I posted some pictures a couple of years ago of my dark/lightroom for alternative processes when it was brand new (see profile gallery). Have had a few updates to the equipment and have finally got it to a stage where I am happy with it, some pics below.
I posted some pictures a couple of years ago of my dark/lightroom for alternative processes when it was brand new (see profile gallery). Have had a few updates to the equipment and have finally got it to a stage where I am happy with it, some pics below.
Wow. That's a beautiful space, very zen.
You have the Irving Penn portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn on the wall there for inspiration. I flew up to DC in 2005 to see the exhibit of Irving Penn's Platinum prints and it was one of the greatest art experiences of my life. There will never be another like Irving, but we can try. His book "Passage" is the most beloved in my photo library.
You have the Irving Penn portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn on the wall there for inspiration. I flew up to DC in 2005 to see the exhibit of Irving Penn's Platinum prints and it was one of the greatest art experiences of my life. There will never be another like Irving, but we can try. His book "Passage" is the most beloved in my photo library.
Hi Parker
I try and keep it as tidy as possible as it helps me concentrate when doing large prints. Yes i have that picture of Lisa there for inspiration; it is one of my favourite images by Penn. I have tried to view as many original Platinum/Palladium Penn prints as possible, i would have loved to have seen the Exhibition at the National Gallery, it must have been really quite special. I believe they have the largest collection of Penn prints, i must try and visit them at some stage. I have 'Passage' its definitely one of best collections of his work, reproduction is good too.
Am sure you must have bought the book ‘Platinum Prints’ that accompanied the exhibition, its one of my most read books, the essay by Sarah Greenough is very insightful. The books pretty expensive now if you can find it. The reproduction is good however its obviously never going to be as good as the viewing the originals, I compared the reproductions in the book to the original on my blog here :
Well, this is my basically my first attempt at a darkroom. I've only been printing for about a year so far, so everything's rather embryonic at this point. A few years ago, the crazy cat lady who lived in the house across the street died (of emphysema, go figure!), and her son sold us that house for relatively cheap. It needs a horrendous amount of work done on it -- painting the walls, replacing the corroded vents, refinishing the ruined hardwood floors, replacing the toilets and fixtures, completely redoing the kitchen, etc. -- but in the meantime I decided to use it as a darkroom. I started out using a small interior room, but since the house only has air conditioning in the master bedroom, a window unit, I moved everything to it recently.
On the table are my Omega D2 and Beseler MCRX enlargers. I use the Omega and don't have lensboards and carriers for the Beseler yet, so the Beseler currently gets used as a support for some clamp-mounted safelights. On the far right are stored drying screens, trays, and a table where I lay out the trays of chemistry. I use the hall bathroom's sink and bathtub for washing prints. I develop film in the bathroom of my own house.
Hopefully, as we get the crazy cat lady house refurbished, I can make a more professional and suitable darkroom.
The first darkroom you build for an enemy.
The second one you build for a friend.
And the third one you build for yourself.
.
I too have built several darkrooms. I built one which I loved in the basement of my home in Maine, but left that behind 3 years ago when I moved to California. I used rental darkrooms for a while, but for a variety of reasons, those were not working out, so I built a new, temporary darkroom. Since we are renting in CA, this made it impossible to do some things that I would have liked to, and here in CA, we have much less space, so the darkroom is in about half the area that my last one was in - the new darkroom is 8'x10'. It is built as a free standing structure within the garage of our rented home, so when we move next, we will be able to disassemble it and bring it with us. For power, I have two power feeds - I get a little bit of power from the existing electric in the garage, but that was not going to be enough for everything, so I also put in a sub panel, which powers the enlarger, the print dryers and some misc other stuff - that is powered by an extension cord which plugs into the dryer outlet- so I can't print and do laundry at the same time. Water comes from a connection to a faucet in the garden....
One improvement over my last darkroom is that I built a cabinet to hold my Jobo processor - I had been storing it under my sink and putting it in the sink when processing, but it is getting elderly, and they were not really built to be moved around a lot, so I think that it is happier in it's own cabinet. There is storage below the processor for the drums, bottles etc.
Its ok when you are in there on your own, more than me and its a proper jam,
When i get some more time and energy i will change it into a brick shed/ darkroom
When your dead, None of this Matters.
Film- Nikon F65, Sigma 28-80mm Macro Lens, Canon EOS 50E with Canon 28 - 80mm Lens
Yashica-A (my new fav)
Here's my humble dark room in my bathroom/laundry room.
Currently set up with the following:
Besler Dichro 672S enlarger that is only set up for 35mm. (I would love to get/find the mixing chamber/negative carriers for 6x6)
Metal suitcase enlarger
Unicolor timer with foot control
Old Contact Printer
8x10 & 16x20 inch easels
8x10 & 16x20 inch trays
Dry chemicals in the cabinet
Daylight developing tanks for 35mm, medium format and 4x5 in the cabinet as well.
I use my shower as a print washer (it's behind the door)
I can print up to 16x20 in here with out a lot of drama. I would love to get a 4x5 enlarger in here and/or a Graflarger back for my Speed Graphic. I tend to develop stuff for work while on the road. I was just given the old steel suitcase enlarger and the contact printer. A Graflarger would round out my portable darkroom. I can only contact print my 4x5 unless I want to get crafty with the other enlarger, even then I only enlarge so much of the big negatives at a time.
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Originally Posted by Davec101
His book 
