hkr4627@acf4.UUCP (Hedley K. J. Rainnie) (04/18/85)
First of all, thanks to all those who responded to the predecessor of this message: "darkroom neophyte knows nothing." The responses have really psyched me to get into some darkroom activity. However, I have two questions: 1) I am planning on going to Olden's and going with one of their package deals, where they sell you everything you need at once. There is a matter of selecting an enlarger. Can anyone suggest a nice one to get started with that a) will allow for my future explorations into medium format (i.e., take negatives up to 6x7 cm) and b) will have a color head for doing color work (after practicing with b&w, as was suggested by most responses). 2) I am living in a small apartment right now, and probably will for a few years. I'd be very interested in hearing from people who do darkroom work in similarly horrible circumstances. (How I miss my big house in suburbia with its big dark basement and big dark attic.) thanks, -r-
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (04/23/85)
> 2) I am living in a small apartment right now, and probably will for a few > years. I'd be very interested in hearing from people who do darkroom work > in similarly horrible circumstances. (How I miss my big house in suburbia > with its big dark basement and big dark attic.) > A sheet of wood (actually masonite) over most of the tub to hold the trays (I leave part open so I can drop the prints into the tub for washing). I put the enlarger on the toilet. You just kind of run the whole operation on your knees. -Ron
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (04/23/85)
> There is a matter of selecting an enlarger. Can anyone suggest a > nice one to get started with ... and [which] will have a color > head for doing color work (after practicing with b&w, as was > suggested by most responses). Go ahead and get the color head, don't buy one with a condenser head that you can change for a dichroic head later (which is what my Saunders enlarger does, though I don't have the condenser head). See Ansel Adams ``The Negative'' for a discussion of this. According to Adams (and I agree), the diffusion type head (which is what the dichroic head is) gives a truer rendition of the various levels of grey, and generally a better-looking print. Also, since you are starting out with B&W, you can use the dichroic head to migrate into color work by printing B&W negatives in various creative ways (see Kodak's _Creative_Darkroom_Techniques_ for examples) that don't require all the precision of the color printing, first. > I am living in a small apartment right now, and probably will for > a few years. I'd be very interested in hearing from people who > do darkroom work in similarly horrible circumstances. That's what I do. I put black foam tape around the bathroom door, put towels under the door, and the trays in the bathtub, and the enlarger on one side of the sink. It's crowded, but it works well. (Oh... and I plugged the safelight into a socket inside the ventilating fan. That's a problem with darkroom work in the bathroom... not enough outlets.) -- Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642