Why did darkroom/wet printing die?

[aizan]

murphy's law doesn't apply to darkrooms. if computers still occupied entire rooms, things may have been different.

 

[thomasw_]

.....Once you have made a large fiber paper print and looked at it in good light, you will be sold. Inkjet prints just won't stand up next to it.....

I concur with Chris' assessment.

 

[sepiareverb]

Also it bugs me that quality ink jet paper costs more than high quality gelatin silver paper.

Something that few digital printers seem to realize or admit. And chemistry is way less expensive than ink.

...I never liked being in any darkroom I've ever used. Cramped, wet, dark (duh?), and poorly ventilated...

Not all darkrooms are like this. Mine is much more spacious than this computer station, has a better sound system, isn't nearly as hot in the summer and I don't have to leave to get a drink or take a pi$$. 😀

 

[vkomu]

Hope it's not dead, just got my own darkroom running.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I guess the concerns in designing anmd constructing a darkroom might be a bit different in South Florida than in cooler climates. My darkroom is about 7 x 9 feet and air conditioned, with a space heater for the occasional wintertime cold day. A 2 x 7 foot fiberglass over plywood sink is on one side while a 2 x 6.5 foot counter is on the other. Chemical and tray storage is under the sink, paper under the enlarger counter, one end wall has shelves for storing boxes of negatives and contacts. I built it back in 1968 and still have the same Omega B-22XL enlarger I bought new in '65 and the 1950's vintage 6.5x9cm Kodak Precision that I picked up used with about every negative carrier made for it for $20 a few years later. Switches next to the door controm overhead flourescents and safelights. Since I built it I've replaced a few washers in the row of five faucets over the sink and a few light bulbs. I also needed to replace the 5,000 BTU air conditioner about five years ago. The whole thing is within ten feet of the fridge and coffee pot and I piss in the sink. The enlarger counter is exactly the right height so when I'm standing in front of it between the two enlargers, and a young lady is sitting on the counter...well, I was younger then and that's a story for another time...Hell, the position is currently unfilled and I'm accepting applications! Why not!

The cassette player has been replaced with a stereo radio that I think takes CD's but I don't own any.

Some place on my blog http:thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com is a photo of me in my darkroom forty odd years ago taken with a 19mm Canon lens and another photo a year or so ago I took with the 15mm Heliar. Other than a bit more grey hair nothing much has changed. I still have an ashtray made out of a 100 ft. film can, and yes, I smoke 🙄 in there.

Last night I got an order confirmation email from Freestyle. More supplies are heading this way.

 

[SteveHicks]

Darkroom and analog in general?

Darkroom and analog in general?

I hope this is not off topic, but it is related to this changing world of photography.

Several years ago, I was helping my parents (at the time they were in their early eighty's) move from one house to another. In the back of their closet, under a pile of shoes, I found an old dusty box containing close to a thousand slides and negatives that they had religiously made from the time they first met (late 1940's) through my entire childhood and into the 1980's.

That old box has given me more pleasure over the past several years and is the source for several articles and books that I hope to leave behind for my children's children.

I often wonder what happens in a digital world to all the images created by the "happy snappers" during the lifetimes of the future. I don't think people will be finding their histories in some old box.

 

[wgerrard]

One factor I haven't seen mentioned is this: Many of us who might be interested in standing up a darkroom, including me, have never been in one, or even seen a good example of a good wet print compared with an inkjet print. On the other hand, as Matt said, we're surrounded with digital tech enabling quick, easy and dirt cheap creation and distribution of our pictures. (Even if I made wet prints, the people I want to see them expect them in digital form.)

Other than exhibit prints, which odds are are digital, I've no way of comparing any darkroom work I might do with that of anyone else. The examples I might look to for comparison are online after they've been scanned.

In those circumstances, making the commitment, and taking on the cost and hassle, of setting up a home darkroom, represents a good-sized step into the unknown.

 

[furcafe]

Yes, there are digital enlargers that will project an analog "negative" of a digital image onto traditional silver paper, but they are *very* expensive (probably for the same reason that good quality digital projectors are so expensive).

