I'm wondering how many of our users have spent any significant time printing the old-fashioned way in a darkroom with Dektol and Ilfobrom and all that wonderful stuff?

Hi all!
My first photo job was dopeing by hand b&w Christmas cards. And they all had to match. I have spent lots of time in darkrooms. The stains on my hands has finally gone away, but on a cloudy day I can still smell hypo.

Bob

Working in a darkroom/photo lab has been my "real" profession for almost 20 years. Film and paper processing has been mainly by machine (Colenta, Kreonite, Hope, etc.) , but I have spent zillions of hours slaving over (or under as the case may be) a hot enlarger (mainly Omega & Durst) :)

What I've done has been on a large retail scale, however, and is a much different animal than working in a home darkroom (which I have more limited experience with).

(I've also had a lot of experience with minilab setups (Agfa & Noritsu) and have been employed in the past as a district manager for a chain of 1-hour labs).

My aunt and uncle run a business from their home called "tree frog press, and the have a darkroom there. So far I've only seen it from the edge of the room, but I'll have to ask them to give me a tour and show me the basics sometime.

- David :)

Many, many moons ago I took an intro BW photography / darkroom class at a community college. Learned a lot; twas fun.

Funny how 25+ years later those experiences have come in handy during my unending quest to assimilate the in/outs of PS...
Sharpen (focus), blur (unfocused), contast, dodge, burn, "do over," etc.

I had a home darkroom, doing almost all B&W film processing and printing (very little color). I also worked in a lab for a couple of years running an *old* Kreonite roller transport processor (that was a real dog). This was used strictly for E-6 processing. I also did custom B&W printing for the same lab. If things really got tight, I might slip into the color department from time to time, but never enough to really know what I was doing. I do miss the home darkroom, but I'll probably never have another one.

Ed

Started out in high school learning how to print and develop b&w negs & print. Graduated to college working on durst enlargers and learning the history etc about photography. I remember many a days loading film in the bathroom and using my mother kitchen sink to process my film for an assignment. Don't agitate the film tank to fast.

Moved up to working in commerical photo labs. Printed for many famous photographers and met many famous models. Used 4x5 and 8x10 enlargers and then graduated to durst digital lambdas.

But, nothing beats the old fashion way

:)

Years ago I had my own "homemade" darkroom (a cupboard!) with a very antiquated enlarger - the results were less than perfect, but it was great experience and now that I've had my digital camera stolen (the one in the avatar!) I'm back to film and yearning for those darkroom days again ... sadly, I don't think we can get all the kit/chemicals here in Zim.

Part of my schooling was getting my "hands" in B/W film developing using the trays. It was just a brief stint, and the rest of the film I developed was fed into "the machine" and I just waited for the output.
:wavey:

I learned to work in a darkroom (b&w) while in the army (1952-54) and after discharge, worked in industrial darkrooms at Chrysler and Ford (I lived near Detroit at the time). I then became a newspaper photographer where one had to develop and print their own work. That plus approximately twenty years of home darkroom work. Digital cameras and Photoshop finally brought me into the light.:)

Thanks to the good old USN, started in 1958, B&W, then on to color slides and color prints. Did what we called still photography (thats with just a regular camera, 8x10, 4x5, 120 and 35mm), aerial (with film in extreme sizes, either 10 inch wide by 500 feet or 5 inch wide by 6000 ft), lots of copy work up to 20x24, then at my last command, movie printing and duplication.
Since I retired from all that and opened my own business, we had a full service darkroom for about 15 years then switched to digital because we wanted to get more into event work. Also the EPA regs were getting to us. We had to move (or close down) the darkroom at one point. In this county you cannot have a darkroom in a building that is serviced by a septic tank. There has been talk of not allowing any commerical photo lab to have access to any of the sewer systems also.
Proper disposel of used photo chemicals is very expensive and is subject to a bunch of rules and regs. Just something to be aware of.
Mike

Five years ago I took an introductory course in photography and b&w processing at our local college.

