During my last year in high school I took 2 photo courses which both dealt with black and white film photography. I came to enjoy working in the darkroom very much and after I graduated I decided I wanted to set up my own darkroom. A selection of my photographic work can be found here.

Requirements for a Darkroom

There are several important parameters a room must fulfill to be used as a good darkroom. First and foremost, you must be able to block out most if not all of the light coming into the room. For this reason, many people with home darkrooms usually use their bathrooms, as bathrooms usually don’t have windows. I had the luxury of using my laundry room which is located in my basement. With only 2 small windows and a doorway leading into the room it was very easy to block out all of the light.
Another major requirement is running water which is used for rinsing film and paper. This is another reason people tend to use bathrooms for their darkrooms. My laundry room has a counter with a sink which works perfectly for this application.

Layout

Darkrooms are usually split into a “wet” side and a “dry” side. The wet side contains all the chemical baths, the sink and drying equipment. The dry side contains the enlarger, the timer and everything else needed to use the enlarger. In my case, the whole counter in my darkroom is my “wet” side and the small table I put my enlarger on is the “dry” side.

Equipment

A dark room requires many pieces of equipment which can be quite expensive. I acquired most of my equipment at estate/garage sales and only had to buy a few things from online stores like eBay. The main pieces of equipment are:

The Enlarger

The enlarger is the heart of any darkroom. It is basically a projector with more controls. You put a frame of film in the tray, and the enlarger will project the image onto the base of the enlarger. This then allows you to expose an image onto a piece of enlarging paper.
The time for which paper is exposed to the projected image is critical for the brightness level of the image. To control this we use an enlarging timer:

This enlarging timer is very simple compared to other timers. The time is set by manually moving the minute and second hands to the desired time and switching the timer on. This will turn on the light in the enlarger for the set time.

Chemicals and Trays

Once the picture has been enlarged, the paper needs to be processed similarly to film, but this time in trays. The developer etches the image into the paper, the stop bath stops developing quickly, and the fixer stops the paper from being light sensitive. Then the paper must be rinsed for several minutes. I do not have a fourth tray so I just use my sink.
Tongs are used to move the picture between trays. The chemicals are not toxic or hazardous and the tongs are mostly used to prevent chemical contamination.

Miscellaneous Equipment

There is quite a bit of other equipment required in a darkroom. Here is a list:

• Chemical concentrates/powders
• Developing tanks for developing film
• Thermometers for monitoring chemical temperatures
• Graduated pitchers for measuring out chemicals
• Chemical storage containers
• Safe lights