Beginner's Guide to Darkroom Equipment
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A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DARKROOM EQUIPMENT
by J A Ollinger
Every so often darkroom beginners ask about what it takes to start a
darkroom, so I wrote this file as a short tutorial. This is not meant to be
encyclopedic; it's just a starting point and introduction.
A darkroom is just that--a light-tight area where film can be handled
without being exposed to light. It can be as large as a suite of rooms, or
it can be as small as changing bag. For a hobbyist it's usually a converted
bathroom, basement, closet, or a n add-on room. There are a number of books
on building home darkrooms, from spartan, temporary work areas to big,
permanent setups. A good library or bookstore ought to have them.
This file is going to deal with the Equipment needed, not the darkroom
itself.
I. Reference books.
I highly recommend getting a book on darkroom procedures. If you're
starting off, you don't need a thick textbook. A lot of people on
rec.photo.darkroom recommend the Ansel Adams books. They're great books,
but I don't think they are appropriate for be ginners. They're thick,
they're dense, and they're intimidating. They are very well written and
useful, but I believe they are better suited for people who are comfortable
with developing and printing first.
Kodak makes a book called BASIC DEVELOPING, PRINTING, ENLARGING IN BLACK &
WHITE (they also make one for color) that I highly recommend. It was the
book I started with and it was very handy. It is clearly written, heavily
illustrated, and easy to follow .
II. Tanks.
Roll film (35mm, 120, etc.) is almost always developed in tanks (except for
commercial labs, which run the film through machines), and these are almost
always "daylight tanks." A daylight tank is light-tight--the film is loaded
onto a reel in the dark, t hen the reel is placed in the tank, the cap is
put on, and then the rest of the work can be done in daylight without fear
of ruining the film. (The kind of tanks that are not light-tight have no
caps, and they're used for developing sheet film on hangars ).
Inside these tanks are the reels. The film gets wound onto these reels in a
spiral so that the film surfaces don't touch each other--this allows the
chemicals to cover all of the film surface.
If you look at a photo shop, you'll probably notice a number of different
makes and styles of tanks. You can easily divide these into two
kinds--stainless steel and plastic. Each has their advantages and
disadvantages.
Stainless steel: the best thing about these is that they're durable. You
can drop them on the floor and they won't break, whereas plastic may crack,
chip, or splinter. Even if you take good care of plastic it can still break
just from use--but unless you're Dennis the Menace you probably won't hurt
the steel tanks.
Steel tanks are also nice because they conduct heat well, a this makes them
useful when you're working with water jackets to control the chemical
temperature.
There are problems with steel tanks, though. First, if you get the kind of
tank with a steel cap, the cap may freeze on and be troublesome to remove
again. A lot of steel tanks have plastic lids which come off easier.
Unfortunately, plastic lids aren't as durable as steel.
Steel reels can also be troublesome. Some people have difficulty winding
the film onto steel reels. And if you drop them--they won't break, but they
may get knocked askew, which will make it much harder to load the film
properly.
Steel reels come in single-sizes--such as 35mm, 120, etc. You need at least
one reel to handle each film size you plan to develop. It used to be that
there were a lot of oddball sizes--35mm, 120, 616, 127, 110, and the like.
But thankfully (for our pur poses) most have been discontinued, and it's
just down to 35mm and 120. I don't know yet if the APS format will fit on a
35mm reel.
On the subject of reels--the thing I've found with stainless is that they
reels and tanks seem to be interchangeable. You can grab Acme's reel and
put it in a Smith-Jones tank.
Plastic tanks and reels are a very different. First, they tend to be
"systems" and they're all incompatible. If you buy a Patterson tank you'll
need Patterson reels. If you get a Jobo tank you'll need Jobo reels, etc.
Plastic units, particularly the b ig brands (Patterson and Jobo) can get
pricey, too. This is a lot like buying into a camera system--if you lay out
much money, you're going to be committed into the manufacturer's system for
awhile, and you'll have to look to that manufacturer for whatev er parts and
accessories you may need.
There are some nice things about them, though. The reels may have aids to
make loading the film easier. The reels may be adjustable, so that you can
make one reel handle both 35mm and 120 film, and that old 127 that was in
Uncle Oscar's baby Rolleiflex when he died. Plastic tanks may also have
larger, easier to open tops, they may fit special agitation motors, and they
may even fit into special water-jackets (for temperature control) and
processors. A good plastic tank and reels may be worthwhile if
you can afford them.
