Bathroom and other Temporary/Makeshift Darkrooms

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I've printed a bit using only a bathroom.
http://www.apug.org/forums/attachmen...3&d=1147360310
Hope that link works. I used a rolling cart with enlarger, trays for printing in the tub. I'd sit on the toilet and print like that. Pretty convenient.
I'd also wash prints in the tub as well, using a deep rubbermaid bin under the faucet.

[eddie gunks]

a few quick digi shots

[ignatiu5]

Hi JBrunner,

I just started printing at home in the last year. My setup gets shuttled in and out of the only bathroom (about 5’ x 8’) in my apartment. Setup for prints takes about 5 minutes, for loading film into daylight tanks about a minute. I picked up a couple of vinyl topped 2’ x 4’ folding tables and use one for an Omega B22XL enlarger and one for chemistry trays in the tub. Sitting on the toilet seat, I can reach everything without moving around, and in reality, once the rig is set up, there isn’t anywhere to move to anyway. Making it light tight was pretty easy since there are no windows. Two sheets of matboard butted end to end are velcroed to the door casing with a rolled bathmat at the door’s bottom edge.

It’s not pretty, but it works.

I didn’t know if posting digital snaps here would be a faux pas, so if you are interested, you can see ugly pics of the setup here where I did 11x14 for the first time at home yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6962148...7603884970987/

Hope that helps,

ignatiu5

[Sanjay Sen]

Posting digi pics is okay in threads where the point is to illustrate something - like this one where you show your bath/darkroom setup.

[Ronda F.]

I am in the process of setting up my first every darkroom using equipment bought at ebay. I have a second hand enlarger on a printer stand that I can push into the bathroom. So far I figured out that I can set a plywood board across the bathtub.

The hardest part seems to be making it dark enough. I don't want to lose the window, since it has stained glass I did many years ago when I took a class. I am attempting to use black core foam-core board to block the window. The door has a lot of light coming in around it. Does anyone here have suggestions? I am not much of a carpenter, so it would have to be simple.

I am taking a photography class at the local community college, and that is what has inspired me.

[David Grenet]

You can get some 'weather seal' to put around your door. Use the tube stuff rather than the foam.

[TheFlyingCamera]

You can also make a "sweep" for the door out of low-tack gaffer's tape, which is easily reversible without leaving behind too much residue. I did that for my darkroom door, so light wouldn't leak around the door frame.

[Gary Holliday]

For your door and bathroom window, you can buy some PVC blackout material. Attach the material around the frame with sticky velcro. Hook velcro on the blackout material and cloth velcro on the door frame. The blackout material can be easily removed when necessary.

[CBG]

I too had a darkroom in a bathroom, maybe thirty five years ago. There were a couple of not too commonly done things that made it workable.

The first was light-proofing the window, a low horizontal window hinged at the top that opened outwards. Just inside the casing there was a small "step" that surrounded the window that allowed me to snugly fit a removable panel to darken the room.

Just in front of the "step", at the top, there was a small metal slotted plate that was, I think, designed to allow a screen to latch. I used it to help hold the panel in place. Into that plate went a small metal bit I fitted into an "arm" I constructed with fittings for two safelights.

The arm was maybe two feet long, and by it's weight, levered against the panel to keep it tight. It was a very clean installlation. There were no pieces affixed to the building and everything was removable with no screw holes etc. The panel fitted very tightly and let almost no light in so I could work in daytime.

I built a rolling stand for the enlarger. Actually, built it into the baseboard frame of the enlarger, a 45 MC series, so they became a unit, and the space under the enlarger became rolling storage. Likewise a small sink was made as a rolling unit.

Both rolling units went elsewhere when not in photographic use.

Washing without a dedicated print washer was by fill and dump washing. I don't remember where I first read that Kodak specified for washing by continuous flow, a certain number of complete changes of water, but I took that to heart and applied the concept to fill and dump. I filled a small plastic tub and agitated the prints in it for something like a minute, dumped it completely and refilled. Then, repeat, repeat , repeat... If I recall, Kodak specified something like ten(?) complete changes of water, but someone here will know for sure. It was in one or another pamphlet. There was a test using a dye to see how completely the water got changed.

It worked like a charm. I have never really trusted any washer that doesn't do complete dumps, so this system felt like a safe and reliable way to wash prints.

Best,

C

[CBG]

The door has a lot of light coming in around it. Does anyone here have suggestions? I am not much of a carpenter, so it would have to be simple.

A towel up against the bottom of the door is a time honored light-proofing technique. Cheeeep. Easy.

Best,

C