Topic: Shed News

[sparx]

This weekend saw the arrival of the new darkroom, an 8'x6' Pent shed, so work can now begin in earnest.
Stage one commenced Sunday morning when I pulled up the patio between the house and the shed pad and laid new drainage and water pipes. Evenings this week will see the old shed being emptied ready to be pulled down. Next Saturday we should get the new one up ready to be fitted out. There's not a huge amount of space inside and I'm currently up to proposal #10 on how to lay the room out.

What size darkroom do you have and do you have any clever ideas or nifty gadgets you've come up with to get round a lack of space? I'm also curious as to what sort of 'white light' everyone else uses and how they've ventilated their darkroom.

[Susan B.]

Congratulations on the new darkroom space. 

I'm darkroomless and envious. Forced to process my negs in the kitchen. Which is fine, since I rarely use for anything else.

Very glad to hear you're back in the swing.

[outofcontxt]

I'm with Susan on the lack of a darkroom and the envy. I, too, use the kitchen for processing my negs but since we also use it for cooking, food prep, etc., I'm extremely meticulous about making sure all toxic spills are cleaned up thoroughly when I'm through and everything's put away in its proper place. Fortunately, we have granite countertops. Makes the cleanup much much easier. Still, a dedicated darkroom would be sooooooooo much nicer. Good luck with it!

[Francois]

Hope you have insulation and heat in that shed! Working in the cold is never fun. I also hope your drain and water lines are below the frost line... or else you're really looking for trouble.
Somehow, I think turning a garden shed into a darkroom is a bit extreme. But here are some tips anyway.
For ventilation, I always wanted to use a kitchen exhaust hood (the type that goes over the stove) over the trays. It would get the fumes out before they reach your nose. Right now, I have a bathroom vent that fills the need.
For lights, go for incandescent on a string. Fluorescent lights emit a green glow long after they're turned off. You might want to rig the string like in a bus, that way, you can turn on and off the light from anywhere in the room.
Make sure you have at least a 3 foot wide corridor to move around. A good stool to sit on (takes less space than a chair). Make the counter height to your standards while making sure your enlarger won't hit the ceiling (I'm relatively tall and regular counters are usually a bit low for my taste). Put vinyl floor down, it cleans up easy.

Now, the recommended reading material:
Kodak's Building a home darkroom (publication KW-14 ISBN 0-87985-273-9) a very well made book like all Kodak publications.
The Darkroom Source http://www.open.org/~hughesa/links/darkroom.php or http://www.darkroomsource.net/
Claudio Bonavolta's photo pages http://www.bonavolta.ch

Hope these will help transform that small shed into a nicer place.

[sparx]

Thanks all. I'm getting excited about the whole project now it's finally under way.

AgentOrange, thanks for the advice. My dad is a plumber by trade and he guided me through all that side of things so there shouldn't be a problem. The shed idea is possibly a bit unusual but I'm confident it will work. I know one guy on the coast who has a darkroom, a studio and a gallery in various sheds that have been Heath-Robinsoned together and he's happy with the result. It will be fully insulated and lined out so it should be nice and snug for the winter, probably going to be warmer than my house!

I've seen the old 'pull-cord-round-the-room' trick and was going to rig up the safelights that way. I had planned on flourescents as my white light but I take your point about the afterglow. Useful links as well!

[Francois]

You're welcome.
Keep us posted on the progress.