Some things to look for in a tank, no matter what you end up getting:
1) Durability. If you do much developing at all, you're going to be
putting some wear and tear on your tank, and it's going to do you no good at
all if it breaks and leaks chemistry or light at a critical time. Pay
particular attention to the top--how does it go on and off? Does it look
anything could get caught and snapped off if you don't put the top on
correctly?
2) How many pieces does it have? A good tank is going to be simple to
assemble, because you're going to have to put it together in the dark.
Some tanks look like puzzles. Beware of anything that requires parts to be
seated in a proper position because it'll probably be a pain to do in the
dark. Beware of anything that has more than a couple of parts to put in.
Beware of anything that looks like it might break, go down the drain, or
disappear easily. Try practice loading the tank (with your eyes c
losed) at the store before you buy it.
3) How much chemistry does this thing need? You may be surprised at the
difference in fluid requirements for different tanks to process the same
roll of film. A stainless steel tank typically requires 8 ounces for one
35mm roll of film, and 16 ounces fo r two 35mm rolls or one 120 roll. But a
plastic tank may require 9, 10 or more ounces per 35mm reel. This may seem
negligible, but if you're running one-shot development (i.e. you're dumping
the developer after one use), the extra few ounces add up quic kly. If it
takes more than, say, 18-20 ounces to fill up a two-35mm reel plastic tank,
start asking yourself if it's really a good tank or is it bad engineering?
[For what it's worth, I've had lousy plastic tanks that took 16 ounces.
Chemical economy isn't necessarily a sign of quality.]
4) How difficult are the reels to load? This is important. You have to
load reels in the dark, and it's real easy to screw it up. Many reels have
gimmicks to make them easier to load. If you can, try and load the reel at
the store--either with a roll of film they had laying around or from a roll
you brought in yourself. This is particularly useful if they have more
than one kind of reel and you don't know which one works better.
5) What kind of agitation method does it use? Agitation is where you stir
up the chemical inside the tank and keep the chemical reactions going evenly
and smoothly. There are, generally, three ways to do this.
A) Inversion. The tank has a water-tight cap you place on it after you pour
the liquid in. You pick up the tank and turn it upside down and then
right-side up again to agitate it. The good part is that this is the
tried-and-true method of agitation and it works pretty well. The bad part
is that if the tank isn't well sealed, the chemicals may leak when it's
inverted.
B) Spinning by a spindle. A spindle is attached to the reel and it sticks
up where you can grab it and spin it for a certain number of seconds. The
good part is that chemicals don't leak out and you don't have to flip it
over. The problems are--first, the film may walk off the reel and get stuck
to the side of the tank like clothes in a washing machine (I had an old FR
tank with this problem. But then, that FR tank had just about every
problem.) Second, some people find that the edges of the film dev elop more
than the center using the spin technique. Inversion agitation doesn't seem
to have this problem.
C) Spinning by motor. In this case, a watertight cap is placed on the top,
then the tank is set sideways onto a motorized base, which rolls the tank.
This is a nice, hands-free operation, but the motorized bases seem expensive
to me. I don't know if they suffer from the same uneven development
problems as spindle-spin tanks.
II. Chemicals and jugs.
A. Powder vs. liquid concentrate.
Darkroom chemicals usually come packaged either as a powder or a
concentrated liquid. Powders tend to be less expensive and bulky, but they
can be a pain. Often when pouring powders into mixing containers some of
the powder goes into the air like talcum , so it's best to mix chemicals
(particularly powders) in a well ventilated area. They also have may be
troublesome to dissolve completely in water.
Many chemicals come in liquid form, which I personally prefer. They mix
easily and they don't cloud the air the way powders do. Also some
liquids--Kodak's Indicator Stop Bath for example--can be mixed up in
whatever quantity is needed. Powder chemicals have to made to whatever
quantity is marked on the package.
B. Storage.
Darkroom chemicals have to be stored in bottles or jugs when they're not in
use. In B&W work, all of the steps except developers can be kept in any
decent bottle. I recommend plastic over glass, as plastic won't shatter if
it's dropped. This can be v ery important with darkroom work--not only are
you going to be handling bottles, but you'll be doing so when your hands and
the bottles may be wet. Plus some darkroom chemicals (some developers for
instance) are extra-slippery; it's too easy to inadverte ntly let a bottle
slip out of one's hands.
Developers have two special concerns that may affect the choice of
container:
First is that they're light-sensitive, so it's best to keep them in
dark-colored or opaque containers (unless the bottles are going to be stored
in a dark place most of the time).
