Darkroom upgrade

[Asha]

Having moved home, I now have facilities to give myself a dedicated darkroom of considerable size which is a huge upgrade on the improvisation of a studio appartement that I previously lived in.

This room is 12ft x9 ft with 10ft ceilings making even the beast of a 10x8 enlarger look quite small.
The shower room is adjoined to this room so print washing facilities immediately to hand and best of all neither room has a window that allows daylight entry so much easier to make light tight.

Not finished yet but the primary material is in place and to all intents and purposes , it is useable in its present state.

It will be a delight to work in an area with some space and ample work surface area.
In addition, as it is a separate room to the rest of the appartement, if I don’t tidy the area up at the end of a session, it’s no big deal.

 

[joxby]

How are you getting on with that Philips enlarger, I'm looking to run a condenser alongside my diffusion.
Not my first choice but its on my radar mainly because of its availability.
You look a shade short on tray space for 16 x 12...

 

[medwaygreen]

Very nice Asha, I see you still have the metal cabinet.

 

[auntiemaryscanary]

Having moved home, I now have facilities to give myself a dedicated darkroom of considerable size which is a huge upgrade on the improvisation of a studio appartement that I previously lived in.

This room is 12ft x9 ft with 10ft ceilings making even the beast of a 10x8 enlarger look quite small.
The shower room is adjoined to this room so print washing facilities immediately to hand and best of all neither room has a window that allows daylight entry so much easier to make light tight.

Not finished yet but the primary material is in place and to all intents and purposes , it is useable in its present state.

It will be a delight to work in an area with some space and ample work surface area.
In addition, as it is a separate room to the rest of the appartement, if I don’t tidy the area up at the end of a session, it’s no big deal.
View attachment 331661View attachment 331662

Very impressive! I'd be jealous apart from having my on little play (dark) room which you've viewed on the forum

 

[Asha]

Very nice Asha, I see you still have the metal cabinet.

Yes that metal cabinet has been dismantled and rebuilt numerous times as still stands solid.
It’s like Dr Who’s tardifs in that it hold a surprisingly huge amount of gear and will support a lot of weight.

It was an expensive piece of furniture but has been well worth the cost for storing photography gear.

 

[Asha]

How are you getting on with that Philips enlarger, I'm looking to run a condenser alongside my diffusion.
Not my first choice but its on my radar mainly because of its availability.
You look a shade short on tray space for 16 x 12...

Tbh John I’ve hardly used it as it’s rare that I enlarge 35mm negs.

I know it will do 6x7 at a max size but I haven’t the condensers for that format.

It does what it’s supposed to do and I can’t fault it tbh
It is a very solid piece of kit .
You may recall that I temporarily modified it by removing the head and using the column as a copy stand for the LF intrepid enlarger kit, for which it also offered itself well to.

Using the console and having the seperate light channels is something that I would like to have available on the other LF enlarger but alas, without a modification and some knowledge / skill on how to achieve that, I’ll have to continue as I am.

Perhaps I’ll see myself using the philips more now although from a 35mm neg, I’ll probably not exceed A4 print size.
Besides they will be old stock as I no longer possess a 35mm camera!

 

[Peter B]

Very impressive indeed Asha, and such a luxury to have that amount of space! I eventually spotted the Nova hidden under the black cloth, and really impressed with the concept of having it on a trolley so you can move it about.

 

[Asha]

Very impressive! I'd be jealous apart from having my on little play (dark) room which you've viewed on the forum

So the question remains….. does size really matter?! ( no good asking a man as we all know in advance his response! )

Seriously though, when it comes to soace and working area, additional room to move around is an advantage but more important is how that space is laid out and used.
With some clever thinking , the smallest places can become very practical .

 

[Asha]

First test strip done in my new darkroom.

i haven’t yet refilled the nova so dabbling with trays set up on the folding tables.

 

[Asha]

result !

If interested take a look in the shared outings thread

 

[Damo1]

Forgive the intrusion please but how big a prints can you make with your equipment ?

 

[Asha]

Forgive the intrusion please but how big a prints can you make with your equipment ?

Don’t feel that your intruding, you’re not at all. In fact it’s a very good question as I actually don’t know .
Ill offer you some measurements .
With them, I suspect someone clever can do calculations and arrive at a maximum print size.
Appologies that they are in metric but the enlarger is French and the neg holder etc are based on metric measurements.

With paper at floor level, the maximum distance to negative is 200cm.

The maximum negative size that can be held in the holder is 24 x30cm

The lens has a 240mm focal length.

I personally don’t print larger than 30x40 with negatives as large as 20x30 although I do have some 40x50 paper

 

[Damo1]

Thank you , lots to think about in the world of film photography, I’m giving serious consideration to having a go in the dark room .

 

[ChrisR]

Thank you , lots to think about in the world of film photography, I’m giving serious consideration to having a go in the dark room .

Might be worth trying first with a community darkroom and/or a course, unless you are a survivor of the days when darkrooms were more common?

 

[Damo1]

Might be worth trying first with a community darkroom and/or a course, unless you are a survivor of the days when darkrooms were more common?

Never ever used a film camera for anything , it’s a brave old world for me