Last week I joined a local darkroom co-operative - The Gate Darkroom in Woolwich, SE London, recently re-located from previous premises in New Cross.
The facilities are impressive - a spacious darkroom with a range of good quality enlargers/lenses to use, from 35mm to 5x4, plus film developing and print processing equipment. There is a strong membership base - from people making their living from photography to rank amateurs such as I - and a regular series of outreach days to local schools and a community programme as well.
When I go I often have the facilities to myself (as a key-holder it's open 24/7) - so far I've been making contact prints of my previously only scanned negatives, but I have started printing individual photos too and my intent is to produce large-size, quality prints of one or two of the shots I have made that warrant the effort and investment.
I have thoroughly enjoyed getting back into a darkroom and completing the picture by producing the prints from my negatives myself.
What I have learned so far:
1. I'm really better off with an AE camera than a manual one - I love my old Leica and Hasselblad but I evidently have not got the hang of exposure metering (too many over and under exposed pictures per roll)
2. I've wasted an awful lot of film - looking back, I often can't recall what I was thinking when I pressed the shutter
3. One day I will take a good photo, but I clearly need more practice
4. I've tried lots and lots of different films, developers, cameras, lenses - but they all merge into a generic mass when it comes to producing a print
5. I'm not done with this yet - the journey continues.
If your'e wedded to scanning and photoshop I thoroughly recommend going back to the darkroom: it's nicer than spending yet more hours in front of a computer screen.
