RE: Darkening a Darkroom
Bill, If it's solely alt work you intend and you're working with inkjet negs - and not doing conventional enlarging - it probably doesn't need to be completely dark; you don't need absolute blackness for handling printing-out materials and lined curtains should block UV from outside effectively enough. If you need to develop camera films, use a changing bag. But minimise unnecessary exposure by using a box for drying coated papers. If you have chemicals to hand, choose a bright day and run a test with curtain fabric temporarily affixed over the window: coat your paper, dry it in the dark, then allow a *reasonable* amount of exposure to the light of your semi-dark laundry room (half an hour, say, to simulate normal handling of the paper on a *slow day*) and process without exposing under your UV lights. Any perceptible density will indicate that you ought to seek a better solution, but if there's none, there's probably no need. Liam -----Original Message----- From: Bill King [mailto:bill@billkingphoto.com] Sent: 21 October 2006 00:03 To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca Subject: Darkening a Darkroom After lurking on this list for a long time, I'm finally forging ahead to make my own prints. So that I can get started, I am converting my laundry room into a multipurpose laundry room/darkroom for alt-processes. For those of you who aren't able to dedicate a room full-time to alt-processes, what techniques have you used to make the room dark? Are there particularly good materials for blocking light (possibly black garden plastic)? Have you come up with clever ways of attaching these materials so that they could be taken down (or at least be unobtrusive) when needed? I have a small window (which can remain blacked out) and a door (which needs to be functional for laundry too) to worry about. Thanks so much, Bill
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