Topic: My own lab's back on line

[Francois]

Yep, I pretty much finished building my dream darkroom. All I have left to do is figure out the ventilation. 
Last Saturday, I went to the camera store and got some developer and some fixer.

So, last night I decided to "christen" it and processed an old roll of color film as B&W. The roll was taken years ago in an action sampler. But when I suspected the frame counter to possibly be failing, I decided to rewind the film and simply left it on the shelf. Since I now have the place and the chemicals, I decided to give it a go. But where to start... I have never processed a color C-41 film in B&W chemistry. And I didn't have any Diafine (which is often used to process color film), so I decided to wing it.

I have both some HC-110 and some PQ Universal... which one to use... Since I didn't feel like calculating the complex dilution ratios for the HC-110, I opted for the PQ Universal. Since it is "Universal" and it said "Do not use for 35mm/120, Sheet film 2½-10 minutes" I thought to myself "why not, it's a crappy film shot with a crappy camera". Then came the how long question... lets say 5 minutes for even development at 10 seconds of agitation every 30 seconds... that should do it...

So, I just started processing without preparing anything. I still had some Indicator Stop bath I diluted something like 20 years ago... I poured some in a cup in between agitations. Big surprise there, the water had somehow evaporated through the plastic of the wine cooler bag I used and I ended up with super concentrated stop. And when I say super concentrated, I really mean it! It looked like dark pee in the measuring cup! Lets just say it must have stopped the development like a train hitting a Volkswagen... Fixed, washed and dried the whole thing to discover it had actually worked!

The negatives are very dense overall and quite fogged. Grain is actually visible to the naked eye! Yikes!
The images are also quite contrasty... after scanning, the levels curve is shot almost all the way to the right... A few of the images came out fine... Considering it was taken with a super cheap piece of plastic (it's actually an Avon action camera I got for 50 cents at a church bazaar... Avon lady calling ), I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here are a few samples of the samples

[Mike (happyforest)]

Congratulations on getting the darkroom back up and running.

Despite winging it you have some very nice images here.

Look forward to seeing your future results

Mike

[LT]

Good news Francois - welcome back to the darkside.  You'll be printing some real pictures too?

[sapata]

I'm so jealous...

I'm actually have a roll of colour film inside my actionsampler for years for the same reason!

[Francois]

Good news Francois - welcome back to the darkside.  You'll be printing some real pictures too?

Most probably
I have all the stuff I need!
Chemicals: check
Enlargers: check
Pots and pans: check

Here are a few quick shots of the place...

[sethasaurus]

Don't you love it when you decide to wing it and it works out?
I've always had good luck with that too.
Nice job on the darkroom too! I'm getting antsy as our middle room was supposed to be a darkroom but it's turned into an extended wardrobe/shoe/boot storage, so I'll just have to wait til I move to a slightly bigger place.

Every time I spot your avatar (and now that I see those last shadow pics as well), I think of this guy:

"Do we have a video?"

[original_ann]

That's a fine looking darkroom and I LOVE those images, Francois!!!

[LeonY]

I love this Francois, totaly awesome!!
When I 1st started out, my darkroom was my 1 bedroom apartments bathroom:


My second, was the sunroom of my next apartment(no pics of this one). I had to block out 4 massive windows with black rubber sealed thick canvas and gaffa tape.

My 3rd was in my sisters house, underground parking lot..(there was a small dark storage room, which was PERFECT until i was kicked out for freaking out my nieces)

My 4rth was in my next appartments laundry, which was about 1/4 the size of Francois darkroom. it was narrow as hell, only 1 person could stand in it at any one time. My 5th is my current. i have a spare room in my flat, which i have darked up, it has heaps of space....such a relief to have a proper darkroom where i can move around. If you got 2 minutes and like the Bees, watch this :

Light Sealing the Darkroom

Its me sealing my lightroom with the help of my lovely girl friend!

[jojonas~]

you're ready to rock now, francois! I like the first of the shots. very suggestive~

I see you've got one of those motorised agitators. that good?

leony, nice work on that light shield and I do like the bees

[Mojave]

This is so awesome Francois!!! Congratulations on getting it finished and thank you so much for sharing it! And thank you, LeonY, for sharing your bathroom darkroom pix. I am inspired! After I get back from my trip to Kentucky, Im going to set my bathroom darkroom up.

