Does it matter what colour I paint my darkroom?

"Mike King" wrote

For a black and white darkroom I would suggest yellow rather than white
(safer) ... black ... around the enlarger.

Good point. The darkrooms at the Cleveland Museums are painted yellow,
NTITOI.

And one could certainly get away with red for the walls around the
enlarger. Make life a bit brighter. Here in Cleveland we need
all the bright we can get.

I have a client with dark blue darkroom walls, it's the corporate
color, and combines the blue with deep red safelights. With the
white lights off the walls go to dead black. As it is like working
in a cave and so they need to have lots and lots of safelights to
make up for it, but then they make safelights. I suspect the
corporate blue reflects UV very well, but it is polite not to
press the issue.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

In , on 03/10/04
at 10:47 PM, "PSsquare" said:

Took a darkroom course in a school darkroom that was all black. It was
just a little short of terrible when you tried to navigate around other
studends with the safelight the only source. I agree that white except
around the enlarger where black works well.

It's not necessary to paint the wall black around the enlarger if the rest
of the room is painted white: just paint some panels flat black and place
them around the enlarger area when you're working with the enlarger of an
evening.

-
-----------------------------------------------------------
les clark / edgewater, nj / usa
-----------------------------------------------------------

It's not necessary to paint the wall black around the enlarger if the rest
of the room is painted white: just paint some panels flat black and place
them around the enlarger area when you're working with the enlarger of an
evening.


Right. Actually, I taped some mat black paper myself. Works fine. You could
also use dark matt board just as well.

PSsquare

Should I wear white or black clothes in the darkroom? Would 12% gray be a
good compromise? What kind of shoes go well with Dektol?

For me, anyway, red is a depressing color, yellow is much more cheerful.
But either is brighter and safer than black and less fogging than white
walls.

--
darkroommike

----------
"Nicholas O. Lindan" wrote in message
k.net...
"Mike King" wrote

For a black and white darkroom I would suggest yellow rather than white
(safer) ... black ... around the enlarger.

Good point. The darkrooms at the Cleveland Museums are painted yellow,
NTITOI.

And one could certainly get away with red for the walls around the
enlarger. Make life a bit brighter. Here in Cleveland we need
all the bright we can get.

I have a client with dark blue darkroom walls, it's the corporate
color, and combines the blue with deep red safelights. With the
white lights off the walls go to dead black. As it is like working
in a cave and so they need to have lots and lots of safelights to
make up for it, but then they make safelights. I suspect the
corporate blue reflects UV very well, but it is polite not to
press the issue.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

Black foam core panels? Lighter and easy to move.

--
darkroommike

----------
"PSsquare" wrote in message
...


It's not necessary to paint the wall black around the enlarger if the
rest
of the room is painted white: just paint some panels flat black and
place
them around the enlarger area when you're working with the enlarger of
an
evening.


Right. Actually, I taped some mat black paper myself. Works fine. You
could
also use dark matt board just as well.

PSsquare

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 08:37:42 -0600, (jjs)
wrote:


Should I wear white or black clothes in the darkroom? Would 12% gray be a
good compromise? What kind of shoes go well with Dektol?

Actually wearing a bright white shirt while in front of the enlarger
can bounce a lot of light back at the print paper. A dark work apron
helps but can be annoying to wear. Best to rip the shirt off and
bellow like the Hulk, then calmly go on printing.

It seems to me that if you have a good safelight then white walls will
only reflect that color, so there is no need to paint the walls
yellow. Yellow looks good though--My living room is yellow.

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 08:43:49 -0600, "Mike King"
wrote:

For me, anyway, red is a depressing color, yellow is much more cheerful.
But either is brighter and safer than black and less fogging than white
walls.

"Gary Beasley"
On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 08:37:42 -0600, (jjs)
Should I wear white or black clothes in the darkroom?

Actually wearing a bright white shirt while in front of the enlarger
can bounce a lot of light back at the print paper.

And those hands, face (esp. whites of eyes) ... eyeglasses
obviously verboten.

Take a page from the theater:

Black pants, no belt
Black long sleeved turtleneck
Black socks and shoes
Black cloth gloves
Black stocking over the head
Black ski mask over that.

Woman (and some men) have it a bit easier with
a black Danskin.

Yeah, one can take this black thing to the extreme. But sometimes,
like when making murals, look out.

Fogging of unknown origin, most common to least common causes (?):

Old paper
Paper safe, box, bag: forgot to close
Paper safe, box, bag: leaks light
Safelight too close
Wrong safelight
Clear Plexiglas does _not_ make a good lensboard
The color of the walls

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

"Morton Klotz" wrote

It seems to me that if you have a good safelight then white walls will
only reflect that color, so there is no need to paint the walls
yellow.

You want a color that reflects yellow and red, that don't fog, and absorbs
blue and green, that do fog.

The absorbency of blue and green is the important thing.

Yellow looks good though--My living room is yellow.

No smiley faces on it, though?

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/