darkroom

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A dark room in a high school, which is part of the school's photography classroom.

A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 1800s. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adams ^[1] to a retooled ambulance wagon used by Timothy O'Sullivan.^[2] From the initial development to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium.

Due to the popularity of color photography and complexity of processing colour film (see C-41 process) and printing color photographs and also to the rise, first of Polaroid technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are decreasing in popularity, though are still commonplace on college campuses and in the studios of many professional photographers.

Darkroom equipment

A portable darkroom in 19th century Ireland. The wet collodion photography process, used at the time, required that the image be developed while the plate was still wet, thus giving rise to portable darkrooms such as this one.

In most darkrooms, an enlarger, an optical apparatus similar to a slide projector, that projects the image of a negative onto a base, finely controls the focus, intensity and duration of light, is used for printmaking. A sheet of photographic paper is exposed to the enlarged image from the negative.

When making black and white prints, a safelight is commonly used to illuminate the work area. Since the majority of black and white papers are sensitive to only blue, or to blue and green light, a red- or amber-coloured light can be safely used without exposing the paper.

Colour print paper, being sensitive to all parts of the visible spectrum, must be kept in complete darkness until the prints are properly fixed. However a safelight equipped with a Kodak 13 Safelight Filter (amber) and a 7½-watt bulb can be used for color printing if necessary, the safelight must be kept at least 4 feet (1.2 metres) from the paper to prevent fogging, or accidental exposure.^[3]. A 'paper-safe' - a light-proof box to safely store photographic paper not immediately required. Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

Another use for a darkroom is to load film in and out of cameras, development spools, or film holders, which requires complete darkness. Lacking a darkroom, a photographer can make use of a changing bag, which is a small bag with sleeved arm holes specially designed to be completely light proof and used to prepare film prior to exposure or developing.

Print processing

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Main article Photographic printing

During exposure, values in the image can be adjusted, most often by "dodging" (reducing the amount of light to a specific area of an image by selectively blocking light to it for part or all of the exposure time) and/or "burning" (giving additional exposure to specific area of an image by exposing only it while blocking light to the rest). Filters, usually thin pieces of colored plastic, can be used to increase or decrease an image's contrast (the difference between dark tones and light tones). After exposure, the photographic printing paper (which still appears blank) is ready to be processed.^[4]

Photographers generally begin printing a roll of film by making a contact print of their negatives to use as a quick reference to decide which images to enlarge. Some large format photographers, such as Edward Weston, make only contact prints of their large (4x5", 5x7", 8x10" or larger) negatives.

The paper that has been exposed is processed, first by immersion in a photographic developer, halting development with a stop bath, and fixing in a photographic fixer. The print in then washed to remove the processing chemicals and dried. There are a variety of other, additional steps a photographer may take, such as toning.

See also

• Photographic plate
• Stop bath
• List of photographic processes
• Photographic studio
• Digital darkroom

References

1. ^ http://www.danmassey.co.uk/darkroom/Darkroom_layout_and_equipment.htm
2. ^ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA99/paul/tim/forhistory.html
3. ^ http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/k4/k4Recomnd.shtml
4. ^ http://www.instructables.com/pdf/How-to-Print-BW-Photographs-in-a-Darkroom/How-to-Print-BW-Photographs-in-a-Darkroom.pdf

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Darkrooms

• Instructions for Setting Up A Darkroom in Your Home
• Black and white darkroom resource center
• Darkroom safety
• Darkroom Discussion
• A collection of chemical recipes for the darkroom