That feeling of time being suspended as you struggle to load undeveloped film on the wheel in a blackbag while everyone is rushing around doing other things?
The magic moment when tipping a tray in the darkroom and suddenly a photo is there?
Making your own dodge and burn tools.
That annoying burning sensation you get if you inhale developing powder when mixing it up.
For some reason that darkroom smell came back to me at 1 in the morning when I was awake. It's been a good 15 years at least since I was in a darkroom :(
Yes, I remember, and I still smell it from time to time, when I go to my favorite imaging lab in Indy to drop off some 120 color positives for developing.
In a lot of ways, it smelled(s) like sweet rotten eggs in vinegar. Does that cover it?
OMG, I loved darkroom, but we didn't use a blackbag...we went fully blind into a tiny room. It's a bit unnerving to be in such a dark black room...at least for me, it made my heart beat faster. You had to make sure you knew where the bottle opener was for prying off the end of the film canister and then where the wheel was, and then the container that it went into. Fun stuff! I also loved doing the test strip where you tried to figured out the best amount of burning time to make your photo come out correctly exposed. Oh, I could go on and on. :-)
I can't wait until I finally live in a place where I can set up a home darkroom, and get back to printing again. There is just something so serene and comforting about being under the red lights, lost in a world of developing prints, and huffing fixer.
i love that smell, my dad tells me of a story when he was in high school. He lobbyed to the school to get a dark room, it was approved and installed. None of the kids actually had cameras and there was not really a photographic group, they just wanted the room so they could make out in it!
Isn't losing the bottle opener and scissors in the room or bag the fun part? I did a self portrait the other day with my film cams and have been shooting film ever since. I miss darkrooms so bad :(
OMG!! I do & sooo miss it! Call me crazy but I still have all my equipment. So determined, once I kick hubby into gear on the basement, to dust off the old manual, get me some film & get back in the Darkroom...I used to loose hours in there!
@5unflow3r We used a blackroom for class, but when I worked for Segall Majestic/Lifetouch we had to use blackbags after prom and homecoming dances to get the film back to them. I liked the test strips too! I used to use them to decorate the boxes I kept odds and ends in as a kid. For me contact sheets were just the coolest though, getting to see all the sprocket holes printed out was so fun for some reason.
@scatochef@beautifulthing Learning photography when you're limited by frames and one try can be such a good thing. None of the "oh I'll fix it up in photoshop" or "just keep it on drive you'll get a good shot eventually"
@mikichelle Did the hours turn up later under the sofa or did they just hang out in the laundry room eating the socks? I'll never call anyone crazy for that! I hope you do manage to kick your husband o.O ermm, get the darkroom finished.
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Yes, I remember, and I still smell it from time to time, when I go to my favorite imaging lab in Indy to drop off some 120 color positives for developing.
In a lot of ways, it smelled(s) like sweet rotten eggs in vinegar. Does that cover it?
I can't wait until I finally live in a place where I can set up a home darkroom, and get back to printing again. There is just something so serene and comforting about being under the red lights, lost in a world of developing prints, and huffing fixer.
@scatochef @beautifulthing Learning photography when you're limited by frames and one try can be such a good thing. None of the "oh I'll fix it up in photoshop" or "just keep it on drive you'll get a good shot eventually"
@mikichelle Did the hours turn up later under the sofa or did they just hang out in the laundry room eating the socks? I'll never call anyone crazy for that! I hope you do manage to kick your husband o.O ermm, get the darkroom finished.