I do photography and had a darkroom set up in my bathroom in high school. If you are interested in darkrooms you should see if a community college near you offers a photo 1 that is black and white photography. I imagine it’s not super common. Some schools still offer it provides a nice foundation for students. If you are wanting to set one up at home watch craigslist or Facebook marketplace, used set ups do come up and usually at a steal. If you have a basement bathroom or a bathroom with a small window that’s easy to cover and a countertop for the enlarger you can set trays up in the tub and you’ll have a nice quick basic setup done. There’s lots of reading available online, or YouTube will be full of instructional videos. Genuinely it’s a tone of fun.
What is known about darkrooms?
Submitted 14 hours ago by sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
Shotgun_Alice@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today 13 hours ago
Are we talking photography or something NSFL?
You need a red bulb for your photography darkroom. And black & white developing is (a little) more forgiving of (a little) outside leaking in than color developing.
sopularity_fax@sopuli.xyz 13 hours ago
Ya photo. They are fasinating to dm
zz31da@piefed.social 13 hours ago
They smell like developer fluid (fixer?), and so will your clothes after you’ve been in there long enough.. the red light you always see in the movies isn’t common—the dark rooms I’ve been in use amber colored lights. Come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use an enlarger in a movie or TV show, they always just cut right to the paper in the developer
Kolanaki@pawb.social 14 hours ago
…They’re dark?
🤷♂️ I don’t understand the assignment.
solrize@lemmy.ml 12 hours ago
Yeah ask a clearer question. Darkrooms and chemical photography in general are pretty niche now. Everything is digital. But, back in the day they were more of a thing, especially for photo hobbyists. Commercial labs for randos used automated equipment so again no darkrooms, especially in the later parts of the era.
dxc@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
My friend visited the gay party around the block a few times, one time with his now ex. They were checking out the dark room for the first time and realized two dudes jacking off to them from the corner of their eyes. That’s all of my experience.
ace_garp@lemmy.world 49 minutes ago
There is a ‘Do not enter’ light above the door to the dark room, that you flick on when developing, so that no one comes in and lets light in. Or there may be a 2-door airlock/lightlock.
There are big tongs with rubber ends, to move the photo-paper from one chemical bath to the next while developing.
I forget how to make white-borders around photos, maybe tape each of the 4 sides.