Basic Home Darkroom: Setup + DIY Printing Easel Tutorial
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- Опубликовано: 11 авг 2020
- Showing two basic darkroom setups with minimal space and no running water. Storage room corner in Berlin and a bathroom darkroom in France: how they were made and what's the basic equipment you need to make a printing space of your own. We are going through enlargers, timers, positioning trays and red lights... I'm also addressing washing and drying of fiber-based papers without fancy devices.
Darkroom printing easels are my personal pain, as I've only encountered one in my life that was amazing (but it was someone else's). This brand doesn't exist anymore + is impossible to find. All existing ones are imo overpriced for what they do. That's why I started making easels myself, which saves a lot of money and nerves.
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At 09:13 I'm giving a summary of the darkroom equipment
At 10:16 starts the DIY easel tutorial
Fiber-Based Paper Washing Methods video - • Archival Washing of Fi...
Split Filter Printing video - • Split Filter Printing:...
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All the below links are non-affiliate, if you have better/cheaper options - please feel free to leave them in the comments.
• Analog darkroom starter kit for 35mm - www.fotoimpex.com/analog-star...
• Super cute red LED torch from Heiland www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/he...
• I love those print tongs, they are the best (and I totally hate the bamboo and metal ones), I don't know why people complain in reviews - www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...
• Drying stand for prints (especially good for RC, imo FB ones become WAY too wavy) www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/ka... or www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...
• I like this timer, basic and reliable. I have three of those in my Florence darkroom - www.macodirect.de/en/darkroom... (twice as much on bhphotovideo - weird)
• Totally adequate print washer www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/pa...
2:07 airplane mode iPhone in pocket with metronome running at 60 bpm has served me excellently
Great idea! Ansel Adams used metronomes too!
Indeed, this is how most people printed their family pictures, most of the time! Adapted rooms, trays carried to a sink somewhere else etc. etc. Most of the 'amateur darkrooms' one sees on video are larger and more luxuriously equipped than the one I worked in professionally for years. A useful washing tip is to look for the leak-tray that goes under a washing-machine, as these are bigger than two feet square and ideal for washing anything up to 20x16" (where space is available of course, but washing doesn't have to be in the dark).
Great video, I have been working in waterless non permanent darkrooms ever since I started in 1990... I also use a sef made easel, used a steel base plate, the heavier weight makes it stay in place and it's magnetic all over :)
Love it! Brings me back to my memories of very first darkroom I built in laundry room in basement of our home back in 1990s Poland 🇵🇱 now I’m setting one up in oregon usa
I bet you had a Krokus enlarger
Lot's of great ideas, thanks. My darkroom is almost ready! Can't wait to do my first print.
A great DIY video :D Makes setting up look so simple!!! Red light headlamp...very familiar with those being an astronomer. Saves my eyesight of a night time and doesn't disturb anyone else.
Once again, thank you for uploading this video!
Nice to see you again.
That easel design is pure gold! I'll be printing much larger soon, so I'm definitely going to use your design. Thanks for sharing!
I actually first made this easel for printing 50x60 (20x23"), because a real one of this size costs a fortune
@@linabessonova Exactly!
thanks for sharing how to make your own easel! this is a gonna be a game changer for me 😊
Hey Lina, good to see you again. Glad to see that you're doing well. Nice video btw :)
Thank you! This one was pretty improvised and shot on an iPhone, I have more already filmed with a normal camera:)
Love your videos Lina! So informative. I now wash my FB prints by filling tray with water, then dump after five minutes and repeat. And I understand split filtering so much more now and use that for most of my photos. Always look forward to your next videos.
I'm so happy my videos are helpful!
That tray tower is a great idea!
Yay youre back!!
Great and unique RUclips channel and with a female photographer and business person :) Absolutely awesome!
I use read LED lamps. They come in the same size as 12 V halogen incandescent bulbs with integrated reflector. But they actually contain red LEDs. Just use a 12 V halogen lightning system and replace the bulbs with the red LED lamps.
To block light: By at a hardware store the black foil / plastic sheet, that is used to build garden ponds. (German: Teichfolie) It is cheap, quite durable and absolutely light tight. I even used it to build a wide angle bellows for my Cambo 4x5.
To agitate the water in the washing tray I use a small pump as is used in fish tanks or in tabletop fountains. Cheap, easy, very effective.