[Francois]

Thanks guys for the nice comments

Jonas: the motor agitators work fine... but mine doesn't... Thing is I bought it from a guy at the camera show who was going by the name "Smiling Ed"... He had repaired the motor base himself but never told me. I discovered this when the small rubber wheel on the switch fell out... I wanted to replace it so I opened the bottom. I shouldn't have!
The guy had cut the rubber wheel and glued it on. And inside, one of the drive belts was broken and he sewed it back in place with thread!

But the good part is that you can process an 11x14 print with only 5ml of chemistry... very cheap to operate.
Bad part is you have to take everything apart to clean the drum in between runs.

[Francois]

Every time I spot your avatar (and now that I see those last shadow pics as well), I think of this guy:

"Do we have a video?"

Is that Sid Vicious? I don't think so

[Rafael Morales]

Vivian from "The Young Ones".   Love the darkroom!

[LT]

Every time I spot your avatar (and now that I see those last shadow pics as well), I think of this guy:

"Do we have a video?"

Very Metal.

[Francois]

Last night, I did my first print in close to twenty years!
Since I was lazy about it (I just wanted to see if my old box of frozen RC paper was still good), I think I inadvertently invented the Single Tray Processing™ method
This combined with the use of an enlarger exposure meter and a bit of knowledge about the Stop System was all it took to make this a lot faster than what I learned in College!

Anyways, here's the first print. Obviously not taken recently but still

[digitalanalogboy]

i'm so jealous dude 
it's soooo hard to find photo chemical in my country..
and sooo expensive to buy online (the shipping cost makes it expensive)

btw, have fun 

[LT]

well done F.

[Francois]

Thanks Leon

[LT]

looks like you might be getting some light coverage issues in the top r??? or is that the scan? perhaps a condenser in your enlarger is misaligned or something?

[Ed Wenn]

looks like you might be getting some light coverage issues in the top r??? or is that the scan? perhaps a condenser in your enlarger is misaligned or something?

Trust you to go and get all APUG on us, Leon :-)

Great thread, everyone. I have enjoyed reading it and congrats to Francois for going back to his roots.

LeonY: Great story and video clip.

[LT]

just trying to be helpful.  I'll keep my generous, kind, sharing attitudes to myself in future.
 

[Francois]

looks like you might be getting some light coverage issues in the top r??? or is that the scan? perhaps a condenser in your enlarger is misaligned or something?

Actually, on this enlarger (LPL 66), there is no adjustment for the condensers. I haven't checked but I think it was in the negative from the start. I could have burned-in the corner for maybe ½ a stop... but I just didn't.

[jojonas~]

Francois, are you still using those wine bags? how have your experience with them been so far?
I'm thinking about cleaning, what developers you use and what not. I guess having a stock solution and then taking out to dilute for each developing session is making most use of it.

[Francois]

The wine bags work very well. I don't use them anymore because I switched to liquid developers exclusively.
The bags are only good for storage. If you reuse the solutions like I do, you still need bottles. Opening those bags is a bit of a drag.

But if you mix a big batch of D-76 or dektol, they're probably the best. Besides, they're very cheap for the volume they hold.

[KevinAllan]

Francois, I see Bob the Builder is present in your darkroom - I wondered what role he plays  . Don't let his "assistant" Spud help out, he will cause havoc.

[Francois]

Spud actually usually works in the other room
When you look, the walls get plastered with all sorts of stuff I find and just pin to the wall. It gets to be a bit of a hodge-podge of random stuff. Bob the builder is now on another wall. I have a beautifully photogenic tacky gold painted plastic baroque mirror that I keep, some cheezy motivation plaques, pictures, and a whole bunch of other stuff on the walls. I think I'll keep on adding some until you can't see the drywall.

[jojonas~]

The wine bags work very well. I don't use them anymore because I switched to liquid developers exclusively.
The bags are only good for storage. If you reuse the solutions like I do, you still need bottles. Opening those bags is a bit of a drag.

But if you mix a big batch of D-76 or dektol, they're probably the best. Besides, they're very cheap for the volume they hold.

thanks. a friend here in sweden is thinking of using bags for his XTOL stock.
I've heard others storing part of the stock in small bottles so they don't expose the whole stock to air each time they use some. so this seems like a smart alternative.

[Francois]

I haven't compared how long it lasts when compared to the small bottle technique.