Darkroom portraits

[BruceN]

I know, I know. Dark doesn't equal black. It was just my way of "Claiming my territory." You can see that it's designed and constructed from the ground up to be a highly efficient and spacious professional darkroom. Note the fine details like the custom ceramic holding bath support unit and the built in print washing & hanging/film drying unit. Also note the handiness of the Rodinal bottle on the third shelf.

Thanks, Flotsam! Got the thumbnails going.

[Flotsam]

For those who wonder how to manage in a Manhattan dark/bathroom, here are two quick snapshots I made yesterday.

Wow, David that makes my darkroom look spacious and, Oh brother, is my darkroom small.
How small is it?
My darkroom is so small that the Mice are hunchbacked. [rimshot]
My darkroom is so small that I have to go outside to change my mind.[rimshot]
I tell you. I don't get no respect, no respect at all.

[etriplett]

David that is incredible. I even like the shims under the enlarger. I can only imagine the contortions required in case of an "emergency" while using the enlarger...

[Aggie]

Wow, David that makes my darkroom look spacious and, Oh brother, is my darkroom small.
How small is it?
My darkroom is so small that the Mice are hunchbacked. [rimshot]
My darkroom is so small that I have to go outside to change my mind.[rimshot]
I tell you. I don't get no respect, no respect at all.

David's darkroom is so small it doubles as a bathroom, no rimshots please!

[Flotsam]

Bruce, I see that like me, you prefer the luxury of a walk-in print washer.
Works equally well for washing both the photographs and the photographer.

To add thumbnails, scroll down to "manage attachments" on the "post reply" screen. You will get a window that allows you upload several images that will appear as thmbnails in your post.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Now the dark/bathrooms will rise to the surface. Has Tom Sauerwein posted to this thread yet? He's got a really nice bathroom conversion with trays stacked vertically in a shower stall, that like mine, also needs to function as a bathroom (well, in Tom's case, the shower installation is semi-permanent, while we really need to use the shower, because that's the only one in the apartment) when it's not being used as a darkroom, but unlike mine, his has a fairly spacious adjacent room that can be blacked out and functions as the "dry side".

I make a point of working while my wife is out, and, um, arranging things so that "emergencies" are unlikely.

In New York a flat level floor is a rare thing, so that rubber wedge is a necessity. The table is an old typewriter table that rolls right over the commode and fits just between the wall and the vanity. Part of the attraction of that particular D-II was that it has a small baseboard, which is as large as I can fit in that space. The baseboard is larger than the table so I put a set of rubber feet on the bottom of the baseboard to match the footprint of the table, so it can be stable while it hangs over the edges. The feet that I added are lower than the original feet in the four corners of the baseboard, so that if I want to use it on a larger table at some point, I can do it without changing anything.

I do process 11x14" film and prints in this space, and I have print drums as large as 20x24" if I want to print big (though I can awkwardly manage 16x20" in trays).

[Flotsam]

unlike mine, his has a fairly spacious adjacent room that can be blacked out and functions as the "dry side".

I'm lucky enough to have a small slice of an adjacent room where I can do most of my processing and printing. No running water but it is easy enough to carry water the several steps as needed. Gives me a bit more elbow room than trying to fit everything in the bathroom. Clean up and print/film washing happens in the W.C.

I was searching for a table to span my john to put my print washer on but just couldn't relax, worrying about overflows so I moved that whole operation into the shower just as Bruce did.

This is a great thread. It shows that no matter if you have a tiny bathroom or can outfit a roomy purpose-built space, with a little thought and innovation, you can always manage to get set up to produce outstanding analog prints.

[rbarker]

Now that some of the more, uh . . . "space-efficient" darkrooms are floating to the surface, so to speak, my above-the-tub dry side seems really spacious.

[wildbill]

This is my first darkroom. A paneled set wall with a duvetyne door now separtates it from the rest of the 2nd bedroom in my apartment. My gilrfriend needed the rest as an office. There's a fan in the homemade vent in the black panel covering the window. The bedroom happened to have an access panel to the shower plumbing so i installed tapping tees when the water was off for maintainence.

[Thane Bitter]

[color=black]Below are shots of my current darkroom which I started building about 10 months ago (which is about the same time I found APUG.org!). The space measures 7 x 12 and is located in the basement. It’s still not complete (I am beginning to think that darkrooms never are), but extremely functional. Following the old Scottish proverb of "money is flat and meant to be piled-up" I made both the sink and corner cabinets myself for about 1/3 of what Home Depot was charging. My advice for anyone that’s looking for building materials is to check the phonebook and see if your local chapter of Habitat for Humanity has a store. I was able to pick up some countertop material, was well as a sink and faucet for a very reasonable price. My next projects are installing a ventilation system, making a cover for the electrical panel, and making a film dryer. [/color]

[color=black]I am sorry about the photo quality, my scanner aside from being insanely slow, does a poor job at scanning film, and yes the strange lighting was just me playing around with my new off camera flash. [/color]