I lost everything in 2012, so my Dad gave me some cameras.

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Originally Posted by Jack Savage

Wow, you guys are epic today! I've never been on a art forum before , that was nice, constructive, and full of comments. You are totally a first for me! Are all forums this awesome?

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I have a question that's gonna sound kind of silly to you all, but it's a matter I take pretty seriously (even if it is really embarrassing.) Are any of you Achluophobic? I suffer from *severe* Achluophobia, I can't stand the dark.

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Originally Posted by Sirius Glass

You do not need a darkroom to develop film, just a dark place to load the film into the tank, like a changing bag. And now a shameless plug for one of APUGs sponsors:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/322730...27-in.-x-30-in.
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/25001-...-Changing-Room

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Originally Posted by jovo

Jack, it's rarely if ever completely dark in the 'darkroom'. When using the enlarger, there is light from that, and immediately when that is switched off, the safelight goes on automatically if it's plugged into a timer that does that kind of switching (nearly all do). The only complete darkness occurs when loading film on a reel, and even that is attenuated a bit by the glow of the florescent hands of certain kinds of clocks. Since you'll be concentrating on getting the film on the reel, there's not much time to dwell on the darkness, and as soon as the film is in the tank, on go the lights again. In fact, doing this often enough may help you overcome your phobia...cognitive therapy. Good luck.

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Jack,

When I do black & white work in the darkroom, the room is never dark. The safe light is always on.

For color work, I load the tank in "Changing Room" bag and then the film is processed in daylight with a Jobo processor. I have the ability to print color in my darkroom and the room is dark while taking out the paper, placing the paper in the easel, the enlarger light exposes the paper, and then in the dark I load the tank with the paper. Then the paper is processes in daylight by the Jobo processor. I would recommend that you process the color film using the changing bag and a processor and then take the film to an optical only photo processing company such as http://goldencolor.com/

You can continue to do and enjoy photography with your problem.

Sirius

Freestyle Sales Co is a photographic supply firm located in Los Angeles. They cater to photographers who sill like to use film.
They are very helpful.

One amber colored safelight makes a darkroom pretty bright. If you get a couple or three of them, after a while it seems like daylight almost.

Hello Jack,

Here's a pic of my printing area with nothing but the safelight. Note that you can easily read the clock on the wall.

Attachment 61030

Analog photography is the most peaceful and rewarding way I've found to fulfill my need to create. I hope it does the same for you.

Good luck to you.

Larry

It doesn't sound like you are going to be setting up a darkroom any time soon. Send your stuff out and concentrate on the shooting end of photography at first. Learn your cameras. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for developing tanks and a dark bag or tent. Once you are ready to tackle film developing, only your hands need to be in the dark to load the film, then the tank lets you develop with all the lights on. You can scan the negs, or have them printed. Once you've got that under your belt, and have connected with local photographers you can decide if you want to tackle a darkroom and printing. I love working in the darkroom (the isolation, my own little space) but there are lots of folks here on APUG who just shoot film for the love of it, and stay away from the chemical side of things.

For color film, take that to a Walgreens or Walmart and ask them to process only and then make you a CD. That will give you digital photos to work with. In the long run, economically you might be better off with an inexpensive point & shoot camera such as a Canon S95 or cheaper. Meanwhile, shooting b&w in old cameras is a lot of fun.


Kent in SD

Welcome Jack,

While I love the dark, I also use an IR goggle. You don't need that kind of expense right now, but they are within reach these days... Back in the old days the technology was outrageously expensive. Now good ones are just a few hundred bucks, or for under a hundred if you get a "toy".

Hi Jack -- Welcome to APUG!

I hope you enjoy your first real foray into film! In all honesty, I think, as others as have said, probably the best thing for you to do now would be:

1. Learn your new cameras, and send the film out for developing. If things go wrong, your own development mistakes would be less one variable.
2. Once you are set up in your new place, consider developing yourself. This used to itimidate me, but it's really easy. I've been developing my own film since 2007 (any surprise that's when I joined APUG?) and I have always loaded my film in a changing bag. Most places I've lived have made it impossible to have a completely dark room, and to be honest, I get nervous when trying to do things in complete darkness, so prefer the changing bag. Just make sure you get a big one -- smaller ones can be awkward and heat up quickly!
3. Working in a darkroom is a lot of fun, but you'll have to determine whether the safelights are enough for you to feel comfortable. If not, there's nothing wrong with having a hybrid workflow (off-topic for APUG, but a lot of people do it here).

Good luck!

Jack,

I know about phobia... I'm severely clausterphobic. I can't get into some small darkroom because of that.

There's an easy remedy for your problem though. To process film, the only part that require complete darkness is when you open the film canister and load it into a development tank. You can do that in a changing bag (I think that's what it's called) which is like a giant light proof long sleeve t-shirt with the body opening closed shut. You stick your hand into the sleeve backwards. Inside remains dark and you open the canister and wind the film into dark by just touch. You, on the other hand, remain in a lit area. Once that's done, everything can be done in a lit room. When you get to a stage where you are going to print your images, you can get a pretty bright safe light. It's a bit expensive but there are some that are quite bright, almost like night light bright. It's called "Thomas safelight" and you can buy them second hand. It's so incredibly bright. So there are ways around your problem.

This is what chagne bag looks like:
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/25001-...-Changing-Room
http://www.freestylephoto.biz/322730...n.?cat_id=1603

You'll find APUG forum and members are usually quite helpful and willing to help you in more ways than you'll encounter on a typical Internet forum. We have members sharing "stuff" if someone needed an obscure part to fix something. Personally, I've given away some of my stuff and also received some. Also, we communicate via personal messages if something cannot be/should not be discussed openly. Stick around and you'll enjoy it.

Jack:

Welcome.

Just in case you missed it, two of your three cameras (the Canon and the Retina) use standard, readily available 35mm film that is still easily developed at a number of locations.

And as for darkroom work, which I enjoy thoroughly, I started working in a darkroom over 4 decades ago, at age 11. I say this to give you confidence that it can be done.