Trying darkroom printinh

MrDrizz

MrDrizz

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Once the world returns to some sort of normality, I rather fancy try my hand at some darkroom printing.

I really don't have the space of finances to set one up.

So is there anywhere I can do a course or maybe rent out a darkroom? A course or workshop would be the preferred way to start.

I'm in the Northwest UK.
 
I would be happy to help show you as I am in the North West also, however I have just moved house and had to dismantle my dark room. It doesn't cost a lot of money or space to be honest. Once the world returns to normal, I am considering converting my shed.
 
Very generous of you. If I had a garden I'm pretty sure I'd look at converting myself.

But as I also work with digital I do wonder if the money would be better spent of a good printer. That way I can print from both mediums.
Or is printing on inkjet from a scanned negative considered sacrilege [emoji2955][emoji44][emoji16]
gazmorton2000 said:
I would be happy to help show you as I am in the North West also, however I have just moved house and had to dismantle my dark room. It doesn't cost a lot of money or space to be honest. Once the world returns to normal, I am considering converting my shed.
Click to expand...
 
MrDrizz said:
Or is printing on inkjet from a scanned negative considered sacrilege
Click to expand...

I think most of us that make prints do so by that method.

Much as I've pretty much nailed the problem of serious colour casts, that can be one of the biggest problems when trying to print a "true" b&w print through an inkjett printer.

Monochrome wet prints of course don't have this issue!!
 
For some people, yes. And if you're into black and white, many inkjets used to struggle with colour casts and metamerism (prints can look neutral under either artifical light or daylight but not both).

Personally, I print via inkjet despite still having a darkroom and a couple of enlargers set up in it because for me, the prints are better. At one workshop, the leader thought my prints were darkroom ones, so an inkjet can give reasonable results.

The one point I'd add is that a darkroom can be scaled up for larger prints - you only need larger dishes. A printer is not so easy to scale up - though you can send files out for printing when you want a mural!
 
StephenM said:
(prints can look neutral under either artifical light or daylight but not both).
Click to expand...

This is why I print a small "proof" print to view outdoors in natural light before printing out the A3 "masterpiece":rolleyes::LOL:

As you say, depending on the light source, colour casts can be evident and that cast can vary in its taint depending on the type of light ( LED, flourescent etc) .
 
Don't know how "north west" you are but the six towns photographic club at Stoke On Trent has darkroom sessions on a Tuesday:
https://www.6townsphotographicclub.co.uk/index.html

I've always been meaning to pop down but I teach on Tuesday nights. Well... normal Tuesday nights anyway...

I print my own on inkjet. Fibre/matt prints are much less of a faff and I have a better choice of paper. Looking forward to buying a new house though that has a dedicated space for doing it properly though.
 
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