way.
If you want to process baryta paper, you’ll need to make sure you get it completely flat. You can do this by leaving a slightly larger white border when enlarging the images. Once the images have been selected, you can place them on boards (I used glass panels from old picture frames, but something else would certainly work too) and secure them with wet adhesive tape, like the sort watercolourists use. But make sure you put some ordinary paper underneath the baryta paper first, otherwise the tear will run too far into the baryta support towards the image (which brings us back to mistakes you wouldn’t make again...).
That’s it for now. I’m going to sleep off my developer, stop bath and fixer vapour buzz :)
Warm regards
Sandra
harald
Hi Sandra,
I hope you’ve had a good sleep to shake off the effects of the chemicals and are feeling clear-headed again.
Thanks again for your tips.
My plan is now based on a work surface measuring 2.40m x 0.60m.
That should be enough for me.
What’s the situation like over there with paper sizes?
As I only have 35mm cameras, I certainly can’t go right up to the maximum.
What are the sizes you use most often?
Wishing you a lovely evening, Harald. :(
Sandra
Hi Harald,
>I hope you’ve had a good sleep to shake off that chemical buzz and are back to your senses
:) Thanks, I just shouldn’t have bent my nose quite so far over the bowls :( Nah, it was more because I was a bit low on sugar. Nothing new.
I use paper sizes ranging from – to. Depending on the purpose or subject.
Best wishes,
Sandra
cfb_de
Hi Harald,
Up to 30x40: Base board. Although it’s been slightly modified – I’ve fitted an MDF panel underneath the Opemus-5. It’s now 74cm deep.
40x50: Wall on the side.
Larger: Rotate the enlarger and project onto the bathroom door. That works up to 150x150, though I only do contact prints at that size.
I think 240x60 is quite decent (from the perspective of my modest makeshift darkroom). You should easily be able to fit 30x40 prints side by side with trays, and space shouldn’t be a major issue.
If possible, however, you should keep wet and dry work physically separate. It’s all too easy to still have a drop of fixer on your fingers and then reach into the paper box. At the moment, I get by by using my left hand for paper and enlarging, whilst my right is for the wet work. There’s a towel between the trays and the enlarger, which I also use. It works. It works well, actually, once you’ve got the hang of it (I’m left-handed and work from left to right: paper box, enlarger, trays).
@Sandra: Cola instead of red wine in the darkroom prevents that :-)
Best regards,
Franz
rednaxelA
Hello,
If possible, I wouldn’t arrange the workstations in a row, but would place the wet and dry areas opposite each other.
You can never have enough work surfaces.
I use 9x13 and 10x15 paper sizes for snapshots, and I also use these for test strips.
My preferred size, however, is 13x18. I have several versions of this, both matt and glossy.
Very, very rarely, I also do 30x40.
With the resulting formats, however, I often don’t stick to the aspect ratio dictated by the paper size. That’s why I’ve been thinking for a while now about whether I should switch to roll paper. What’s holding me back is simply the need to cut it to size.
Alexander
harald
Hi everyone,
If I create separate work areas – a dry area and a wet area – I could make two worktops measuring 1.20 m by 0.60 m, placed opposite each other. But then the wet area would be a bit too small, wouldn’t it?
Best regards, Harald.
Gast
Hi Harald,
1.20 metres seems plenty to me. You could stack two trays on top of each other, which would give you enough space for a 40x50 cm area – unless you want to water them there as well. Then it’ll be a bit tight.
Best regards,
Franz
harald
Thanks to everyone,
I’ll take your tips and suggestions on board and put them into practice.
Once I’ve gained some experience of my own, I’ll be happy to get actively involved in this forum
and perhaps pass on some of what I’ve learnt to others as well.
Right then. See you soon. Harald. :rolleyes:
