My Darkroom

I thought I would share some thoughts about my darkroom, and what I hope for in its next reincarnation, as in a few short months it will have to be packed up for wherever its next home will be.

We purchased our current home in December 2002, from  Bill and Margaret Brudon.  It was a private sale, and it all came about because Bill had been a great mentor in photography to me, and we always enjoyed their home.  We moved a mile and sold the home we had purchased in 1984 and in the span of a few days, closed on two home transactions, cleaned the old house, and moved into our current home, which, because it did not go on the open market, was much like moving into your parent's old house.  My wife and I did a lot of cleaning and decluttering, and we never missed our old home once.  This house is a mid-century home with real plaster walls, cove ceiling in the living and dining rooms, red oak flooring (which is just now being refinished this week).  It also came with a 5x7 darkroom in the basement, fully furnished, since Bill was leaving that behind.  This darkroom allowed me to explore b&w photography as much as I wished, and I have spent many hours there developing film, listening to music, or more recently, The Film Photography Podcast, and WCBN FM, a public radio station at UM that plays an amazing variety of music.

I have not printed a single b&w photo in the past 3 years, and I miss doing that.  I used to print a lot, and got fairly good results, but now I only print if I am doing a show.  That  seems a bit stupid in hindsight, but I really didn't want to be inundated with prints without a purpose.  I hope to change that in the coming years, and wherever our new home will be, it will have to have space for my new expanded darkroom.   I am torn as to take the darkroom sink with me, or leave it.  It's perfect for the space that it is now.  I'll have to wait and see how I feel as a real move approaches. 

The walls on one side are paneling, and as you can see, cassette wrappers are stuck to it.  The other sides are masonite peg board, which had been painted black by Bill.  My new space will have no black walls.  This is a comfortable one-person darkroom. Put two people in there, and it's awfully close.  I want to be able to do film photography workshops in the future, so more space would be desirable.

This darkroom has performed well for two different photographers, and I very much doubt the next owner of the house will want it used.  Maybe it will make a good space for something other than photography, but I suppose it will get torn out someday.    A lot of "me time" has been spent there, developing, thinking, and isolated from whatever is going on outside in the world.   Those of you that have a darkroom will know what I mean.   It's not so much that one is isolated, but free from distraction to print and to ponder, to develop that next roll of film and still feel the magic that is inherent in the process, and to think about new projects and continuing old ones.

So, sometime in the next few months, I will be boxing all of the stuff up to take to a new adventure.  I have already divested myself of materials and equipment that I don't need or use, and while there will still be some junk to be tossed, everything else goes to NC with us.

How to cook your film

I know that it is the end of what seems to be the longest month of the year...January. It seems like January has 40 days, doesn't it?   The calendar assures that it is only 31, but I swear there is an extra week hidden in there.  Perhaps it is because we are so damn busy in December with holidays, parties, birthdays, etc. that January seems so long.  In any case, it's also one of those months that I find myself catching up with things that got put on the back burner, like developing film.  I have been working through developing and scanning a lot of rolls of C-41 film that I shot in the second half of 2017.  One new thing that has made my work go so much easier has been one of those immersion heaters for Sous Vide cooking.  I had seen them being used for C-41 and E-6 processing as heaters for water baths to bring the chems up to the proper temperature, and keep it there.  So, I ordered one online from Amazon for $68.00. It's a Sous Vide Immersion Stick Pod by Primo Eats, and it's an amazing device. Although designed for slow-cooking food, it makes a perfect water heater with thermostat control and a rotor that circulates the water.  The temperature range is 5-100° C, so having the water bath at 38.5°C is not a problem.  In fact, I could set it for 20°C for b&w processing, too.  This has saved me a lot of water -- I had been using hot water from the tap to heat up the chemistry; and has saved me lots of time, as well.  I can set everything up in the water bath, turn on the stick pod, and go off and do other things until the chemistry is up to the right temp.  The device heats up the water quite quickly, but of course, the chemistry in the bottles also has to be heated by the water circulating around them.  Once it's at the proper temperature, you can be sure that it will stay there while it is in the water bath. This will give you more control over your processing, for sure.

Set the temp and let it heat up.

I label my tanks with numbers that correspond to how
many rolls I have processed in a batch of chemistry. I usually
stop at 20 rolls.

So far, so good.  The film has come out great, and I no longer worry about whether the temperature has changed. I also put the developing tank in the water bath in between rotations, just to make sure it is staying where it should be.

And here are a few shots from my Pentax K1000 and Lomo 400 color film, from last May-June.

Developing B&W Film. Just Do It.

It's been sort of interesting seeing some people in social media look for easy ways to develop film. Some people seem to think that there should be a shortcut for immediate results.  Others think that only a darkroom will enable them to develop film, and then there are some that want to develop the film in the canister, etc.  While I understand that there are inquiring minds out there, and there is always a guy saying something about "inventing a better way," I want to tell you this: THE NEGATIVE IS YOUR STARTING POINT.  DON'T FUCK IT UP!

Hanging to dry.

While my comment above may seem a bit harsh, let me explain.  You will learn nothing about development if your first inclination is to short-cut a process that you know little about.  I get it, we all like things to be easy. But things get easier the more you do them and become more familiar with the routine.  Think about the first time you drove a car. So many things to watch for!  After a short while, you get comfortable with it.  After a long while, you hardly have to think about what you are doing, but you still have to pay attention.  It's no different with developing film.  You can't get to your destination without putting in the time.  You can't expect it to be any different with photography.  The negative is your base piece of information. Film costs money. Why would you want to potentially ruin an image that you took the time to compose and shoot. Does your photography mean that little to you?  Believe me, many have tried quick methods, "time-savers" for developing film, and those methods have been found to be a waste.  If they were not, they would have been widely adopted. But they were not.   Some of the reasons we see people wanting shortcuts are probably as follows:
(1) coming entirely from a digital background to film
(2) not being mentored by a film user, nor taking any class in traditional photography
(3) not reading any books about darkroom practice
(4) impatience and/or ignorance because of the above

So, you have some b&w film.  It's easy to develop if you keep things simple.  To start, use only one developer. Use only one type of film.  Then, when you think you have a handle on things, you can begin to explore other developer/film combinations.  Some people get so into trying many films and developers that they never really achieve a consistent result to know what actually works well. So, keep it simple and become proficient with one film and developer so that you know what a good negative looks like.  I have lost track of how many rolls I have developed, -- it's certainly in the thousands.  Even then, I do not get complacent.

You need:
daylight developing tank with adjustable reels (Paterson style tank)
dial thermometer
plastic jugs for developer and fixer. You can use water as a stop bath.
plastic measuring cups or graduated cylinders for mixing
sink with running water
timer
film changing bag or a completely dark space to load the film into the reels to be placed into the developing tank.

Some of these items are available at the Film Photography Project Store.

About chemicals -- Most b&w photochemistry is relatively benign, and except for used fixer, it is safe to dump down the drain.  Unless you are doing industrial volumes, that is.  I don't think that applies to any of us.  While I may say Kodak D-76, it's actually available more cheaply from Freestyle as Legacy Pro L-76 developer, which is what I have been using as of late.

You can download an app for your smartphone that will time your development process from the folks at the Massive Development Chart.  That will also save you time looking up development times online.

When I started developing my own film in 2000 after a hiatus of 26 years, I had just the basic equipment and supplies.  I didn't have a darkroom then, and used a changing bag.  I practiced a lot with a junk roll of film to get adept at loading it in the changing bag.  I used plastic reels then, and still do. They just work better for me --  thousands of rolls later, I still use them.

My recommendation for a film/developer combo --
Ilford HP-5+ and Kodak D76 mixed 1 part water to 1 part stock solution for 11 minutes developing time at 20 degrees C.    This makes the developer a one-shot use, and is quite economical.  That makes total time for development, fixing, washing at about 25 minutes.

There are numerous videos on  YouTube to show how to develop film.  Most are useful if you have not done it before. The Ilford pdf on b&w developing is also very useful.  I highly recommend The Basic Darkroom Book by Tom Grimm, but there are many other books available.

Once you have your negatives dry, you can scan them and do whatever post-processing you wish. Or, you can print them in a darkroom, which is a whole chapter by itself.  Store your negatives in strips in the PrintFile Archival preservers. I use the sheets that hold 7 strips of 35mm, 5 across.  You may like the ones that hold 6 strips of 6 across.  I use the 120 sheets too.  Store them in 3 ring binders.  label them so that you know what, when, where, why, and how.  Keep a notebook and record your developing.

Does this sound like a lot of work?  It really is not.  But if you are unable to develop at home, you can send it out to The Darkroom and they will do it.   However, you are missing out at one of the things that makes film photography special. Take the time to do it yourself, and you will see and appreciate the magic.

Bill Bresler, shot on HP-5+.