My daughter and I went off to Ireland for 3 years and unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any courses there because of the cost and time commitment. Black and white hand processing is really an art. I never got as far as using filters. I used natural light when shooting, partially because I couldn't remember what the teacher had taught us about using flash! (Terrible isn't it!).

It's another hobby that I can lose several hours without realizing what time it is. I think there is nothing sweeter than the first time you see your sheet of paper dip into the developing tray and the magic of an image appears!

After doing a few spotting touchups, I can honestly say I'd rather touch up in Photoshop than by hand!

Kristin

I started as a teenager in the late 1960's - beginning of the 70's with an Opemus 6 by 6 cm enlarger equipped with a Nikon elnikkor objective.
It was only bw work, 6 x 9 cm and 35 mm negatives. Mainly Ilford paper with corresponding developers and fixers.

Colour equipment was very expensive and therefore beyond the reach for a teen-ager, well at least for me and my friends.

For the last couple of decades I have used dias-film (Kodachrome) or Kodak negative films all processed at professional firms.

Today: digital darkroom with scanners.

I took a community college class about 5 years ago -- never developed my own (can't roll the film in total darkness and not interested in learning), but got a lot of practice printing b/w only. Loved seeing that image appear on the paper! The experience taught me some of what could be done AFTER the image is captured, but taught me a lot about how important it is to spend time and thought BEFORE pressing the shutter. I already was using Photoshop, and the lab experience helped me understand that PShop was doing the same things that photographer/printers had been doing for decades -- but without the smell of chemicals (for some, the chemicals are a turn-on -- not for me, however).

Lots of b/w darkroom experience for the high school yearbook, but not much since then. I never imagined that my home darkroom I always dreamed I would have would be my computer!

Originally posted by CJ Swartz
(can't roll the film in total darkness and not interested in learning),

You can learn to roll film in total darkness, but you might not be interested in learning. :) If you're afraid of the dark, get yourself a changing bag. Then only your hands will be in the dark!

Ed

When I was learning to roll film in the dark, first I spent a lot of time just rolling an old scrap roll of film onto a reel in the light to get the feel of it. I carried it around with me in my purse and played with it whenever I was idle for a few minutes. Then I practiced with my eyes closed and finally I practiced with it in the dark. By the time I actually rolled a real roll of film, it was very familiar to me and seemed easy...

Done it until I couldn't stand it anymore in uni.
B&W, C-4, E-6, Cibachrome (now ilfochrome)...been there, done that.

Since 99% of my work is slide (even B&W I do on slide) I don't bother developing them myself, the lab does it for me.

However, I still have a small darkroom where I sometimes make nice B&W prints for my own pleasure. Much more fun if you don't HAVE to do it :)

Is this thread posessed or something???

(nee nee noo noo Twilight Zone music playing in the background...)

It keeps popping back to the top even though I can't see any new activity on it for more than a month!

It did pop up, so I figure I'll answer.

About 3 years worth of 8 hours/day b/w work spread out over a 5-6 year period, and a smattering--small smattering--of color work.

None of it recent. The last darkroom I owned was almost 20 years ago, and the last time I used one was nearly 5 years ago.

I did a lot of special effects work--lith film interneg/positives, unsharp masking the old way, color key posterization, etc., in addition to lots and lots of plain ol' develop and print with burn/dodging.

It pops back up if someone votes, even if they don't post.

I'm looking for darkroom class at Austin - Tx. Please let me know.

Thanks
cralx

I finally sold my Beseler enlarger and darkroom supplies online back in 1992 when they were gathering dust. At home I did primarily BW and worked in an Expressly Portrait studio where they printed pictures for clients in an hour.

My darkroom career began in the 70's. I loved BW printing and got the chance to take workshops all over California. My favorite photographer at the time was Jerry Uselman. I got the chance to study with John Sextons assisstant to Ansel Adams and learned a lot about fine BW printing. But I'm so enthralled with the capability we have now with digital and Photoshop.

