Darkroom-ventilation

DARKROOM VENTILATION + SINK TEST / Container Darkroom part 5

After finishing the sink in the previous post I had to try how it works. I am still waiting for the plumber to instal the taps, water heater…so I had to do it manually. I took a watering can filled it with water and poured a fair amount of water inside. Epoxy is behaving great and water flows straight to the drain. I started with a 1cm drop from one side of my 2m sink to the other but I think that the angle is too big so I will try to make it smaller. Drain is deep...

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Darkroom-sink-painting

PAINTING DARKROOM SINK + BUILDING THE FRAME / Container Darkroom part 4

After a week of waiting the paint has finally arrived. I used West System epoxy 105 + 206. First off all I have to mention that I have never used epoxy before so while I was waiting for the package I started searching for tips and tricks on how to use it. First of all I had to find a way to colour the transparent epoxy to white. At the end I used simple mat white pigment which had to be mixed into the epoxy. Mixing in pigment was probably the hardest thing while working as it is...

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Darkroom-sink-construction

BUILDING A DARKROOM SINK + TABLE / Container darkroom part 3

My container darkroom is slowly coming together. Space is separated into light and dark areas, doors are installed so the next step was building furniture from tables, storage cabinets and the essential piece of every darkroom is the sink. I have some experience with college dakrooms and sinks that are being used there so I had a slight idea how everything should look and work. When surfing the web looking for plans or ideas I haven’t found much besides a few forum posts and youtube videos. My darkroom sink will...

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Darkroom-walls-ventilation

VENTILATION AND WALL CONSTRUCTION / Container darkroom part 2

I am crazy excited to start working and designing my own working space. As I said in my previous post I will be splitting the container thru the middle to get a darkroom and lightroom space. Because of this I had to construct a partition wall. I used 8x5cm wooden slats to build a frame. I was using a miter saw which really makes everything so much easier. Also the walls of the container are made of metal and insulation which makes them only 4,5cm thick. I had to be careful when selecting the screws so they were...

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Shipping-container-darkroom

TIME TO BUILD MYSELF A PROPER DARKROOM / Container Darkroom part 1

The last few “corona” months I had a lot of time to think about my future as an artist and photographer. I accepted a decision that has been on my mind for quite some time now and just needed a slight push to get the ball rolling. Like usual I was setting up the temporary darkroom in my toilet to develop a dry plate, putting thick black trash bags on windows and doors, covering cabinets, searching for my headlamp (emits red safelight) etc. and I hand enough. I did not want to spend a minute more setting up...

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autochrome-varnish

Autochrome step 1: 1st varnish

GLASS BASE Before I start talking about 1st varnish I have to dedicate some words to support (glass) which serves as a base on which all the layers making up autochrome are coated. Many of you probably question what is there to talk about glass? When used for autochromes it serves not just as a support but it actually plays a role during exposure. Usually at lets say wet-plate or dry-plate photography plate is turned towards the lens in such a way that emulsion is directly pointing to the light source. With autochrome the...

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What-is-autochrome

What is Autochrome?

Why and how? For me it all started with this question back in 2017 when I applied my theme for bachelor’s degree. It didn’t know much about the autochrome before that besides that it was one of the first colour photography techniques. I started my research on the internet reading everything I could find about autochrome and I was in shock because there was almost nothing written on this the topic. My main source of informations at the time where blogs that I came across often by luck. They at least gave me an...

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