Ventilation – Because you are working with strong chemicals, it is important to make sure the space is well ventilated. Dry workspace – This area in your darkroom houses the enlarger, paper safe, and tools for exposing the photo paper.Wet workspace – This side of your darkroom usually has a sink and all of the chemicals prepared for processing and developing photographs.The essential layout of the darkroom should include two specific areas and proper ventilation. The layout of your darkroom should be planned for ease of use and practicality. To start your darkroom, you need a take into account a few things: layout and equipment. Before we dive into what you need to start your darkroom, here is a quick recap of what a darkroom is and what it’s used for, followed by money-saving tips, and other alternatives to an at-home darkroom. Saving money on the equipment and space will have the most impact on the overall cost. Advertisementsīecause the cost of building a darkroom can vary so much, there are many considerations to think about. The equipment alone can cost between $360 and $1,500 but on average will cost around $840 depending on if you are purchasing new and used equipment and using an existing space or building your own. It can cost anywhere between hundreds to thousands of dollars to build a darkroom because of the variables. Most darkrooms are made for black and white photography since it is easier and less expensive to set up than printing color images from the film. A darkroom allows a photographer to safely and easily print photographs from film. Remember, it's a lot easier to get a lightproof seal with two "OK" layers of lightproofing than trying to do one absolutely perfectly.When developing your own photos, a darkroom is required. You can buy a cheap grommet punch + brass grommets for a couple bucks more - use these to hang them from some 3M Command Hooks, and some gaffer's tape to seal any leaks you need to. Go to your local fabric store and find some blackout curtain material. You don't need anything fancy to black out those windows. You wouldn't enjoy having to set it up/break it down on a regular basis though. If you can leave it up semi-permanently, a hydroponics tent can be used as a darkroom and is a fair bit cheaper/can be bought in larger sizes. It has inlets for ventillation but you need to supply your own, personally I don't bother and just leave the door open whenever I don't need absolute darkness. I don't really find it to be too onerous to set up solo, but I am on the taller side (185cm) and was coming from trying a hydroponics tent, which was an order of magnitude worse. But it's invaluable for getting into locations away from roads/car parks.įrom the marketing stuff I read up on it before buying, it's meant to be short enough to be set up in a room with a normal residential ceiling. I find it adequate for 4x5 and 5x7, 8x10 would also probably be fine but for those I'd need to make a separate trip back to the car to accommodate the greater chemistry/water/gear required (normally I shoot out of a van), so I generally don't. Like Kiwi, I use mine for collodion outdoors. If you don’t know yet then wait until that desire comes around, if it does. You bring the chemicals, the tank, develop it, and put it away when you’re done.īut if you have a permanent space and you are going to set up an enlarger and make prints then I’d say go for it. You can do that in a bathroom easily and there’s nothing to set up. Get instead a film changing tent (Harrison or similar) and use any of the gazillion developing tubes/tanks that exist that allow you to develop in daylight. Now, another practical aspect: if you’re just going to develop, I wouldn’t do it. There’s no ventilation/air circulation so depending what you do inside you may want to add the ability to circulate air. I mean it’s not terrible but I wouldn’t want to set it up and remove it twice a week - if you have a semi permanent spot where you can leave it weeks or months a time, or permanently, then it’s great. It’s tall, and won’t fit in low ceilings, so check that. It’s a bit too small for that so I stick to my Eskimo tent even though it is not quite light tight and requires work and maintenance to use. I bought it as a portable tent for shooting collodion outdoors. Light tight if you set it up correctly (not hard).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |