Bill,
Ahhhh, this brings back some memories. Welcome to the delights of "the
other half" of OM photography. <--- requisite OM content. While today I
enjoy a fully outfitted darkroom with all the time and temperature controls
one could want or need, it wasn't always that way <g>. My first two
"darkrooms" were bathrooms. The first one has a small window that had to be
blocked off - an easy process with some heavy cardboard and some tape. I
put the thin foam insulation strips around the door frame and a towel on the
floor to block that light leak.
To the business of making contact sheets, a strip of tape and a piece of
glass is it. Most bathroom sink areas have a foot square area your can tape
the glass to on one edge, effectively making a hinge. I put my films in
those plastic sheet protectors. In the dark, make a paper/film sandwich,
emulsion facing emulsion, place it on the counter and hinge the glass cover
on top. Press lightly to make it flat. Flick on the room light. For
contacts, precision is not mission critical. Counting to yourself works.
Just be consistent. As I recall, 10-15 seconds was enough exposure. The
key for contacts is to expose enough that you can just barely see the film's
sprocket holes on the contact sheet - i.e you've exposed the contact sheet
enough that the film itself is just visible. Then you can evaluate the
exposure/development of the images themselves from a common baseline. Trial
and error (and more error <g>) is really the only way here. Take good
notes.
Processing is simple enough as far as the steps go - 90 sec develop, 10-15
sec stop bath and 2 minutes fixer. Wash in the sink. The logistics in
confined space are a little more interesting. I cut a piece of plywood to
fit over the bathtub. This gave me a fairly spacious work area where any
spillage (and you *will* spill) wasn't a major consequence. Once you get
about half way through the fixer step, you can turn the lights back on.
It wasn't pretty, but it worked. Run the ventalation fan full time. The
vapors won't make you turn green or anything, but chronic exposure isn't a
good thing for you. Remember the triple A's of mixing solutions - Always
Add Acid. It avoids unwanted reactions. Wear eye protection when mixing
all the various chemicals. All of them can cause nasty injuries to the
eyes. Some folks recommend latex gloves - I prefer tongs.
For a piece of glass a foot square, three non-metallic trays, a developing
tank and for storage bottles, you're in business. Be it ever so
humble......
As far as getting an enlarger and all the other bits, now is a great time to
buy used equipment. Lots of folks are bailing out of emulsion based
darkrooms and "going digital". I've seen many a deal on rec.photo.darkroom
and other on-line resources.
John P
______________________________________
there is no "never" - just long periods of "not yet".
there is no "always" - just long periods of "so far"
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