Darkroom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about dark rooms used in photography. For other uses, see dark room (sexuality).
A darkroom is a workspace, usually a separate area in a building or a vehicle, made dark to allow photographers to use light-sensitive materials to develop film and photographic paper to make photographic prints.
Darkrooms have been used since the late 19th century for black and white photography. Using black and white film, photographers could control every step of the photographic process.
Due to the complexity of processing colour film (see C-41 process) and printing color photographs, and to the rise, first of Polaroid technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are decreasing in popularity.
[edit] The darkroom
The heart of most darkrooms is the enlarger, an optical apparatus similar to a slide projector that projects the image (usually) of a negative down onto a base. On the base, a sheet of photographic paper, typically either Resin-coated or fibre-based paper, is exposed to the (usually) enlarged image from the negative.
During exposure the image can be modified, most often by burning (giving more light to specific parts of an image by exposing it while blocking light to the rest) and/or dodging (reducing light to a specific part of an image by blocking light to it). After exposure, the photographic printing paper is ready to be processed.
Note that some photographers who use large format (usually defined as 4x5" and larger sized film) cameras do not necessarily need to enlarge an image, but are able to produce a same sized print known as a contact print as the final image.
The paper that has been exposed by enlargement or by contact exposure is then processed into a permanent viewable print.
The most familiar black and white processes are usually comprised of four essential chemical steps: the development in a developer, stopping the development, by rinse or a stop bath, fixing, in a "fixing bath", then washing, to remove the processing chemicals, and then drying the print. Some darkrooms also have special print washers used to most thoroughly clean the paper.
The darkroom does not have to be completely dark when making black and white prints. Most black and white print papers are only sensitive to blue light, or to blue and green light, so black and white darkrooms feature a specially-made red or amber colored light, known as a safelight. It enables the photographer to work in the light so they can see what they are doing, without exposing the paper. A low-intensity orange or yellow light can also be used, but these are less common than the red safelight. Color print paper, on the other hand, is sensitive to all parts of the visible spectrum and therefore must be kept in complete darkness until the prints are properly fixed.
Some darkrooms have a "paper-safe", a light-proof box to safely store photographic paper not in use as opposed to the boxes and light-proof bags that the paper comes packaged in.
Another use for a darkroom is to load film in and out of cameras or film holders. 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.
