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The LabThinking about doing your own black & white processing at home? Photographers do it in the dark... How much space will I need? I've heard of people having a fully operational B&W darkroom in the
triangular space under the stairs, but I've Start by doing a few simple sketches - it's better to waste paper than to do the work twice. Divide your lab into a dry- and a wet area to avoid getting drops of water on your expensive photo paper! Are you right or left handed? Do you prefer to work from left to right? Remember to plan enough electrical outlets (there's no such thing as too many!) and keep them away from the wet area. Also keep them away from the floor, because you WILL one day spill a load of chemicals all over the floor! My lab? I wanted to use a basement room, but a hundred years of damp and saltpeter in the walls created problems. My wife had a brilliant idea - I bought a pre-fabricated garden hut, and built it in the larger of the two cellar rooms. An arched ceiling defeated my pathetic abilities at woodworking ( I can nail planks together, but that's about my limit! ), but luckily Beate, a local professional carpenter, saved the day. She cut the roofing panels to fit, and two years later it's still standing! IKEA's cheapest kitchen furniture was perfect for cupboard space and a worktop. Not my first lab, but one of my nicest! Damp is still a problem, but a fan heater set to its lowest power setting kicks in once an hour or so and keeps things dry if it's not being used for long periods.
What kind of enlarger should I buy? Stay away from 35mm-only enlargers. Even if you don't yet own a medium format camera, plan for it now - and what if you're asked to print somebody else's negatives? Do yourself the first favour, and get an enlarger that can handle at least 6x6 cm negatives, 6x7 is better. There are two basic types of enlarger:
There's no reason not to buy a good used enlarger. They are simple devices, with not a lot of things to go wrong. In fact, since so many people buy a brand new enlarger only to get bored with the hobby after a year, you can probably pick up a bargain for a third the price new! Look for a good, solid column that won't wobble around like a sunflower in the wind.
What about lenses? Please don't be tempted to save money here. You'll wish you hadn't. Your images are only going to be as sharp as the last piece of glass in the chain - in this case your enlarger lens. Not much point in shooting through a Leica or a Nikon, if you plan to print through a piece of Chinese three-element enlarging glass that you picked up at a yard sale for two bucks, is there? Like the enlarger, there's no reason not to buy a used enlarger lens and save yourself some cash. Check that the glass is clear, that there are no scratches (dust inside makes no difference to image quality, but it's a good bargaining point!) and that the diaphragm stops down and opens up smoothly. Nikon, Rodenstock and Schneider-Kreuznach all make very high quality enlarger lenses. Do yourself a favour and buy the best you can possibly afford. I use two EL Nikkors, the 50mm f-2.8 for 35mm and the 80mm f-5.6 for 120 negs - both highly recommended! Focus wide open, and stop down at least one f-stop for printing.
What kind of developing tank should I buy? How do I load the film in the dark? Scary, isn't it? There you are, sitting in the lab, cut off from the rest of the world. In one hand, a plastic reel. In the other, a 36-exposure roll of film with a quite different opinion of just who's the BOSS in this lab! You've got the film started on the reel, but now it's jammed solid - won't go on, won't come off. As your eyes get used to the dark, you begin to panic as you realize the place isn't quite as light-tight as you thought it was! HELP! HOW DID I GET INTO THIS MESS? Simple: you didn't practice enough! What you should have done was to go down to your local photography shop, and ask the owner if he can let you have a few rolls of outdated film. He can't sell it, and he'll probably just give it to you or ask only a minimal fee. Practice loading by daylight first. When you're happy with that, try it in the dark or with your eyes closed. When you can load 20 films without a glitch, you're ready to do the real thing, not before! Sorry, but that's how it is. Learn this, and the rest is easy. Learn how to feel if the film is jammed, and learn to free it up. There's no shortcut to this.
What about safelights? This is about the level of illumination in my own lab. Black and white paper is pretty much blind to red light. Even Multigrade paper is unaffected. A single 25 watt bulb behind a red filter - I cut mine out of a plastic bucket, by the way - will make a pleasant, bright workspace. You'll have to experiment a bit - with the safelight on, put a piece of unexposed paper on the bench, and place an object - like a pair of scissors - on top. Let it sit there for five minutes or so, then develop it. If you can see the shadow, your safelight is too bright.
What kind of paper should I use? I'd strongly recommend using a good, resin-coated multigrade paper, like Ilford's
range, or Kodak's Polycontrast
III. Fiber-based paper - and I started out using this decades ago - is a major
pain in the rear end! By the time you get this kind of paper to dry, you'll
spend hours longer than you needed to. Modern resin-coated papers can pretty
much match the deep blacks and clear whites of the older fiber papers. All the filters from 0 - 3.5 use the same exposure, for a 4, 4.5 and 5 just double the time.
How difficult is it to develop film? Harder than boiling an egg, easier than changing the plugs on your car! If you can cook lunch or bake a cake, if you read up to here without using a dictionary, you'll have no problems. As I mentioned, the trickiest part is loading film onto a developing reel in the dark. Get that off pat, and you're made!
A funny story Massive Developing Chart
Copyright © 2001 by Mike Graham. All rights reserved. |
