Darkroom red safelight

Barney

Barney

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Wayne
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What exactly can we do under the red safelight.

I have made my darkroom dark, so might have a go after.

Can the whole printing process be done under red safelight? I have wall mounted my safelight in the opposite corner to the enlarger, but after 15 minutes in pitch black looking for light leaks (none) the red safelight looks like football stadium floodlights.
 
They're safe only for orthochromatic materials
 
The whole Black & White Printing process (orthochromatic materials) can and usually is done under Red safelight.
 
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Thanks guys,

So, film handling is total dark like in my darkbag but paper while focusing is red light safe.

The paper I have bought for testing out and practice etc is some old jessops VC 8x10 and 7x5
 
Try using a piece of glossy photo printer paper to focus on. It has similar thickness and finish to most photographic paper for black and white.
 
ChrisH said:
Try using a piece of glossy photo printer paper to focus on. It has similar thickness and finish to most photographic paper for black and white.
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Thanks Chris, good tip that. I was going to focus on the baseboard and rely on DOF.
I have watched the Ilford video on making first print and they have made it look so easy I am quite confident, fatal mistake.
Anyhow, wish me luck I am going in.
 
Well that process is simple enough, I have prints.

I think I messed up with which way up I did the test stripes. :headbang:

Is dry down darker or lighter?
 
well the box of 100 8x10 is totally US the 7x5 is not so brilliant very dull I upped the contrast from 2-4 and it would not do no harm going to five.
 
A statement of the obvious:
Safelights exist so that we can find our way around the darkroom.

The old movies show them being used to judge the darkness of the print so that the printer can remove them from the developer when they look right, but that approach doesn't work - it was commonly used for printing proofs and for newspaper work, where quality doesn't matter, but for all "normal" printing the print must stay in the developer for the correct length of time and at the correct temperature, there are no shortcuts that actually work:(
 
Once I set up for colour, I used various tanks etc. so could work with a light on apart from when exposing on the enlarger. After that even when processing B&W, I stuck to using the various tanks as it is easier to use the same system.

Dave
 
I was totally wrong about the contrast grade and times, I started off at grade two at 12 seconds F8 and ended up at grade 1 1/2 for 4.5 seconds f11, i cant believe how much difference a few seconds make
 
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