Suggestions on setting up darkroom at home?

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minoltist7

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I have only one place in the flat (apartment) - kitchen.
But it has quite a large windows, and door has a window in it too.
Actually, even toilet and bathroom have windows , so we don't have a totally dark room at all.

I think about a black drapers on the window and kitchen door, but my wife hates black, and believes that it will screw up the interior. Even better solution can be a removable drapers / curtains, so I will attach them only for a darkroom printing session.

What kind of fabric can be suggested , so it is lightproof and not black (let's say something like bordeaux , so it will serve to decorate interior too )

I also will need to make removable window shades from light-proof sheet material , to temporarily block windows in bathroom and toilet.

How do you set up darkroom in a living territory, if have no dedicated space for that?
 
In a previous house, and before our kids were out of nappies, I used the bathroom. I cut plywood boards to loosely fit into the windows, and stapled strips of velvet cloth around the edges to achieve a light-tight push fit. It worked a treat, and the boards were easy to store. A length of kitchen work-surface (from a skip!) lay over 2/3rds of the bath itself, to serve as a wet bench while allowing access to the taps. Prints were dropped into the bath to wash as they came out of the fix. The dry bench was just large enough to allow a 20x16 print, and fixed very solidly to one wall. This was the only permanent darkroom feature in the room. I made very high quality prints with this set up. Very regrettably, my next darkroom has to be in a garden shed.
 
Jonathan R said:
bench was just large enough to allow a 20x16 print, and fixed very solidly to one wall. This was the only permanent darkroom feature in the room. I made very high quality prints with this set up. Very regrettably, my next darkroom has to be in a garden shed.
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I got the idea - you covered bathroom tub with sort of improvised "table" and set enlarger with baseboard on top of it?
Smart idea.

Unfortunately I cannot use bathroom as darkroom becouse of gas-powered water heater.
I think I cannot cover it to block the light coming from flame, for fire safety reasons.
or I can switch it off, but it is suitable as a very temporary solution
 
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IKEA light blocking roll curtains seem to be effective, together with some double-coated curtains.

I would suggest some velcro to cover the edges and join the curtains together.
Otherwise, cardboard pieces srap painted black are very efficient and can be easily mounted/dismiunted
I have the Kodak Build-your-own-darkroom pdf somewhere, acan email it if you want
 
I use dark colored doubled sheets over my blinds at night, but obviously I have blinds.

The cost of heavy long drapes that serve as a cosmetic upgrade to the place probably comes out to be quite a bit more than a multi-year membership at a community darkroom. I found that out when attempting to dress up my own place.

If your bathroom is remotely usable, restrict your darkroom to that. I live alone and print in my kitchen, but have windows only on one wall, which the sheets cover adequately. My bathroom has no window, so that serves as my changing bag. It's tiny so using an enlarger there would be barely possible but no treat compared to the kitchen table.

You don't have to block off the flame from the water heater, only baffle it. A box or chair or whatever in front of the flame, with a towel, tiles, etc. sufficiently far from the flame but trapping the light would suffice. I don't know the layout, but all you have to do is prevent the light from hitting the paper. A red sheet draped over a chair, provided said sheet was positioned far from the flame, would serve as well or better than a tile laid over the grill opening.

Floor tile is cheap enough in pieces, and it might be worth your time to construct a box of tile to cover the opening. Any flooring place should be able to cut one or two tiles to fit nicely against a curved housing, especially if you tell them what you want to do and ask for their help along with providing a cardboard template.

Again, while public darkrooms come with drawbacks of their own, in a pure cost equation they have their place. Of course, if available. The irony would be if you were forced to pick up a second job at a photo shop to pay for a home darkroom 🙂
 
40oz said:
Again, while public darkrooms come with drawbacks of their own, in a pure cost equation they have their place. Of course, if available. The irony would be if you were forced to pick up a second job at a photo shop to pay for a home darkroom 🙂
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we don't have public darkrooms. they was there during Communism time (and it was very fit to soviet ideology - to have shared-everything ) . but in modern times when most photographers are poisoned by digital evil, these "collective labs" had gone and equipment was sold.

but I thinkg, generally it is a very good idea to have a local club and share the cost of equipment and property rent.
 
Are you going to be printing? or just developing films?

If you are going to just develop film for scanning I suggest a changing bag. That's all you need. I tried a closet, the bathroom, the study, but in the end a changing bag is all I needed. Now that I am going to start making prints, I am going to seal off the study window. I got a roll of cheap plastic garbage bags and duct tape them together. I tape that down to the window frame. Use Gaffers tape and there's no residue left over.
 
I've built two temporary darkrooms in bathrooms and here are a few ideas that have worked well:

I did somehting like what JonathonR mentioned with the plywood, although I used a foam insulating panel instead - reflective foil turned to the outside, and I stapled empty black plastic bags (the ones that photo paper comes in) around the edge - it would fit into the window and do a good enough job blocking light and heat from getting into the darkroom.


I built a sink out of plywood and fiberglass, which is the same size as my bathtub, and has short folding legs under it so that it can sit over the tub.

I have a second folding table which sits over the toilet which I use for the enlarger.


Light leaks in under the bathroom door, so I put a towel on the floor there.
 
Roger Hicks said:
You may find this useful for converting a small 19th century toilet (or any similar roiom) to a darkroom:

Cheers,

Roger
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Thanks, pretty nice setup, and don't eat so much space

p.s. Roger, in your another article "our darkrooms" you mentioned that gas fire do not affect bw papers?
we have gas-powered water heater in the bathroom, which is a source of light - I thought it is main reason not to use bathroom as darkroom
 
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1 suggestion. First make sure the CEO of the house approves.
If you are printing at night, every little light leak is not that important. Unless you are doing sheet film.
 
Minoltist, I find your avatar description amusing. 🙂 You can expect quite a few views to your gallery!

My darkroom is a spare bedroom. I use a large piece of cut to size cardboard to cover the window.
 
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Can you buy Nova Vertical slot processors in Ukraine? I have a 16x20 and 8x10. Saves A LOT of space!
Ansco 130 developer keeps for over 3 months in them.
 
minoltist7 said:
Thanks, pretty nice setup, and don't eat so much space

p.s. Roger, in your another article "our darkrooms" you mentioned that gas fire do not affect bw papers?
we have gas-powered water heater in the bathroom, which is a source of light - I thought it is main reason not to use bathroom as darkroom
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I was surprised, but the gas fire made no difference whatsoever. Try a temporary black-out at night (black bin liners) to see if the same is true of your gas water heater.

Another possibility: aluminium foil curtain in front of the water heater window. Without knowing how the set-up looks/operates, it's hard to say more.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
I was surprised, but the gas fire made no difference whatsoever. Try a temporary black-out at night (black bin liners) to see if the same is true of your gas water heater.

R.
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what about fire safety? can some photographic chemicals produce flammable vapor?
 
minoltist7 said:
what about fire safety? can some photographic chemicals produce flammable vapor?
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No, unless you use alcohol or similar volatile products for rapid (and streaky) drying. Any normal product (dev, short stop, fix, toners) is absolutely non-inflammable and does not produce flammable vapours. At least, I can't think of any, after 40+ years in the darkroom.

Cheers,

R.
 
take a picture of the room your thinking about using and we'll give you some feedback.

I like the foil to cover the flame idea
 
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