home photo lab?

[angerisagift]

does anyone have any experience with converting a room in their home into a darkroom/photo lab/whatever you might call it?

its really only a fantasy of mine to have a photolab in my house (i was thinking of using a room in my basement that has no windows...) and i was wondering if anyone has any experiences to share or words of advice....

any feedback will be appreciated...im not sure i will even do this (at least in the near future) but i thought it would be an interesting thing and need some quidance seeing as i know very little about the construction of darkrooms..

thanks in advance
-sean :cool:

[Neballer]

It will need to be well ventilated and you will need running water as well.
other than that it just needs to be dark. ;)

[Mynock]

I would look at the costs for materials and liquids it can be pretty spendy before you start converting it into a dark room.

[PrintDriver]

The only times I've built darkrooms (3) is by converting a 1/2 bath or laundry room.

You gotta pull the sink and get a deeper wider model. Put it high enough to be comfortable when standing. Change the overhead light to a safe light (hopefully the vent fan is already installed or you'll have to do that too), put felt on the backside of the door to cover light leaks all around (including the bottom edge), paint the walls black, add shelving.

Keep the film fridge outside the darkroom. It gets too warm if inside.

We were always able to keep the toilet but for more space you may want it professionally capped or get a floor drain installed. You may have to reinstall the toilet to sell the house at some point.

If it isn't already done, change all outlets to GFCI and get your light switches professionally converted too. You need the switch inside the room and that may be against building code for a bathroom.

The only thing I've heard recently is that some municipalities may not like those chemicals going into the drain. Check. You may have to add a collector/filter to be legal...

[PersonasBinar]

Roomies of mine built a closet one out of the pantry in the kitchen once.
We didn't need the pantry as all we did was drink beer anyway.

We ran pipes, it was tiny but it worked...... yesyesyes to the venting.
Evil nasty smelly proposition though. Photography is fun but I've gone digital now.
I have one classic SLR left. I don't miss film one bit, no sir. As well Koadk has stopped making BW photo paper, and it's getting stupid expensive now.

It's a much more expensive hobby than it used to be.

YES YES to printdriver about the chems....they CAN'T go down the drain, getting cought doing that is bad.

[PrintDriver]

Fuji paper is better anyway.
:D

[angerisagift]

thanks all for all your advice....i probably wont get around to it any time soon seeing as i dont have a bathroom to convert, and it sounds like a bit of work to run pipes and vents and such, but i can still dream..:)...and all those issues with chemicals going in drains, i wouldnt have thought of that so thanks! i just loved playing in the darkroom at school last year and would like to do it more, but it does sound expensive buying all of the chemicals and papers in addition to converting the room....maybe someday...just probly not now.

thanks again to everyone

-sean

[PrintDriver]

Is there a studio building nearby? Someplace that rents to artist folk?
You could see if there is a photographer renting out his space. One of my buddies used to share his with another guy. Gotta buy your own supplies but maybe s/he already has the enlarger and other equipment...

[Loopy]

geez, I just wrote a nice long detailed response, and when I hit submit Explorer crashed. $%#@W :mad:

Anyways, I'm going to keep this short. You can set up a darkroom for fairly cheap, check out e-bay, bargin finders and local camera shops. If your in no hurry, look around. I once saw a free darkroom enlarger and supplies in the paper, but by the time I called it was too late.

Start off by printing black & white, its easier and cheaper. Chemicals won't run you too much. Paper is a bit more but 100 pack of 4x6 cost me $20.00 or something like that. Chemicals aren't too bad either expecially since you can use water as a stop and you can reuse your fixer.

My whole darkroom set up cost me $250, that includes chemicals (for print and film) paper, enlarger, lighting...everything but a timer. I don't use one and honestly I've been doing great without it.

So if you have anymore questions let me know.

-loOpy

[cjoe]

i have an excellent section in a book about setting up a dark room. but the best advice i can give is 1. Ventilation 2. Workflow - make sure you set up your room so you have a workflow happening, and make sure you have enough space to move around

[angerisagift]

printdriver- i dont think there is anything like that around here, as there isnt much of anything here, but ill be sure to keep that in mind and search around

Loopy- thanks for that info, it keeps my hopes up about someday doing it...what sort of room did u convert? 250 is great, you must be one hell of a bargain hunter. ill remember this and keep you in mind if i think of any more questions

cjoe- thanks for the advice. ventilation is turning out to be a big one and thanks for the workflow advice it makes perfect sence...i wouldnt want to be all over the place in a cramped area with no flow it would get confusing and very frustrating probably.

thanks a lot to all of you. you guys are great

-sean

[cjoe]

i'm scanning an illustration from the book, naughty i know, but it is the GDF.

edit: my scanner is not working for some reason. :( this may take some time...

[Loopy]

Loopy- thanks for that info, it keeps my hopes up about someday doing it...what sort of room did u convert? 250 is great, you must be one hell of a bargain hunter. ill remember this and keep you in mind if i think of any more questions

Actually most of my darkroom was an impulse buy, I went in to buy some film chemicals and ended up buying the enlarger and everything. Anyways, I converted my bathroom, its small but it does the trick.