Vicki

Hi,
I'm no photographer, but I can lay claim to spending much time in a darkroom. I set type on Reels of film for headlines for quite a while. I used a hughe DS Screen Camera (up to 20" x 24".) I made film positives, 1/2tones, combination veloxes, stats, position prints etc. Full time work. Oh yeah, type distortions too, on a circle in perspective, outline, inline blah blah blah the list goes on. I really enjoyed it. Cleaning up graphic arts processors is not too much fun, especially in the winter in New England.
Now I have several frontends (Quark, IndesignCS, DesignStudio etc)for quality typography, and lots of specialty software for type and image processing (Photoshop, Expression, LetrasStudio, Typestry, LivePicture, Freehand, FontStudio etc) a few computers and a drum scanner. I can do more now than I did with a darkroom full of films, contact frames specialty cameras, processors and the like. A drum scanner in the 80's was only for color houses, now you can pick them up for a song, and Linotype Hells, DS Screen, Howteks etc are stable and excellent.

No, I don't miss a darkroom at all. The smell of developer and fix took years off my life and I'm sure years to stop smelling too! I learned so much though.

God Bless,
:cat: Rodi

I started in a custom photo-lab in 1978 as a custom printer , and then started working for RCA and GE as an in house staff photographer in the 80's and 90's. We had a full service lab, color , B/W and E-6. We developed and printed everything we shot. Now that everything is digital ; it is still really nice to print a very large B/W print. I still keep my darkroom ready and print 35mm to 4x5 , but now it is only B/W.

I've still got my Jobo CPP2, Beseler 45MXT II Enlarger along with my Minolta 45a color head sitting in a spare room. I did a fair bit of b&w prints but most of the time was spend developing medium format chromes and 4x5 transparencies.

Then I bought a Canon 20D and everything changed.

It's always been digital for me!!!

The only time I've ever been in a dark room was during a field placement with my local police service. The crime scene techs did all there own developping at the HQ's lab.

Yeah!
I originally learned b&w processing at evening class in the 60s. I then joined the R.A.F. as an air photo operator where I was taught false colour I.R., ultra violet and b&w processing - rolls up to 12" wide and a thousand ft long.
Over the years I have used many cameras from 35mm through 6x6 to large format monorails, and of course the huge aircraft cameras of my R.A.F. days.
Some years ago I taught my children dark room techniques, while I was untill recently recoating plates for my thornton pickard quarter plate camera.
I have now dismantled my darkroom and although I concentrate on digital, I still use my Nikon "film thingy" but always have digital copies of my neg's.


The important thing is that all of these have had a place in my photographic education - I am by no means an expert in any of them, we must remember that without film we would not be where we are now as far as digital is concerned. Yet I honestly believe film is - or will be a thing of history - but never forget history.


Denn

dennford,

welcome to RP!

I still use my Nikon "film thingy" yup, i still have my Canon F1 'film thingy' as well. and my current 'darkroom' involves a film negative scanner and a computer. i never quite made the true darkroom experience despite having cameras most of my life. i tend to envy those that did as i'm normally a 'nuts and bolts' sort of person and enjoy getting into the workings and mechanics of such things.

i would ask you what a 'monorail' camera is and likewise a 'quarter plate' but i'd probably put myself to sleep in trying to understand :)

Craig

I took an adult education course called:

Small format camera and Darkroom technique

Part of a BTec here in the UK. At that time I was using a fully manual Pentax MZM.

I now have a Canon 20D (digital slr). I find that I tend to try out more techniques and I take way more photos with it because I am not worried about the cost of film and developing. I need to print more of my images out though!

I recently had my first photo published. A photograph of a zebra taken in Hluhluwe Game Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa - my real home.

