Darkroom (Photography)
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and photographic paper. Various equipment is used in the darkroom, including an enlarger, baths containing chemicals, and running water.
Darkrooms have been used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adams to a retooled ambulance wagon used by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. From the initial development of the film to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium.
Due to the popularity of color photography and complexity of processing color film and printing color photographs and also to the rise, first of instant photography technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are decreasing in popularity, though are still commonplace on college campuses, schools and in the studios of many professional photographers.
Darkroom equipment
A portable darkroom in 19th century Ireland. The wet collodion photography process, used at the time, required that the image be developed while the plate was still wet, creating the need for portable darkrooms such as this one. In most darkrooms, an enlarger, an optical apparatus similar to a slide projector, that projects light through the image of a negative onto a base, finely controls the focus, intensity and duration of light, is used for printmaking. A sheet of photographic paper is exposed to the light coming through the negative, resulting in a positive version of the image on the paper.
When making black-and-white prints, a safelight is commonly used to illuminate the work area. Since the majority of black-and-white papers are sensitive to only blue, or to blue and green light, a red- or amber-colored light can be safely used without exposing the paper.
Color print paper, being sensitive to all parts of the visible spectrum, must be kept in complete darkness until the prints are properly fixed. A very dim variation of safelight that can be used with certain negative color materials exists, but the light emitted by one is so low that most printers do not use one at all.
Another use for a darkroom is to load film in and out of cameras, development spools, or film holders, which requires complete darkness. Lacking a darkroom, a photographer can make use of a changing bag, which is a small bag with sleeved arm holes specially designed to be completely lightproof and used to prepare film prior to exposure or developing.
See also [ Darkroom ]
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