Second is that developers leach oxygen--that's what they're doing with the
film--and they're more than happy to get it from the oxygen in the air when
nothing else is going on, which means the developer will go bad just sitting
on the shelf. All chemical s have shelf-lives, but developers are
particularly short.
There are a variety of ways to slow down this process.
1. One way is to store a batch of developer in small bottles--pints work
well. Fill all the bottles full so there's a minimum of air in each one,
and then just open a bottle as you need it.
2. One container I've seen has a floating lid and a spigot to draw fluid
off from the bottom. The great thing about it is that it keeps almost all
the air out with no hassles, it's easy to refill, and it's easy to see the
fluid level. The problem is th at the only one I've seen was far too big
(five gallons or so) and heavy (I think it was crockery) for my own
darkroom. The one's I've seen for sale are a bit pricey too.
3. There is a line of plastic containers called Air-Evac, I believe. They
fold up like bellows so that they can collapse down until the fluid level is
even with the top, and then you just screw the lid down. I don't have any
personal experience with o ne, but I've avoided them because they always
looked like they'd squirt out of my hands while I was trying to put the cap
on and I'd end up with chemicals all over. They also don't terribly easy to
hold while pouring, either.
4. Then there's the cube. You fill a clear plastic bag up with chemical,
put on the rubber spigot, then stuff it down into a cardboard box with a
hole cut out in front for the spigot to stick out. I used to like these
things because a) they set nicely on the shelf, b) they looked professional
when they were sitting on a row next to each other, and c) it was easy to
draw chemicals from the spigots.
I soured on them after awhile, though. After awhile the boxes got soft and
didn't hold the liquid bags very well. The spigots started to drip. I
couldn't easy tell the fluid level of the chemical (in a bottle it's
usually easy to see). The bags were tough to clean (and sometimes they
need to be cleaned). And I noticed the developer was changing colors.
After awhile it would turn a rich burgundy color. For awhile I thought it
was spent, but old developer usually turns more of a sludge brown. I st
ill am not sure what was going on.
5. Personally, I use a regular brown bottle--but I take a deep breath, hold
it as long as I can, and then gently exhale it into the bottle. Then I
screw the cap on. The carbon dioxide replaces the free-oxygen in the air
and the developer doesn't seem t o go bad from it.
C. Stop baths.
The stop bath is really a step, not a chemical. It halts the action of the
developer by lowering the PH of the residual developer on the film below the
working threshold. One the PH drops below a certain level (I believe it's
8), the developer stops wor king.
If you want to save money and you have a lot of water, you can use water to
do it. Water has a PH of 7, so it's not very efficient. If you use water
for film, fill the film tank up with fresh water, agitate it for a minute,
and then dump it. Do this te n times. For B&W prints, try running water
for a couple minutes.
The most common stop bath is acetic acid, which has a PH of around 3. That
makes it very efficient and it saves a lot of water. I suggest getting
Indicator Stop Bath, which has a chemical that turns color when the PH level
gets too high. Kodak's Indica tor Stop Bath is normally orange under room
light and clear under the safelight. When it's spent it turns purple under
room light and looks dark under the safelight.
Photo stores sell acetic acid in concentrate form, often in two
strengths--28% and glacial (98%). Glacial is this cheapest by bulk because
a pint of it makes a huge amount of working stop bath. On the other hand,
it's nasty stuff. It's very strong, so if there's an accident it can burn
your skin and wreak havoc with your eyes. A good whiff of it can send you
out the door for fresh air. For home darkroom use, 28% is a much better
buy. One pint of 28% makes a lot of working stop bath, and working stop
bath lasts a long time in B&W work (color, on the other hand, is much harder on it).
D. Fixer
Fixer is the last major step for B&W work. There are several different
kinds of fixers available. For beginners I recommend plain old fixer, as
opposed to Rapid Fixer and non-hardening fixers and the like. I also
recommend (for beginners) using a one -bath process. Once you get to where
you're making prints you are really happy with and want to keep them, then
look into a two-bath system.
I also recommend (for beginners) using a one-bath process. Once you get to
where you're making prints you are really happy with and want to keep them,
then look into a two-bath system.
III. Misc. items for developing film
Those are the basic B&W chemicals, but you can add others to suit your
needs. Edwal makes a fixer test solution in a small bottle. You put a
couple drops in the fixer and if a precipitate forms, the fixer is spent.
It's a decent investment.
