Monday, December 5, 2016

How Darkroom Equipment And Film Photography Works

By Amy Davis


Photography is just so much fun that it is a hobby and art that people invest on. This have been around for a long time and the equipment has continued and continues to evolve. For those who have tried to take up any sort of art, you would know that any type of hobby would cost some money, especially if you want the best kind of equipment.

These days we have the benefit of using different digital means to produce a picture that can match the quality of that developed in a darkroom. Thank you, technology. But more and more people have been trying to take up more organic ways to go about photo development. Getting the right darkroom equipment and processing images in such a method brings back the novelty of the art.

So many technicalities are involved with this. As in all fine art, being delicate and meticulous can pave the way to greatness. A good number of iconic images were produced this way, especially by publications like LIFE magazine. Knowing the whole development process, makes digital photographer appreciate the difficulty, technique and skill required in film photography.

Looking at the matter as an art, knowing how to develop these pictures without the help of a software takes a lot of skill and discipline. In hindsight, it makes you appreciate the presence of these digital solutions while learning a thing or two about the roots of photography. There are a good number of things that you would need to assemble your own darkroom.

Darkrooms for rent or borrowing may be available but making one, for those who really want to invest on it, can be quite rewarding. Many things need to be noted when it comes building these things. Temperature, light, and ventilation are the main concerns, above everything else. Expect that doing this may cost you some money.

The dynamic involved in this are basically the right concoction of light, ventilation and overall temperature. The circumstances where the photo is developed can greatly affect its outcome. Lots of water is needed to soak the prints, like how you would see it in the movies, but never really understood. Even the water in this process needs to be a specific temperature. Too hot or too cold and your image is well done for.

Four kinds of lighting is needed to setup the perfect darkroom. These would include the safelights, enlarger, white and no lights at all. When you start working with with minimal vision, that is when you would start to appreciate programs such as lightroom. The attention t detail and meticulousness needed for the process can be daunting.

While, in essence the place is supposed to be dark some forms of lighting is still required. The three most commonly used are safelights, enlargers and white lights. The fourth mode is no light at all. Whitelight is obviously for being able to see the final results for the prints and cleaning up after the mess. Trying to clean up without this vision is plainly absurd.

It has already been established that zero lightning makes sure that development comes out perfectly, as you would have pictured it while taking the shot. Enlarger lights are there to make sure that you see every detail in your print. Note that during the whole process, temperature inside should be between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, else it may also ruin the photo.




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