look at what I got into!

[kmallick]

You guys are bad. Look at what you got me into. Two weeks ago, I would have never dreamed of this. A wet print set up in my basement bathroom was always a romanticism. But now its a reality. After 21 years I got to do some wet printing right in my basement. I am so stoked. 😀

One thing I must confess is what got me into this (besides RFF of course) is scanning negatives was proving to be such a drag. :bang:And after I got to see some wet prints I am never going back to seeing or printing the scanned image of b&w films. They don't even come close. Color and digital still remains a parallel fun, but nothing beats the fun of wet printing b&w on paper.

I count my blessings. I have a decent bathroom in my basement. And there is a shelf already built-in for placing the enlarger. So here is the dry side. I can multi-task if needed 😎

And here is the wet side in the shower area nicely separated from the dry side using a shower curtain 😉

And oh yes there is the whole other side near the sink for film developing. But gives me some room to put up the timers.

 

[nikon_sam]

On behalf of those in here that Wet Print (and brag about it) I will gladly shoulder the blame of what I see here before me...
As much as I like looking at pictures on the computer screen...it's nothing like holding a print in hand...

Carry on, my friend...

 

[Chris101]

Cool! Looks like you are in for fun times.

"Multitask" - good one, I laughed!

 

[jbrodie]

Pretty jealous! There is simply nowhere for me to setup an enlarger and have space for the trays, my bathroom is just way to small. Have fun.

 

[Chris101]

Pretty jealous! There is simply nowhere for me to setup an enlarger and have space for the trays, my bathroom is just way to small. Have fun.

I haven't seen them for quite a while, but there used to be a thing that would stack 3 trays one above the other for solving just that problem.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I had a darkroom for 15 years, was a better printer than 90% of those I've seen and I made prints for a lot of other photographers. I get better results scanning. Those who don't just haven't practiced enough or had the right training; its a skill that takes time to learn just like wet printing. Wet printing is easier to get good results when you first start though. I don't miss getting sick from the chemicals, like I did in the last years I printed.

If you decide to stick with it, you'll want to find a dedicated room for it; bending over the bathtub will kill your back. Make sure you have GOOD ventilation. That means a vent in the door allowing fresh air in, and a fan that vents the bad air outdoors that runs the entire time you are in there. This stuff WILL make you sick if you don't, and might anyway even if you do have good ventilation (I did).

 

[biakalt]

sweeeeeeeet!

i dream of setting up one too. pretty jealous! 🙂

btw, can you use the V35 colour head to produce BW prints? does it make any difference? thanks a lot!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

sweeeeeeeet!

i dream of setting up one too. pretty jealous! 🙂

btw, can you use the V35 colour head to produce BW prints? does it make any difference? thanks a lot!

You can certainly make BW prints with a color enlarger. I did all my work with one. Colorheads are actually BETTER for black & white than most normal light sources! Why? Because most of them are diffusion lightsources using hologen bulbs. Unlike coldlight heads, which need expensive bulbs, and which require warmup times to get them to a consistant brightness, a colorhead instantly achieves usable and consistent brightness. The diffused lightsources hides some dust and scratches on film compared to condenser heads, and the color head's filters can be used for filtering VC paper instead of regular VC filters. If you want to print without the filters, you can just turn them all to zero.

 

[wooiloon]

I wish I have a spare room for that too, you lucky 😉

 

[biakalt]

You can certainly make BW prints with a color enlarger. I did all my work with one. Colorheads are actually BETTER for black & white than most normal light sources! Why? Because most of them are diffusion lightsources using hologen bulbs. Unlike coldlight heads, which need expensive bulbs, and which require warmup times to get them to a consistant brightness, a colorhead instantly achieves usable and consistent brightness. The diffused lightsources hides some dust and scratches on film compared to condenser heads, and the color head's filters can be used for filtering VC paper instead of regular VC filters. If you want to print without the filters, you can just turn them all to zero.

