Having a clean dark room is critical to turning out quality prints. How about sharing some ideas or tips that work for you in keeping dust down, things organized and clean. One thing I do that seems help my trays looking white, no chemical stains, is to use left over pattasium feracyanide bleach to rinse out the other trays. Thanks!

-- Justin Fullmer (provo.jfullmer@state.ut.us), March 17, 2002

Answers

I heat with wood- ash, have a dog- hair and dander, have the darkroom in the laundry room- dryer lint, and the room is unfinished block and unfinished ceiling. The floor is old indoor/outdoor carpet. No active ventilation. In spite of all this, I rarely have any problem with dirty negs or spotting of prints. The secret is keeping the humidity at a reasonable level and local control of dust. I look at the neg under the light of the enlarger and use an ear syringe to blow it off. Mixing beakers are rinsed just before use. The countertop is wiped with a damp rag before all sessions. I don't use plastic neg sleeves, but still prefer the old style glassine envelopes. My trays (at least the developer tray) are stained a deep Dektol brown- hurts nothing so I don't worry about it. Three shelves and a cabinet hold chemistry and related stuff with sufficient organization so I can usually find what I want! Reading this over it sounds awful, but it's really quite pleasent and trouble free. I find negative quality has more to do with the ease of printing sessions than anything else, and that comes from fine tuning exposure and development, plus absolute consistancy thereafter.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), March 17, 2002.

I've just gone from using a tempory BathDarkroom to a permanent purpose built Darkroom. It was a bit like moving from a Mini to a Rolls Royce! Actually a Roller isn't it, more like a AMG Mercedes... comfort and speed! I now have 2.4m of dry bench (and a 2m sink), previously had very little and the other night I had to cut down some paper so instead of going and getting paper cutter and cutting paper while kneeing on the floor then taking cutter back (so I don't trip on it) I just pulled the cutter off shelf under bench and cut the pieces as I needed them. At the time, I thought "Ain't this great!"

However, the prints produced would have looked identical to the ones I would have produced in my old circumstances!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), March 17, 2002.

The best tip I have ever heard (of I have not done it!) is to cover the walls near your enlarger with dark colored, plastic trash bags. The bags attract and trap dust. All you have to do is wipe them down once in a while.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), March 18, 2002.

Nigel,

I built a new house and had the contractor build a darkroom to my specs. What a joy to work in. Every thing is built so I can sit down in an office chair all the time, except to focus a 16x20 print! Not having back pain after 2 hours of standing up is the best single thing going for my new darkroom! The only thing I'd change is making it larger than 12x12 feet. It could have been 12x17, duh?

I control dust by filtering all water, and rinse negatives with distilled water and get them down and into sleeves ASAP if not sooner. Clean your glass carrier and then clean it again. I keep my glass carrier in double plastic bags with the brush in a tight drawer. Handle negatives with film handling gloves. Edwal film cleaner works well. Inspect work prints very closely for defects and clean the carrier and negative again if needed. Nothing worse than washing, toning and drying a 16x20 print that takes you half a day to produce and then seeing the hair in the shadows!

-- Gene Crumpler (hassieguy@att.net), March 18, 2002.

Grounding your enlarger also helps a lot. Its amazing how little dust I get on my negatives n my far from pristine combination laundry room/darkroom.

-- Robert Marvin (marvbej@earthlink.net), March 20, 2002.

hehe Gene.. I have this picture of you in my mind leaning back in a recliner swirling a tray with your toe! and I've got to say it's amusing!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), March 20, 2002.

Nigel Love your imagination. Best chuckle I have had all day. Thanks. My darkroom is in a spare bedroom and although standing for hours doesn't bother me, I find that bending down to look through the focus finder while reaching up to adjust the lens is a pain. Perhaps I am doing something wrong.

-- Carol (Carfred@hotmail.com), March 26, 2002.

Nigel;

Yeh, it's great. I can put my feet up on my dry mounting press table and sip coffee (morning) or beer (after 4 pm)during those 3 minute exposures with infrared film :)

Carol;

Sound likes you may need to work out :)

-- Gene Crumpler (hassieguy@att.net), March 28, 2002.

Gene

I'm afraid it is much too late for me to start working-out. I think perhaps the focussing is a problem because it takes me so long as my eyesight is not so good anymore. Now there's a picture for Nigel, half-blind, frail old lady peering into focus finder while trying to reach up and adjust enlarger. Cheers.

-- Carol (carfred@hotmail.com), March 31, 2002.

lol, Ed and Carol!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), March 31, 2002.