A lot of people use a hypo-clearing agent, which efficiently gets rid of the
fixer on the print and cuts down the wash time. Fixer used to be "hypo,"
back when the main ingredient, sodium thiosulfate, was called sodium
hyposulfate. Thus the name "hypo-c lear."
Another useful item is a wetting agent (Kodak's version is called "Photo
Flo.") The wetting agent reduces the surface tension of the water on the
film, and makes it much easier to squeegee it off when you dry the film.
This cuts down the chance of getti ng water spots.
Note: color chemicals are most often sold in kits, with all the chemicals
packaged together. The manufacturer should explain any special bottling and
handling requirements for each item.
Changing bags are can be very useful. It's a large, light-tight bag that
looks kind of light a coat that was sewn shut. One puts the film and the
developing tank into the bag and zips it shut, and then puts his hands into
each of the armholes. He can then open the film inside the changing bag and
load it into the tank. These are very convenient for people who don't have
a regular darkroom. I still find mine useful for extracting film out of
cameras that have jammed in the field.
IV. Enlargers
I'm not going to address the subject of enlargers here. I wrote a file similar to this devoted exclusively to enlargers. It's called THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ENLARGERS. It is available by anonymous ftp at:
Site: ftp.netcom.com
Directory: pub/ja/jaollnge
Filename: darkroom.txt
V. Safelights
The job of the safelight is to provide illumination without fogging
(exposing) your material. Different kinds of materials are sensitive (or
blind) to certain kinds of light, so it is important to get the right color.
Film and color papers are usually not used with safelights because they're
sensitive to just about everything we can see--so if you can see it, the
film will see it too. Safelights that can be used with film and color
papers are usually too dim to be of much you.
B&W papers mostly use an amber colored light. Kodak's filter for it is
called OC.
Like anything, there are a variety of different kinds of safelights that run
the gamut on price.
The cheapest ones I've seen are just red bulbs, which I've never tried and
don't trust.
The next step up is the one I started with, a little Kodak Brownie that
looked a lot like a tail-light from an old car. It was about the size of
a peach and it screwed into a standard light socket. It put out a
surprising amount of light.
This little guy was very useful. When I started out I'd set up my darkroom
in the bathroom. I'd grab a lamp and put the safelight in that and set the
lamp in the corner. Later I got a more permanent setup. The bathroom had
two lights each on its own switch. One was the regular light. The other
was a high-intensity heat-lamp that was supposed to help dry oneself off
after taking a shower. The heat-light never got used, so I replaced with
the safelight.
Now I've replaced it with a larger lamp, the kind that looks like a
headlight off of a Model T. It also screws into a standard lightbulb
socket. The nice thing about it is that I can easily get different colored
filters for it. Of course, I've yet to a ctually use those other filters,
because most are so dark they're useless.
The one thing I don't like about the new light is that it's fairly
directional (downward) and I get a lot of strong shadows that make it harder
to see what I'm trying to see.
The best safelight I've seen is expensive, but it's the kind that's a box
that hangs from the ceiling, and it has flaps on the top that can be set to
different levels. The light bounces off the ceiling, which makes for a
little better illumination, and t he intensity adjustment is a nice thing to
have. It's really overkill for my little darkroom, but it does have its
advantages.
VI. Timers
There's an absolutely bewildering number of timers on the market. The low
end ones are nothing more than regular kitchen timers where you turn the
knob to the desired time and it dings when its done. The expensive ones
tend to have memories for differe nt times settings, and will handle very
precise time intervals.
Timers are used for two things--during the exposure of the print, and during
the chemical processing of the print. Depending on your budget and how
resourceful you are, there are any number of strategies for using timers in
your darkroom. But for the p urposes of this discussion, I'll break them
down into Enlarger and Process timers.
The enlarger timer controls the light on the enlarger for the exposure of
the print. You can do this by hand using the enlarger on-off switch, but if
you have to dodge and burn it this can be inconvenient. Typical enlarger
timers have a socket for the e nlarger to plug into. You flip a "focus"
switch which turns the enlarger light on for as long as the switch is
on--which allows you to compose and focus the image. When you're ready to
expose, you flip the focus switch off, set the timer for the desired
interval, and then press a button which will flip the enlarger light on for the desired time.
The older timers, such as the Time-o-Lite, are mechanical count-down timers.
You set the timer for the desired time, push the button, and when it gets to
zero it automatically resets to the desired time. It's simple but it works.
More modern and expensive timers tend to be digital and have various time
settings in memory. They also have fractional settings, like tenths of
seconds, which are easy to set and repeat. An old Time-o-Lite doesn't set
precisely below one-second interva ls.
