After looking at all these darkrooms, I'm almost embarrassed to post pictures of mine. I live in a small, very small one bedroom house that I rent, so the bathroom was already a dual purpose room, bathroom, and laundry room. I figured one more purpose couldn't hurt too much, so I put my enlarger (an old Elwood 5x7) in there (it blocks one of the 2 doors into the room), and I use the washer and dryer as my 'work surface' and the little sink to wash prints and film. I put a print washer in the shower (luckily there's a bathtub in the bedroom) as well as clothes pins hung from the shower curtain rod to dry prints & film (I even added an extra rod so I can dry 12 sheets of 4x5 at a time) It's a bit cramped at times, but it does the job well, as well as leaving the commode free for use as it is, so no conversions are needed. The only hassle is moving around stuff when I do laundry.
No pictures of darkroom as it is constantly in flux. However, a question (that may have arisen before)...
Circumstances have caused me to arrange my trays from right to left (ie, develop on right, move prints left to process). Am I committing a "cardinal sin"? I know I always taught left to right for processing. Needless to say, I am the only one using the facility.
Tom
Nothing wrong there, I move mine the same way, it all moves towards the faucet end of the sink where the rinse tray is. Sensible workplow pattern.
This is an interesting thread with quite the variety of darkrooms from professional to temporary setups. Mine is pretty bare bones, I'm using the old kitchen base cabinet as my dry side and the washing tubs as the wet side. This is in the basement of an old Victorian house, they must have been small people back then, the ceiling is less than six feet. I have the head of the enlarger situated between the beams.
Cheers,
Dave
"...slow down and start using photography to create an image, not just capture one." b.e.wilson
After looking at all these darkrooms, I'm almost embarrassed to post pictures of mine. I live in a small, very small one bedroom house that I rent, so the bathroom was already a dual purpose room, bathroom, and laundry room.
-Mike
Mike
While a few here have large comfortable full featured darkrooms the ones of most interest to me are like yours, really interesting to see how much can be accomplished with so little.
here is what im currently using as a darkroom, a laundry room that works quite well, using 3 8x10 trays for RC or 4 for fiber and am quite comfortable, washing is done in the basin in a large tub with holes to circulate water
im using an omega d-II 4x5 enlarger with aristo cold light head
"Where is beauty? Where I must will with my whole Will; where I will love and perish, that an image may not remain merely an image."
I don't have any photographs of my darkroom (yet) but, I do have an Autocad image! Maybe I'm a computer geek but it's been very helpful to render and design the cabinetry/layout before I build anything.
The room itself is only 1.8m x 3m and I have to share it with two hot water tanks (not shown, at the end opposite the door). The red box in the foreground is a cabinet for my Omega D enlarger. It's a bit short since our ceilings are only 7 feet (you can tell I'm a Canadian because of the mixed units of measure). Still , I don't have enough clearance to raise the head all the way.
My wet counter is sloped at 2 degrees into a big porcelain farmhouse sink. I have a dry counter along the opposite wall (both not shown). The oblong red object under the wet counter is the cats' litter box. I don't recommend one of these in any darkroom but, I've gotta share.
I enjoy seeing pictures of all your darkrooms but I'd love to hear what your favorite feature is. If your friend was builiding a darkroom, what would your one recommendation be? Mine would be my sloped wet counter, it puts the trays at a nice height and any spills just flow downhill.
The room is about 2m x 2m and so the sink and work table were made specifically for the size of the room. I got the plans from the 'Build Your Own Home Darkroom' text. The plans were great and the execution was really simple. I can't recommend the book enough.
The room is so small that when I replaced my Omega B-600 with the Beseler 23CII, I had to place the Beseler sideways on the table! Oh well, it all works and I'm a happy chap!!
Cheers,
Kent
Max Power, he's the man who's name you'd love to touch! But you mustn't touch! His name sounds good in your ear, but when you say it, you mustn't fear! 'Cause his name can be said by anyone!
This is a great thread.
The people with large, well equipped, single purpose darkrooms are surely dedicated and fortunate. But IMHO the one's with those tiny, inconvenient, temporary darkrooms that have to be completely set up and taken down for every session are true heroes of analog photography. The quality of work that I have seen come out of those difficult conditions is remarkable.
That is called grain. It is supposed to be there.
=Neal W.=
Adv Reply
Originally Posted by Thomas Wagner 
