window darkening for darkroom?

My old darkroom was a box room in my house. I used a piece of MDF with a heavy-duty black foam border around the edge (a bit like a big light trap on a camera). The board was mounted over the window and attached to the wall (curtain tie back holders) by a piece of cord at each side. Very cheap and simple solution - and required no DIY skills (which was probably for the best....)
 
When I was in an apartment years ago I went a bit overboard, but it worked. I built a frame of 2x4 lumber that fit snuggly into the window opening. Then I screwed this frame to a larger sheet of plywood, larger than the window opening. A set of handles on the backside of the plywood made it easy to put up and take down. Then I got an old floral patterned bedsheet, pleated it and stapled it to the outside of the frame, so when someone sees it from the walkway they'd think it was a curtain.

For my sister-in-law's makeshift darkroom, in a downstairs laundry room, we hung a heavy blanket on a curtain rod inside the door of the room. It overlapped the door opening enough to provide sufficient light integrity for paper negatives - she was into pinhole box cameras.

BTW, I recently purchased some blackout fabric from a laser optics supply house, it's not totally light tight, you need to use two layers.

~Joe
 
haha
No not yet. Heat wave hit the lowlands, and in my attic it's easily 35+ (C, not F) even with windows open... had to postpone project a bit.
OTOH i built a brick garden BBQ in the meanwhile.
Switching priorities...
 
Pherdinand said:
haha
No not yet. Heat wave hit the lowlands, and in my attic it's easily 35+ (C, not F) even with windows open... had to postpone project a bit.
OTOH i built a brick garden BBQ in the meanwhile.
Switching priorities...
Click to expand...

The BBQ surely sounds like the right project for the time being :)

Enjoy and do let us know how you get on with the windows...
Ben
 
Ned Bojic said:
It always breaks my heart to throw the backing paper of my 120 films, especially since apparently that paper costs more then the film itself. So I decided to keep them, in hopes that I'll need a thin, super dense, blackout paper for a project of some sort. And bam, Your post made me realize: 120 backing paper will easily make a superb blackout curtain with a little diy effort. I'm guessing that about 20 lengths of 120 paper, glued together about 1/2 inch over 1/2 inch will easily cover a window. Two rods on each end to roll and unroll the 120 backing paper curtain and there you have it...
Click to expand...

:D nice idea Ned.
They'd need to be taped together on the long side pretty well, tho. But yes it might work. The edges would also need to fit very well.

Too bad i only got 2 or 3 of those rolls.
 
Ned Bojic said:
It always breaks my heart to throw the backing paper of my 120 films, especially since apparently that paper costs more then the film itself. So I decided to keep them, in hopes that I'll need a thin, super dense, blackout paper for a project of some sort. ....
Click to expand...

I know. Why don't Ilford accept paper backings back for reuse?

For example, Dell encourages companies to return their laser printer toner cartridges so they can re-fill and re-sell.
 
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