:-)

dennford,

welcome to RP!

i would ask you what a 'monorail' camera is and likewise a 'quarter plate' but i'd probably put myself to sleep in trying to understand :)

Craig


Hi Craig,
A monorail camara is usually a large format camera that has bellows mounted on a rail, it has a front lens panel and rear film plane that are moveable in all planes thereby being able to manipulate perspective and depth of field to a far greater extent than a normal camera. You may be surprised to find that they are still in use today in the studio and architectural fields.
A quarter plate simply takes the name from the size of the glass plate, whole plate being 8.5"x6.5" - so our quarter plate is 4.25" x 3.25". my particular quarter plate camera is probably over 100yrs old, made from wood, black leather and brass, it has an aldis f3 lens that although a little soft still gives good quality.
Hope this has explained okay for you.
Denn

thank you, denn!

now, what is the 'glass plate' and what does it do? (never answer a technical question with a technical answer. it only inspires or kills all other questions :) )

Craig

A glass plate is exactly what it says - before images were on film (a photographic emulsion on a celluloid backing that is our cuurent day negative or slide ) it was usual to coat a sheet of glass with photographic emulsion, place it in the camera (where the film would be nowadays) ready for exposing . This meant putting a new plate in for each exposure and then removing it for developing After which the image would be on the glass rather than on film as we have today
Denn

denn,

thank you :)

Craig

dennford--

Ah, a Calumet 4x5. I'd recognize one with my eyes closed, I think. First view camera I ever put my grubby mitts on, long, long ago.

dc

I was teaching darkroom until about two years ago - from novice to exibition printing. This was at a lovely farm called the Black Thorn Centre, Cricklade, Wiltshire, England. Since then I have moved to digital and now teach in that area. One of my best student (and friend) is Suzanne Farmer whose work can be seen at http://www.faeriejournals.com/imagethumbs.htm

I still write/maintain a web site for http://www.monochromephotography.com where chamicals can still be purchased.

Regards

Andy

its interesting to see not a lot of color experience.

i guess those machines are pretty expensive. i learned entirely too much from color printing......best project was trying to print a black and white negative on a color enlarger with color paper.......TOUGH business. but it really gave me a good grasp of color

My father is a professional photographer and has been for over 40 years, so I grew up in the darkroom! Now, he has a studio with a professional darkroom attached, and I'm not allowed to touch anything, lol.

In all honesty though, photoshop is a much better darkroom for me - as much as I can feel my father cringing at that coming out of me! I enjoy the instant nature - I'm impatient - and I enjoy being able to pick it up with no knowledge whatsoever and create something - or 10 different somethings, backtracking from mistakes etc - all within minutes. I find digital photography easier and obviously more cost-effective to muck around with and experiment - and it allows for failure without cost.

I'm just not good enough a photographer to be able to effectively create what I see in my mind in a darkroom.

In saying that, it saddens me to see the darkroom demise, I prefer certain things off film than off the computer.

I ran an E6 dip and dunk line in the early 90's, back when I was still using Imaginator Paint for retouching. We wrote the finished retouched files to a Fire 1000 on E6 4 x 5 transparencies and gave those to the client. Those scanned files were about 500 MB a pop to have the resolution needed for the Fire 1000.

I've worked in a commercial photo studio for years (now I'm a co-owner). We've always had an in-house lab for custom B&W and color printing. It was the only way to get the quality we wanted when we needed it. I've spent many hours dodging, burning and color-correcting in the darkroom. Now I spend hours at the computer. In fact, we are in the process of phasing out color printing (using up the last of our paper). We were always our biggest lab client but are shooting digital 99% of the time now. It's sad to see the darkrooms go. But digital is way better - I always get exactly what I want. Plus I hated dust spotting.

I did a lot of darkroom work all through high school. In the summers I worked for the board of education and did darkroom work for them as well. Most of the stuff I did was for weekly newspaper runs or portraits. The layout work wasn't bad if you took the time to keep the camera clean. I'd wash the lenses and table every day so I didn't have to spend as much time with the opaque cleaning up my negatives.

Ah the good old days... Do you guys remember hand set type? As in letter press work? I see that old equipment in museums now and every time I comment on it people look at me like the stuff has been out of use since they finished building the pyramids in Egypt! Ah yes, the good old days... I was a monster on the Linotype machines too!

Jon.