I advise beginners on a budget to get a simple mechanical type, like a
Time-o-Lite, and use the money saved on other things. Trade up to a better
timer later as the features become more value.
Process timers, unless they're running some kind of film processing machine,
are more straightforward and simpler. All they have to do is count down
time intervals. The best ones are those that can be read and set in the
dark. The fancier ones will hav e memories so you can preset all the times
for each step and let the timer go through them.
My favorite is the venerable Gralab 300 (and its older version, the Gralab
100). It's a square block with a clock face calibrated 0-60. The face is
luminous and the hands are easy to read and set in the dark. For printing I
use the timer in its simples t form--I start the thing at 59:59 and let it
count down to zero uninterrupted. Thus if I put my paper in the developer
at 45:30, I let the hand sweep the face twice to 43:30 and pull it out at
that point. I could do the same thing with a clock with a
luminous sweep second hand.
VII. Trays
There are two considerations for trays, size and features.
The size of the tray ought to be one step larger than the biggest print you
will normally make. This allows a little room around the edges to get
fingers or tongs onto the paper. If you put 8x10 paper into an 8x10 tray,
it can be very difficult to extra ct it again without bending or wrinkling
it.
The main special feature of a tray is contouring on the bottom of the tray.
A cheap tray will have a flat bottom, and the print may get stuck to the
bottom of the tray and be difficult to remove (particularly if the paper is
the same size as the tray). The better trays will have some kind of
contouring to keep the paper from sticking flat to the bottom of the tray.
One that I saw has little ridges that are raised on one end of the tray so
that it's easy to get fingers or tongs under one side of the pri nt. Other
ones I've seen have huge ridges across the bottom. The problem with huge
ridges is that the print ends up sitting well off the bottom of the tray,
and you have to fill the tray to a higher level to make sure the paper is
covered completely.
The better trays will have some sort of easy pour spout on one of the
corners, too, so that the chemistry can be poured out with less chance of
slopping it all over.
VIII. Misc. items for printing photographs
Photography is a hobby that's particularly prone to gimmicks and tools.
Here's a short list of stuff that's commonly available:
1) Lintless cotton gloves. I recommend them for handling negatives.
2) Stirring rods. These things are used for mixing chemicals. They're
useful but don't spend much on one. A big kitchen stirring spoon should do
the same thing.
3) Projection print scale. This is a little pie-shaped step wedge that
Kodak makes. You put it on the paper and make a 60-second test exposure and
then pick the step that looks like it's exposed about right. It's very
useful for beginners and it's a good, low-tech tool that doesn't have to be
calibrated or voltage regulated or slide-ruled t o use it.
4) Dodging and burning tools. These things can be useful if you need them,
though I've been too cheap to buy any myself. I make what I need with
cardboard and a sharp knife.
5) Filtered funnels. I hate them, though I own one. The filter cuts the
flow rate way down and it's very easy to overfill the funnel and slop
chemicals all over. They're great if you have to filter a lot of crud out
of the liquid. But it seems to me that if you have to filter a lot of crud
out of the liquid, you've got problems that a filtered funnel won't cure.
6) Loupe. It's that little magnifying eyeglass that jewelers use to examine
gems. They're useful for examining negatives and slides. Prices range
from fairly cheap ($10 or so) to outrageous. I'd suggest starting with
cheap and buy a better one if you use it a lot.
7) Focusing magnifier. This is kind of like a loupe, but you put it under
the enlarger and examine the projected image. Also commonly known as grain
magnifiers, they're used for critical focus. Like loupes, they run from
cheap to outrageous. I sugges t starting out with cheap and going up from
there.
8) Paper safe: these are light-tight boxes that you can store paper in
conveniently while the lights are on. They're a nice convenience but I
wouldn't recommend them for beginners on a tight budget. Spend the money on
other things.
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jaol...@netcom.com - J Ollinger
I little loneliness is a small price to pay for a lack of aggravation.
I can't write out my demons. Writing *is* one of my demons.
The John Barry Resource: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/jaollnge/jbarry.htm
san...@suzy.torolab.ibm.com
: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO DARKROOM EQUIPMENT
: by J A Ollinger
An excellent overview. If you can, keep it ftp'able and keep reminding
people that it exists.
A couple of suggestions of things to mention:
film clips for hanging film to dry
squeegees for both film and prints
drying racks or clips to hang prints
tray siphons to print washers
Thanks,
Sandor