Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/11/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Richard, et.al. - If I may chime in, I'd like to add my $0.02 worth. I've had a home color darkroom for over 20 years, until I sold my last house and gave it up for a digital darkroom. I miss the analog darkroom for several reasons and will someday build another one. I have spent countless hours in practice, and more in taking training, until I learned how to produce a fine art quality black and white image on fiber paper, and I think that for some images it is the most effective way for me to create the print I want. I have also learned how to do platinum printing, and to create digital negatives large enough and with enough detail and contrast range to make good material for platinum printing. I'm getting there with digital printing now, using MIS quad tone inks, and am satisfied for now where that skill-set is going. Never the less - I will have a black & white/platinum capable darkroom again one day. I think you're not a novice a this, but I will repeat some fundamentals that I think must be reiterated, just to reinforce them in my own thinking! Lessons learned along the way - 0. Do not go small and cheap - go for as big as you possibly can get away with! 1. Leave it set up all the time - even just going down to dust and freshen chemicals will re-inspire you to play in it, whereas setting up and tearing down will leave it put away most of the time. Coming home and running down to do a quick film develop is easy, and then you have freshly developed film waiting for you, so you go back later and play with that too! 2. Get or build a sink far bigger than you think you will need, with a good thermostatic control for water temperature. Once you print you'll find that bigger is sometimes way better - a great 11x14 can be an amazing 16x20 and might even be fantastic at 20x24! Make the sink wide (Front to back) enough to allow the trays to be turned sideways at least, and remember you really want 4 or 5 trays in a sink, or space for a holding tank of prints in fresh water. Stacked trays can go a long way to saving width, but then the sink height has to be adjusted for that, which commits you to an off-nominal configuration. I'm leery of those processor machines, no school or pro I've talked to has found them to work well over the long run, and they're size limited for what they cost. Stacked tray's cost next to nothing and go a lot further in confined spaces. 3. The dry side needs room for the enlarger and at least that much more space to the side for handling paper and negatives and all the other stuff involved in setting up and masking and etc. etc. The post processing - selenium, farmers, etc. can all be done in day light in a large tray outside the darkroom, so that's not an issue. 4. Shelving is important, you always have all that paper and other stuff to organize and get out of the way, yet still want accessible once your eyes are dark adjusted. 5. A comfortable stool or high seat, and well matted floor are worth the cost, and ventilation is critical for comfort. Appropriate music piped in helps too, although there are times when I want to concentrate on printing, not the music! 6. Seriously evaluate alternative process - Albumin printing, Van Dyke, Platinum and such, and look if these might have an effect on your darkroom size and shape. I'm hooked on platinum or palladium as being the place I want to go next, and that requires very little dark, most of it can be done in dim lighting, but it does require a high intensity fluorescent fixture, a box some 20W x 30L x 18D for my needs . . . 7. Enjoy. Wet darkroom work is process oriented, not performance oriented. Or at least it has that potential, whereas to me digital is about getting the print out and over with. Wet work allows or even compels you (at least for Fine Art) to spend your time on the process of making a fine art print, each one a unique artifact, and not a machine replicated entity. As I say - I miss it, and will return to it again some day. best of light - Norm >B.D. as usual, I value your advice a lot, and you may be right. However, I >am not sure, but I don't think I am looking for the ability to control the >image per se, but I think I am just wanting to see wet fiber prints :-) >At 09:37 AM 11/9/2005, B. D. Colen wrote: >>I'd suggest, Richard, that before you make the investment and do all the >>work required to set up a real darkroom, you put a bit more time into >>Photoshop. I have no intention of getting into the 'wet prints are better >>than digital' pissing match, because as I've said many times, the two are >>'different,' but 'different' is not the same as 'better.' However, once you >>get beyond where you apparently are with Photoshop, you'll discover a whole >>new world in terms of the ability to control your image - a world unknown to >>all but a tiny handful of true master black and white wet printers. >> >// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please use richard at imagecraft.com)