Thanks a lot Chris!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Thanks a lot Chris!

You're welcome. I forgot to mention that Ilford publishes filter settings to use with their VC papers with color enlargers. Kodak and AGFA used to as well. Ilford has PDFs of the datasheets for their papers on their website.

 

[kmallick]

Thanks for all the encouraging words, chuckle and advice. I am sure it will take time and patience to get better at wet printing, but I am enjoying the process. Its nice to get back to it after a long time to what I did it in school in a real dark room. But the seed was planted then and I am excited that I have a small darkroom of my own (my wife is not too thrilled though).

I am quite happy with the new V35 I got from eBay for a song. The color head does a fantastic job with black and white printing and you can dial in the contrast filter setting using Y and M knobs (Ilford has suggested settings like Chris mentioned). But my starting point is the normal setting with everything at 0 and that works fine as well.

 

[shadowfox]

I am quite happy with the new V35 I got from eBay for a song. The color head does a fantastic job with black and white printing and you can dial in the contrast filter setting using Y and M knobs (Ilford has suggested settings like Chris mentioned). But my starting point is the normal setting with everything at 0 and that works fine as well.

Good job, I foolishly let a local sale go, where a complete set of Focomat was I think about $300.

You are in for a treat. As Chris stated, color head are more versatile than filters because you can easily come up with in-between grades which is useful when you deal with difficult to print negatives or when you just want to create a certain look.

 

[btgc]

I get what Chris said, but early phases are like...neoromanticism 🙂 I share this enthusiasm, and understand what kmallick feels.


My darkroom by mm35exp36, on Flickr

 

[Vics]

Welcome to what is becoming a very exclusive club! I just shot a few pictures of my granddaughter, and I'm just itching to get back up north and into the darkroom (our laundry porch) and get them printed and up to display on the 'fridge! Soon you'll be trying to remember the last time you shot any digital. Enjoy!

 

[MartinP]

Fun isn't it ? 🙂

You could try putting a couple of sheets of black card against the white walls next to the baseboard, that might help a little with keeping up the 'sparkle' of clean whites in the prints (by reducing the amount of unwanted light bouncing around from the exposure).

 

[kmallick]

Great idea. Will do. I didn't think that the light bouncing off of white wall can make it less sparkly.

Fun isn't it ? 🙂

You could try putting a couple of sheets of black card against the white walls next to the baseboard, that might help a little with keeping up the 'sparkle' of clean whites in the prints (by reducing the amount of unwanted light bouncing around from the exposure).

 

[MISH]

I have been printing B&W for thirty years and I am on My fifth and best darkroom and silly old me even if you could some how convince me that I could be a better printer using a different method I am having too much fun to stop now. I have also done my share of setting up a enlarger in a bathroom but I never had such a beautiful enlarger to start off with as your Focomat (I would like to see the ink jet printer that looks half as nice) and I might add that if yours was one of the last two that sold on Ebay in the three hundred dollar range you got a hell of a deal...... a deal that could have gotten a bit more expensive if I had not forced myself to sit on my hands (I already have three enlargers) When asked about my darkroom or even about one of my old cameras the question I often get is does it make your photography better and my answer is always "I am not sure about better but it does make it different" and I like the difference. Enjoy the experiance

 

[kmallick]

When asked about my darkroom or even about one of my old cameras the question I often get is does it make your photography better and my answer is always "I am not sure about better but it does make it different" and I like the difference. Enjoy the experiance

Thank you. And yes, you hit the nail on the head.

 

[Chris101]

You're welcome. I forgot to mention that Ilford publishes filter settings to use with their VC papers with color enlargers. Kodak and AGFA used to as well. Ilford has PDFs of the datasheets for their papers on their website.

Unfortunately most color heads can only go as high as a 4 or 4.5 filter. Not that most people need 5. I find 5 useful on caffienol negs and Kodak BW400CN negs to counteract the orange base.