StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Did digital take you away from the cigs? They are way more toxic than the darkroom chemicals (from an ex-smoker).

Stan

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

I have my darkroom set up in a closet in the bathroom, the enlarger sets on a shelf with selves below it, with space for my three trays and paper safe. I have the tub set up with my wash tray. I use it in batches. I will let several rolls pile up before I run them in a batch. I just love working with the enlarger, dodging and burning is all the photoshop I need.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I miss it but I also realize the conveniences of digital photography. I have said here before that I spent many months, perhaps a few years, working the optical darkroom for my b&w images.
Digital did not have a good beginning for monochromatic images till the introduction of software to edit the files. By the time the software was introduced I had lost my "touch" for quality images and it has taken me sometime and lots of experimentation to find the settings that get me closer to what I was doing in the past. I am still learning.
Digital is not only convenient but it allows to do what we never dreamed of when we were working with the enlarger.

kbarnes42 Loc: North Carolina

Miss it except the smell of sepia toning. Hate the rotten egg smell.

sbohne

In my studio, you would have been flogged for smoking in the darkroom. If you smoked anywhere else in the studio, you were merely caned.

sbohne

While I readily admit to great wonderment pulling my first print at the tender age of 17, watching it come up in the Dektol, when I did it for a living I hired a darkroom tech as soon as I could. The smell of fixer (and sepia toner) was never appealing to me. I did kinda like acetic acid though.

gmbrandon Loc: Tennessee

I have fond memories of the darkroom smell. I loved it.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

I was a graphic arts cameraman in a printing facility, tray-processing up to 20x24 sheet film. My wife and I always had home darkrooms until we bought a house that didn't have a place for one.
I still miss it all. The slippery feeling your skin gets from developer, how the stop bath neutralizes it quickly, clearing in the fixer, actually getting to SEE it all happening.
I've accumulated what I need to develop 35mm again just so I can try out the cameras in my collection. If I can just find a changing bag!

A10 Loc: Southern Indiana

I miss the smell, the print coming up in the tray, everything. My daughter would sit on a stool and watch me do my magic for several years before she was using the darkroom as much as I was. A flood of biblical proportion in 2008 wiped out my darkroom and all my cameras. I never went back to the darkroom and did not use a camera for a year. I am on my fifth DSLR and enjoy the ease of the digital darkroom.

James R. Kyle Loc: Saint Louis, Missouri (A Suburb of Ferguson)

I do Chemical Photography as well as digital.
Yes - For the past 4 years, I have been doing Photographic Paper Negatives in my large format cameras. Not only for personal reasons, but for selling something that is unique in their creation. (Not to mention the fact that I have over 3000 8X10 sheets of paper - some very outdated, but very usable. And I did not want to toss it out being something that was usable.)
I do not have the "Fully Equipped" darkroom - it's the spare bathroom - and I develop in there for the Paper Negatives and scan to light edit in Photoshop. I print digitally as well as contact printing. The editing software is now my enlarger - of sorts.
About the smells -- Yes, they are dangerous if not handled in a proper manner. Yes, they are often a nuisance to some people. To me, the outcome is worth the efforts. And it is a lot of fun as well. I find that this can be a bit of an "addiction" - in that I am always on the "lookout" for anything that would look good as an image that can be created on a Paper Negative. ISO is that of three to twelve - (3 - 12). And it takes longer to not only get the image of correct exposure in the camera and to make a positive from it, but to me this practice has made a better digital photographer out of me. It S L O W S me down to THINK of what exactly what I am about to do and how I go about doing it.

This is my personal thoughts on this chemical photography business. Others will and should have their own.

=0=

Print from a Paper Negative (Kodabromide II RC)


"Sliding-Box" 8X10 Model #4 -- With assortment of lenses used.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

The last time I smelled that aroma was about 55 years ago, from my Dad developing his own bw negatives and photos in the hallway bathroom. Yet I still remember it as if it were yesterday.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

I always liked the smells but I certainly never felt I was the "master" of my darkroom. Usually I would burn thru a full box of paper, never get one exactly the way I wanted after doing numerous dry downs and reflection densitometer readings, then just accepted the best I could do. Once Photoshop became available, I got better results by scanning the negs and having them printed commercially on a LightJet.

Flash Falasca Loc: Beverly Hills, Florida

YES

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Been there, done that, cigarette and all. These basics provide a foundation for how I do things today.

josquin1 Loc: Massachusetts

What I miss most is the anticipation of watching the image appear. When I 1st started I couldn't stop and just printed photo after photo. And the smell was tolerable. Still have all the equipment necessary especially the old Agfa papers and Ilford Galerie papers. Thinking of donating it all to my local high school.