what do i need to make a dark room?
I want to develop myown 35mm film at home and need a list of what exatly i'd need for this. Please help!
Public Comments
- the loft is the best place for a dark room
- In my highschool darkroom we had: A lighttight room (2 doors) with a fan (the chemicals) Normal lights and red lights. A source of water. Enlargers. 4 trays of chemicals (developer, stop, fix and the wash) Both the stop and wash can be water. Not sure the water/chemical amounts but you can find it online Tongs A drier or a line to hang prints Cant remember the name but a thing with a ruler and knife for cutting the pics. Magnifying glass for checking focus of the prints. Blow brushes for cleaning the negatives. Thats everything I can remember and it worked well
- Just turn off the light & close the whole doors & windows .
- there is loads of kit cheap second hand on the market now; depends on country but digital has reduced the film kit to next to nothing. In my flat, the bathroom has no windows so blacking out is easy and the fan extract is a boon for chemical sniffs. Try for a good enlarger - a Durst for instance - and a super lens; Leica, Rodenstock, Zeiss, Angenieux, it makes a big difference. Get chemicals in collapsible bottles - you squeeze the air out the chemistry lasts longer. Safe lights are ten a penny get a Kodak or reputed make, nothing worse than ghosts on prints. Assume you will be black and white at least at first; keep notes of what you are doing or all is chaos. Hunt mags for people selling the whole lot as a going concern - there seem to be many here in UK don't forget thermometers, cloths, plastic gloves Have the best creative fun there is short of oil painting!
- Root, Here's a pointer to a list of elements to include in a starter darkroom setup: http://www.essortment.com/assemble-own-darkroom-starter-kit-product-checklist-51925.html What I'd highly recommend (if you haven't done so already...) before you invest in all this and have to manage the ongoing expense is to check the Web to see if there are places near you that rent out darkroom space. That way you can get access to all the tools and supplies you'll need without the personal upkeep. Make sure you know what it takes before you build your own. A number of my pro photog buddies in the past even used a spare bathroom as a darkroom. But even they have finally stopped that. They now shoot film and then have the film converted to a digital format. They process the images in a digital darkroom. So they get the best of both worlds. Film quality capture. Digital darkroom flexibility and cost benefits. Good luck. Just some food for thought... As for many things in life, test out before you jump in feet first. Sometimes things seem better idealistically than they are in practice.
- Development only needs a light tight space. You could in principle do this with just a changing bag - you don't even need a room. For BW dev only you'll need: - Changing Bag - Developing tank with spirals - Thermometer accurate to 1°C - Measuring cylinders (jugs) - Developer (Ilford LC29 is useful) - Stop (you can use water as stop) - Fix (you will most likely need to buy fix, I use Ilford Rapix Fixer) - Stopwatch - Empty bottles (if you have reuseable dev, fix and stop) - Lots of water - Clothes pegs, and a wire coathanger In order to make C41 and E6 development you will need a heat controlled tank, something like a Jobo CPE. If you want to make prints, it's a little more complex. You will beed a large light tight space (probably a sealed up bathroom). You will also need more equipment: - Enlarger - Dev drum or trays - Safelight - Photographic papers - Drying rack
- What CiaoChao said, though you really don't need a heat controlled tank for e6 and c41. A hot water source, something to act as a water bath (a cool box is great for this, just fill it with water at the suitable temp, the insulation on the box stops it from cooling down too quickly) a thermometer and plenty of patience.
- For processing films, you don't even need a darkroom. You need to remove the film from the canister, wind it onto a spool, and put the spool into a light-tight tank in complete darkness, but you can use a changing bag for this. After the film is in the tank you can do the rest of the processing with the bathroom/kitchen with the light on. If you plan to make prints, you will need a darkroom. As others have said, a loft is a good place for a darkroom as blackout is easy. I recently wrote some notes on my blog about my home darkroom.
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