Safelight placement in a new darkroom

[montaggio]

Where should I place the safelight for my new 10x10 darkroom? I am planning on using a 5x7 safelight, but don't know if it should be within a certain distance of the enlarger. Also, for a room this size, should I have two 5x7 safelights - one for the dry area and one for my wet area? Are there any risks relating to the placement of the safelight, other than not being able to see well in the work area? Appreciate anyone's thoughts. Looking to get the wiring diagram finished for the new darkroom and would like to have outlets higher on the wall to plug in the safelight, which are wired to separate wall switches if I need more than one. Thanks for your help.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

The usual recommendation is that the safelight be no closer than
four feet from your paper, before or after exposure.

Chris

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Use foot switches not wall switches because your hands will be wet often.

Paint the walls in a light color, not black, bceause we want to bounce the light around.

 

[Fabian]

I have a different opinion.

Wall switches are totally ok for me because I only switch on the safelight once and turn it off at the end of a session.

If you use a bright color you will also bounce around stray light from your enlarger.

My safelight is behind my back so it is very dark, but what do you want to see anyway?
This way I never have to worry about fogging the paper.

Have fun in the dark

Fabian

 

[markinlondon]

Light coloured walls are fine and really help under safelight but you might want to paint the wall directly behind the enlarger matt black to avoid reflections from the inevitable light leaks.

One good light switch arrangement I've seen is to use two ceiling mounted pull switches. Make the string pulls different lengths and connect them with a length of dowel. You can then go from safelight to white light or vice versa by pulling on the dowel. As the pulls are diferrent lengths you won't get them confused and turn on the roomlights by mistake. The dowel also helps you locate the pulls in the dark.

 

[RML]

My bath room's light switch is on the outside. 🙂

In my very limited experience... having the red light behind you cuts off so much light it often becomes difficult to see anything. You'll be working in your own shadow. IMO not very convenient.

 

[marcust101]

I have a single light placed in shed about that size, it's half way between the enlarger and trays and about five feet from paper at any time.

This works fine and doesn't cause shadow problems or light damage

 

[Revolucion Artistico]

My darkroom is a bit bigger but I have two safelights with no problem, like you said wet side and dry side. To test before you actually go to work making prints just set a small piece of photo paper approx where you'll be working on the table and put a quarter or something on top of it, leave it for a while, then develop it. That way you'll know if your papers going to fog or not.

 

[BILLC]

Place the safelights where you can see well and then test for paper fog with some coins on a test strip. Start in total darkness and put test strips on your enlarger base, put a coin on it and then turn on the safe light for a few minutes. Process normally and if you can see the round shadows then you are too close or have the wrong type of filter. I had to change the safelight over my enlarger after this test. Do it on the wet side also.

I did paint the back wall around my enlarger flat black and it seems to give me more contrast in my prints. The rest of my darkroom is white and I can see well under the safelights. Have fun printing.
Bill

 

[marcust101]

I have a single light placed in shed about that size, it's half way between the enlarger and trays and about five feet from paper at any time.

This works fine and doesn't cause shadow problems or light damage

 

[Fabian]

I am a fan of a "dark-room".

So I am asking again, what do you need to see?
The dishes, so you don't throw the paper in the bin? Don't need much light for that.
When the enlarger is on the projected negative is bright enough to work even without safelight.
The only thing I can't do very well is to write any notes because its too dark.

By the way, if you want to really test your safelight the test should be more s ophisticated, because paper that is preexposed reacts different to safelight than non exposed papers.

I suggest to keep it as dark as possible and start printing, if you don't like the results you can still do the tests.

Fabian

 

[sepiareverb]

Nothing is set in stone- I just moved a bunch of safelights around a few months ago after working in there for seven years- spent a few sessions really thinking about what would make things easier.

 

[pesphoto]

i like one by the enlarger and one by the trays. Keeping your walls a lighter color helps the light bounce around keeping things a little lighter

 

[sepiareverb]

I have a lot of lights- but all with very small bulbs in them.

I'm a task lighting type of fellow, so I've got lights on either side of my enlarger, over the dev. tray, over the fixer tray and over the washer, plus one over my desk where I write notes on the back of the paper before it goes in the easel.