I wonder if it is possible to make a silver-gelatin print (a silver bromide print) from a file of an image from, say, an M8, so that in the end there is no material difference between a print from a negative from an MP and a print from a file generated by an M8.

Erik.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Used darkroom stuff is so cheap these days why not just bite the bullet and DO it.

 

[tbm]

Working merrily in my darkroom in our garage allows me to listen to hours of classical music, which I cannot do within our house because my mate does not like classical music. One of my favorite CDs, a two-CD array of Rachmaninoff's insanely mesmerizing piano sonatas, is one I listen to multiple times. It seduces me while I'm creating wonderful black and white prints.

 

[Pablito]

The notion that inkjet is easier is one I would dispute. It's easier if you are not particular. To get really good prints takes skill, time and experience, just like working in the darkroom.

On another related topic, see these photos of old camera factory in India, and the linked photos of closed Kodak and Agfa film and paper factories:

http://darklythroughalens.wordpress.com/

 

[Erik van Straten]

If it's dead, I bought a corpse yesterday - a huge Leitz Focomat IIc, for £250.

Congratulations. It is one of the finest things in the world.

Erik.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Yes, there are digital enlargers that will project an analog "negative" of a digital image onto traditional silver paper, but they are *very* expensive (probably for the same reason that good quality digital projectors are so expensive).

Indeed. I've had it done at Focus in Imaging in the UK, with an image I'd taken a few minutes earlier on the M8. Google De Vere/Odyssey Sales. And yes, the enlarger head (which fits on existing De Veres) is hellish expensive.

Oh: and Ilford invented Multigrade, not Du Pont. Du Pont got to market first. Clue: World War Two began in 1939, but the USA didn't immediately subscribe.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

http://darklythroughalens.wordpress.com/

Wow. Thanks.

R.

 

[shadowfox]

Nice! this thread has grown into exactly what I'd like it to be. A wake up call, an introduction, a rallying (or rile-up-ing) call, an invitation for the old-guards to share their experiences.

Some really intelligent and balance thoughts expressed here.

Of course I don't want darkroom/wet printing to die.

Above is my operational B&W darkroom upstairs. I built it because my wife is generous enough to let me use the guest bathroom. I am building a second darkroom with a ... 5x7 enlarger 🙂 in a secret remote location.

So nothing I would like more than the revival in the interest to do this wonderfully rewarding craft. Alt. processes is yet another untapped world for you and I to explore.

So for those of us who have already got in to it: get the word out.

For those who haven't: Like Al said up there, just do it, it's cheaper to setup a darkroom than a digital printing station that is capable of similar quality. And by the time you tried it, you won't be so concerned about the economics anymore, because you enjoy it so much.

To begin your research, search these words online: alternative process, lith printing, cyanotypes, ziatype, silver chloride contact printing, contact printing frame, enlargers, digital negatives, OHP pictorico, fotospeed kits, ... (feel free to expand this list, folks).

And of course... get that absolutely wonderful and free Freestyle catalog.

 

[Lilserenity]

My darkroom is the bathroom as I have noted many a time here.

The enlarger sits on top of the washing machine in the corner, and I place the timer on the water heater on the wall. By the sink I have two trays, developer, stop and in the shower basin the fixer.

The shower curtain is taken down each time, and the windows are blacked up using home made blinds of sorts which I velcro to the window frames.

It's small, it's cramped, but it's one heck of a lot of fun.

It's also somewhere where the telephone, Internet or whatever cannot disturb me.

Vicky

 

[Florian1234]

Well, I took a course of working with b&w films in adults' community school some time ago when I just started to do photography and immediately took the decision to use film. For about 1 1/2 years I do my own negative development now and I'm in the process of setting up my own darkroom for printing.

But it surely will need some space and also time to learn how to get good prints.

 

[Melvin]

I love my darkroom. It's not dead.

 

[Al Kaplan]

A toilet might be a good thing sometimes. The sink is too high for chicks to piss in it.

 

[Lilserenity]

A toilet might be a good thing sometimes. The sink is too high for chicks to piss in it.

And even if it was low enough I don't think I could bring myself to do so 🙂

The toilet seat does give me somewhere to sit mind.

Also something to stand on to bring down the makeshift blinds so it does serve another purpose.

😀