Well, if you’re only doing black and white photography, you can have dim red lights on once you’ve processed the film into negatives. Black and white photographic paper isn’t affected by red light. Color photography is a whole different beast, and all the steps need to be done in complete darkness.
I guess the one thing said about darkrooms is, “Even when you think you’ve blocked all the light, there’s something you missed that’s gonna ruin your first roll of film.”
Yeah ask a clearer question. Darkrooms and chemical photography in general are pretty niche now. Everything is digital. But, back in the day they were more of a thing, especially for photo hobbyists. Commercial labs for randos used automated equipment so again no darkrooms, especially in the later parts of the era.
I do photography and had a darkroom set up in my bathroom in high school. If you are interested in darkrooms you should see if a community college near you offers a photo 1 that is black and white photography. I imagine it’s not super common. Some schools still offer it provides a nice foundation for students. If you are wanting to set one up at home watch craigslist or Facebook marketplace, used set ups do come up and usually at a steal. If you have a basement bathroom or a bathroom with a small window that’s easy to cover and a countertop for the enlarger you can set trays up in the tub and you’ll have a nice quick basic setup done. There’s lots of reading available online, or YouTube will be full of instructional videos. Genuinely it’s a tone of fun.
Are we talking photography or something NSFL?
You need a red bulb for your photography darkroom. And black & white developing is (a little) more forgiving of (a little) outside light leaking in than color developing.
Ya photo. They are fasinating to me.
They smell like developer fluid (fixer?), and so will your clothes after you’ve been in there long enough… the red light you always see in the movies isn’t common—the dark rooms I’ve been in use amber colored lights. Come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use an enlarger in a movie or TV show, they always just cut right to the paper in the developer
Maybe the tv people are just using pinhole cameras loaded with light sensitive paper instead of film.
My friend visited the gay party around the block a few times, one time with his now ex. They were checking out the dark room for the first time and realized two dudes jacking off to them from the corner of their eyes. That’s all of my experience.
Excellent
