hi. I'm a very novice photographer and am interested in developing my own film. I was wondering what lighting elements are needed for a darkroom. What kind of light do I need? does the room have to be completely sunlight free? etc. Anything will help. I'm completely ignorant. thanks.

-- Natalie Siek (photograffiti@hotmial.com), December 31, 1998

Answers

I suggest you visit a library or bookshop for a complete description of darkrooms, or try the articles in B&W World, the 'parent' of this forum.

However, here's a brief, specific answer.

You should distinguish between processing a film (ie just creating the negatives), and printing the negatives.

Processing a film requires complete darkness for about 5 minutes, just to load the film into the processing tank. The actual processing can them be done in light. By 'complete darkness' I mean zero light. You should not be able to see anything at all, even when you have been there for ten minutes.

B&W printing is done with a 'safelight', which is actually a low power bulb (e.g. 15 W) coloured red (or amber, or orange...). Ideally, there should be no other light at all. Switch off the safelight, and the room is in complete darkness. In practice, you can get away with a little leakage from door or windows, but this must be very low compared to the level of the safelight.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), January 02, 1999.

Great advice from Alan. Another alternative is to take an inexpensive introductory darkroom course at a community center etc.

-- andy laycock (agl@intergate.bc.ca), January 03, 1999.

I have a site which might help, it's at http://DarkroomSource.com/ I hope this helps,

Andy.

-- Andy Hughes (andy@darkroomsource.com), January 04, 1999.