A friend dries fiber based paper on his refrigerator door. At the outside of course. That is because the fridge door is iron and magnets stick to it. Put the wett print face up on the fridge door and fix the sides with those "super" magnets. The magnets keep the paper straight and flat while drying.
The easel is a great idea. I build something similar, but much more complicated. Your solution is much simpler and easier to build.
Also great for a small space dark room: Paper drums instead of trays and a simple roller board for the drum. Maybe get a Durst Comot...
I liked the home made easel. I think most people over complicate their first darkroom. Great to see a simple set up. My first was on a little trolley with wheels. I would roll it into the bathroom then roll it away. I now have a proper room with four enlargers. The quality of my prints did not improve. It is just easier now.
Great darkrooms setup and nice tips. I'd really like to see the development/stop/fix in progress with the vertical trays set. cheers^^
It's okay, not super convenient of course, but not bad either. A wider table and trays forming king of a "pyramid"would be better.
Привет Лина ! Thanks a lot for this video which gave me a lot of ideas for my own darkroom. Your self made easel is amazing !
Привет! You're absolutely welcome!
Спасибо большое ! I live in the East of France close to the switz border, I think that at the time beeing you're not so far from my area... I wish you great photos and a lot of pleasure in your new darkroom !
Great job 🙏🏻
So useful! Thank you for all the tips :)
Hi Lina you have returned to your marvelous blue hair That is wonderfull Best regards from a photographer of ARGENTINA
Fantastic Video! Darkroom printing can be done almost anywhere with a bit of thought and creativity.
Oh yes, I thought of going extra super basic and making an enlarger from a cardboard box and a lamp, but thought it's too much :D
I've just setup my darkroom, it's not permanent as I use my bathroom. Also done the cardboard easel. Neat idea stacking the trays, I should look into that. Thanks Line 👍
Cardboard easels are basically the best!
Today my comment and my "Like" both are 100 and 1000 under the 1st video I watch today here...:))) Thank you, Lina for your wonderul channel! Продолжайте, творите!
Worth waiting for! :-)
Awesome video! When I moved into my current house there was a spare bathroom I thought would make a great darkroom. Five years later...
haha you still can do it ;)
I click as soon as I see the notification Lina is on :)
In a small space, stacking the trays is a lifesaver. I use a letter organiser that I found on Amazon. The stacked trays sit on a makeshift table next to the enlarger with a splash guard between them, and the whole rig fits into the bath tub in my bathroom. For red light I use one of the big Delta bright lab bulbs in a cheap utility lamp from the hardware store.
Yes, letter trays are a great option, and easier to clean too!
Hey Lina! Cool channel! Just found out about it. Never thought of putting the trays in a drawer system like that which will definitely help my little darkroom save some space.
Happy you liked it! :)
I keep things simple. My easel is a piece of glass hinged to the enlarger baseboard with tape, with three small pieces of print paper taped to the board, two to align the long edge and one to locate the short edge of the print.
That's also a solution! I just would find it a bit hard keeping the glass dust-free.
Прикольненько! креативненько! Интересненько даже не только новичкам, но и адекватным гуру. Лина, благодарствую за полезные видосики! Я конечно понимаю - Европа, европейские ценности и полезности и совершенно иной уровень жизни... Но всё таки - давай побольше видеороликов на Великом Русском языке !!! Здесь тоже немало поклонников милой сердцу аналоговой плёночной фотографии! Заранее спасибо!!!
Даже один такой ролик снять - это много часов работы и монтажа. Я с ужасом представляю, как это снимать и монтировать дважды ))) В самом начале, много лет назад, был такой порыв, но сдулся
@@linabessonova Я всё понимаю, так как сам снимаю видео и монтирую, есть каналы на ютубе. Но не надо дважды. Так, хотя бы иногда снимайте коротенькие видео не только на иностранном, но и на русском языке. Да и монтировать не нужно - что сняли, то и заливайте без монтажа. Кому нужно, тот и так оценит.
I have the exact same Durst enlarger. My Father bought it in the 70's and it is still like new. I use a nice set of El Nikkor lenses with it.
I absolutely love Durst enlargers. They're just elegant and unbreakable
Love your work Lina.@@linabessonova
The white lamp is absolutely essential and ideally daylight balanced bright LED. Also a hairdryer for drying your test strips!
I'm guessing you could also use a hair dryer to dry your main prints too? That was my plan - to dry them a bit like that (for maybe 30 seconds or a minute) and then leave them to air dry.
