How permanent is your non-permanent darkroom?

[bernard_L]

WHat is the purpose of painting the walls black around the enlarger? From past experience, I believe it is a bad idea. With all lights off, it is not going to make a big difference in the residual light seen by emulsions. With the red light on, you'rre much better off with white walls.

[Neal]

Dear Hoffy,

My temporary darkroom is in my garage/laundry room. I have the luxury of being able to leave the windows covered. Setup is nothing more than laying out trays and opening up the door to the cabinet I built for the enlarger.

How about blackout drapes? You could build caps for the top and ends to catch stray light. The bottom might be more of an issue, but a trough for the bottom to run through that could be removed and stored when not needed could do the trick. It might even sit nicely on top of the top cap.

Neal Wydra

[Jeff Kubach]

I also use my garage.

Jeff

[David A. Goldfarb]

Black walls immediately around the enlarger reduce reflections from light leaks. If your enlarger isn't too leaky, it's not a problem, but if it is, then reducing reflection from leaks can help keep the sparkle in the highlights.

My current darkroom has the wet side in the shower section of a spare bathroom, and the dry side immediately adjacent to it in the study, so it's set up all the time, but the study functions as a study, and the bathroom minus the shower functions as intended. I have a temperature gauge and hose manifold attached in place of the showerhead, and when we want to move, I can just put back the showerhead and leave the bathroom as we found it.

[Early Riser]

I converted a 36'x10'x 10' section of dirt into a darkroom. That is I excavated and built a darkroom from the ground up.

[hoffy]

Thanks for the comments - it has given me some thoughts.

The PVC tape definately has to go - it breaks down too easily and comes adrift too easily - duct tape it is.

As for drapes, that was my first plan. With the sliding door (the sliding door goes to the outside. The internal door is a swinging type), I velcro'd a opaque drape around the door frame. Again, this works well when using the darkroom at night, but I noticed that during the day, it let more light in then I expected - kind of looked like one of those weird star shows you might see at a science fair! The MDF taped to the glass was the next step, which has been relatively OK - except for the tape braking down!

I did have another thought and that was to silastic the MDF to the window (using a black silastic). At least that can be peeled off at a later date.

Just another question - do you guys spend long amounts in one shot in your darkroom? When ever i do a session, I'm in out of of there like a demented ferret. I'd hardly in there longer then 15 minutes at a time (but I do use the lights in the bathroom as my proofing lights).

Cheers

[Helinophoto]

I use my bathroom (living in an apartment building), work needed to start some paper printing involves placing the trays onto the bathroom floor and having a larger rinsing tray inside the shower stall, then filling chemicals.
I have a bare-bulb safe light hanging form the normal bathroom light which I can remove very easily and my enlarger sits on a wheel'ed table and can be rolled out of the bathroom if need be.

For film developing, I use the toilet, it only has a toilet and a sink, but that is all I need really.

There are no windows to block and the hallway with the toilet and the bathroom is very easy to make very dark, which, in turn, makes the toilet and bathroom completely dark.

Works ok, but I doubt that a girlfriend/wife would approve.

[bsdunek]

I converted a 36'x10'x 10' section of dirt into a darkroom. That is I excavated and built a darkroom from the ground up.

That sounds ambitious, and interesting! I'd like to see some photos.

[vpwphoto]

I built a freestanding frame of 2x4's with a "L" shaped entrance hallway in the middle of my basement. Covered it all with black plastic, I had a sink, but never plumbed in water, used water in buckets and trays.... made some of my best prints ever in my 5 years in that temp darkroom.

Just "outside" that darkroom was the laundry area and tubs where I set up film washers and print washers on 2x4's across the laundry sink.

I now have a proper darkroom of sorts in my dedicated studio building...

[PDH]

My current darkroom is in a masterbath, no outside windows, blackout cloth over the door blocks light from the around the door. My master bath is somewhat unusal in that it only has a shower not a bath tub, I use the shower to dry film and wash prints and film, I use a tray for washing RC prints but move a roatery washer in for fiber prints. The double sink has enough surface area for 11X14 trays, I use a motor base and paper drums for 16X20 but need to wash outside. The room is large enough for my D3 and a Durst 600 which I can move if I need more space. I also apainted the walls a rusty red. Another photogerher in my complex took the tolit out so her enlarger can fit into the space. I use the bathroom but wife uses the second bath. My town home is just over 30 years old, if I need to sell I will need to have the entire bath remodeled. I spend up to 4 or 5 hours in the darkroom.