Nice video. #darktoilets :) You could push this a bit further by having the enlarger on a cart or rolling table, and use then an existing bathroom only when you need to print. Among tips I have seen:
- A rolling table wide enough to roll over the toilets could give you extra space
- You can buy stacked plastic drawers that you can use directly as trays. It will save some DIY time.
- People use old ironing tables, then place it in the bathtub to have additional table space for the trays
- You can combine bull clips (they have strong flat clamp) and shower curtain hooks for great film hangers. You can also find in these $1 asian stores cheap plastic hangers that have tiny clamps working quite well too
Awesome! Thanks!
This was very well timed feature for me. I'm currently putting up a darkroom but my flat has very limited space for it.
best of luck with your new darkroom!
@@linabessonova Thank you and keep this kind of tutorials coming👍🙂
I have one of those opemus 6 enlargers. Can’t wait to upgrade though
Yeah, they are great as a start, but nothing beats a really nice high quality enlarger
I'm setting up my darkroom at home and my biggest challenge is to darken my studio on the top of the house with three windows. I will use velcro tape and black out fabric. Will see how it works. I have a couple of red LED light bulbs.
Hi Lina, the front head light you suggested isn't too strong for the new polytheistic cards, Tks this video helped me for my dark room.
Thank you for this! Wondering how you went about setting up ventilation for the darkroom?
The bathroom had a ventilation,
and this small garage room ... well, just opening the door once in half hour. If you have no ventilation and want to reduce smell (mainly fixer, of course), then you can put a piece of acrylic on top on the tray
Tip, if you can't find a timer just having a clock with a seconds hand in the darkroom will give more accurate results than just counting.
🔥
For safe light: headlight is ok, but actually it's cheaper to buy a set of LED RGB bulbs controlled by a pilot - OSRAM has those for all types of sockets, and when they're set into color mode, they use separate, low power RGB LEDs, so when you choose "Red" on a pilot, only red LED is used... and it's safe... and you can have them screwed in as normal lights... it works fantastically for me - I have half of my flat safe-lighted this way xD
Make a test first, some red led are not safety.
Hi Lina. Thanks for the video. I think I am going to try to make one of those tray systems you did. I have recently purchased my first enlarger, an Opemus 6. I am quiet happy but I could not find multi-grade filters for the size enlarger needs, I think they are 7cm or 7,5 cm and the ones I could find are 9 o 15 cm. Do I have other option rather than buy one of these and crop them? Thanks in advance.
Subbed
Tks for the DIY easel, since I would make one myself, does the frame used for the easel necessarily be white?
If you can't get a timer get a metronome app for your phone and set it to 60 bpm (beats per minute) and then count.
That’s how I do it!
How could I forget! The Ansel Adams style! (not only his of course).
@@CertainExposures I use an digital metronome sold for musicians.
@@DannyOKC that works too 👍🏿
Hey Lina, any idea where I can get that clip-on washing device you showed @ 6:40 ? Thanks for the helpful video.
www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/deville-washer-for-darkroom-trays-30x40-cm-and-larger.html
Fotoimpex were faster with replying! :P
Does that enlarger support 120 film? I found a great deal on it second hand
Meopta Opemus series does both 135 and 120 film. Opemus 5 and later are much newer and can use masks, glass, bulbs, lens-mounts and so on which are more available than the older versions. The largest format for most of the Opemus range was 6x6cm, though I think the very very last of the Opemus 6 series could do 6x7cm. The larger 120 formats and sheet-films were covered by other models in the Meopta range. These machines used die-castings, rather than the sheet-metal structures in cheaply-made enlargers, so are very robust and reliable.
Where did you buy your enlarger?
Hi Lina, would love to make a printing easel as shown in this video, but can't find this cardstock "painting canvas" you mention that's the base of the easel. Could you provide a link to the correct thing? Thanks!
Photo mat board works.
Can someone help answer a question for me? I have 35 mm film that was accidentally , very shortly exposed to light and out of the camera before it was rolled back into the container. It needs to be open in a dark room but I don’t know where to find one or if that will ever work. Any ideas or insight?
I spent way too long trying to squint to see of that box of Adox paper next to the MCC paper was Polywarmtone ;)
Nope, the PW I had before is on quarantine in Florence, and the coating machine to produce more is on quarantine in Switzerland :D
@@linabessonova Isnt it produced in Bad Saarow nearby Berlin anymore?
@@SD_Alias No, it was always made in Switzerland. Emulsion production is in Bad Saarow. I have a video from the first PW coating on the Swiss machine!
@@linabessonova thank you, So they carry the emulsion to coat the paper in switzerland. Interesting…
I hope the Paper is in the shop soon ;-)
@@SD_Alias Me too! In the meantime though thanks for the great video Lina! I have a small bathroom-darkroom and found the suggestions and tips really helpful! I need to make a square frame so that was super helpful and likewise the vertical tray holders is a super good idea!
Don’t you wish there was a “compact” 4x5 enlarger with a retractable/adjustable baseboard and swappable column heights? I noticed you are limited to 6x7 like me due to ceiling and floor space. It could be worse though so I am grateful. I bought a grafback to try 4x5 enlarging with a tripod. Also, for anyone reading, I’ve been using a low tech version of Lina’s easel for a few months. If you don’t want to bother with magnets you can just hold down the matboard with your hands. It’s less elegant, but you’ll still have clean lines.
Intrepid cameras were at least surely in the process of making a 4x5 enlarger and maybe even finished it. It's folding, based on a 4x5 camera. Great idea
Which darkroom product comes in a Louis Vuitton box?
haha it's actually a great box for storing prints! but I wish LV made darkroom or at least camera accessories
You´ve got our czechoslovakia Meopta Opemus 6 which is pretty good enlarger from 80´. They made color head for it, which is nice setup. Talking abou lens - if You have Belar, throw it into the river, if You have Anaret, which should be there, that´s pretty good lens. Meopta made beautiful enlargers, specially around 30´s - 40´s, they look like something from Jules Verne novels. Here is some info if you´re interested - www.meoptahistory.com/index.php?id=312 . I have Laborant 9x12 from 30´s, the biggest Meopta made is 18x24 Herkules including glass plates, trully beautiful beasts.
hello, How do you suggest to dry RC paper? Tks
Any way you want - it will always dry nice and flat! I have some drying stands and like them a lot (NOT for fiber paper though!) www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/kaiser-drying-stand-4048.html
@@linabessonova Tks a lot, also for DIY easel.
здравствуйте Лина! у меня для таких целей ванна.ставлю увел, ванночки, красный фонарь, стабилизатор , реле или таймер и вперёд. для цветной нагнетаю тепловентилятором нужную температуру , проявляю цвт . бумагу в тех же ванночках закрыв их оргстеклом что бы не вдыхать испарения от химии.анализатором не пользуюсь считаю так быстрее и лучше. а как вы печатаете цвет?
Я вот цвет не печатаю вообще, но знаю многих, кто как и Вы - в ванной, как-то температурный режим тоже держат. И прекрасные результаты!
@@linabessonova жарко только в ванной а так результат хороший .
Приезжайте в Россию, у нас места побольше )
hi - super dumb question but this is a basic setup for black and white prints right? :)
Yes! b&w. But for color you just need a different enlarger. And a special orange safelight, not red!
@@linabessonova Hi Lina,
Thanks for the reply. But for colour dont you need a special machine to do the developing process? i didnt think it was possible to do colour print development manually as you do with B&W :)
У меня вообще в туалете 1,5/1,5 метра. Проявляю большой формат и там же печатаю, сидя на унитазе))
практичное использование пространства)) зато вода есть!
@@linabessonova Вода да, у меня там и свет сразу красный, другого нет
"Timers are pretty inexpensive"
120 freaking bucks for an egg timer!!
You can print without timer, using a metronome app. Relative to many other things, a 100-120EUR timer is an adequate investment, which you will use for years.
In my first darkroom before 25 yrs I dismantled a dumpster microwave and switched with the panel keyboard the enlarger according to the time shown in the display.
There is literally no reason to ever count in a dark room. Either use a watch or use a clock that you can hear the ticking sound of. Like there's literally no excuse. Just use a kitchen egg timer everything is more precise than just counting it
Honestly it’s not like milliseconds will do much to a print.
Basic darkroom, 100 dollar timer. Basic isn't the same for all of us i guess haha
Nowhere I said you should get a specific brand and type of timer. Anyone can find a suitable timer on Ebay, or just use a metronome app for free.
Kitchen egg timer.
fuck amazon - but good video :)
Класс!У вас случайно нет времени и желания такие интересные видео записать на русском языке? 🙂
You are great, your content is great, just one thing - the blue hair..... Please be blond, brown or some other color that doesnt kill my eyes :D