tribal-warrior
Member
I'm planning to set up a temporary darkroom in a small section of my bedroom. Something that I can set up to develop prints from a pinhole camera and then take down and dismantle. I would likely set the darkroom up every now and then (whenever I have a few prints to make.) I might do some contact printing as well later on (without an enlarger.)
I would really like to mimimise the use of chemicals in this bedroom darkroom. For developer, I'm going to use one of the cafenol / instant coffee alternatives with Vitamin C etc. And for stop bath, I'll use water and lemon juice. As much as I'd like to use a more environmentally friendly substitute for fixer, it seems I can't. There is discussion online about using salt water for fixing though others say that it doesn't work that well. And I'm not keen on letting my prints sit in there for 48 hours etc. So fixer would be the only commercially available darkroom chemical that I would be using.
With regards to ventilation, I'm wondering if I could do without an exhaust fan? This bedroom has decent sized windows that are a bit over a meter high and they will be open. Though they will be about 2.5 - 3 meters away from one of the 'walls' of the darkroom. The darkroom 'walls' and 'roof' will consist of large black table cloths. I'll have a mini maze at the entrance to the darkroom like an 'S' or 'U' shape which should hopefully help with air flow. And the fixer would be positioned very close to the mini maze. I could stick my head in the maze every now and then when I'm at the fixer. By the way, the darkroom 'roof' would not be very high and I doubt that I would be able to stand up fully inside. I may have to crawl through the maze to get in and out.
There is a ceiling fan in this bedroom that will be turned on when the darkroom is in use. And that should blow at least some of the air into the maze. Though as the maze will be 'U' or 'S' shape, light won't get in obviously but air will....but would be slowed down somewhat. I also don't plan to have very long darkroom sessions. I doubt that I would be in there for hours.
Suppose that the ventilation may possibly be adequate during darkroom use......would there be any issues after the whole thing is packed away? The fixer and makeshift cafenol developer and vinegar stop bath, trays etc would be removed from the bedroom and stored in another room. Though would any fumes from the fixer still be present in the bedroom after it has been used and removed? Would the ceiling fan and open windows help to dissipate any remaining fumes?
I would really like to mimimise the use of chemicals in this bedroom darkroom. For developer, I'm going to use one of the cafenol / instant coffee alternatives with Vitamin C etc. And for stop bath, I'll use water and lemon juice. As much as I'd like to use a more environmentally friendly substitute for fixer, it seems I can't. There is discussion online about using salt water for fixing though others say that it doesn't work that well. And I'm not keen on letting my prints sit in there for 48 hours etc. So fixer would be the only commercially available darkroom chemical that I would be using.
With regards to ventilation, I'm wondering if I could do without an exhaust fan? This bedroom has decent sized windows that are a bit over a meter high and they will be open. Though they will be about 2.5 - 3 meters away from one of the 'walls' of the darkroom. The darkroom 'walls' and 'roof' will consist of large black table cloths. I'll have a mini maze at the entrance to the darkroom like an 'S' or 'U' shape which should hopefully help with air flow. And the fixer would be positioned very close to the mini maze. I could stick my head in the maze every now and then when I'm at the fixer. By the way, the darkroom 'roof' would not be very high and I doubt that I would be able to stand up fully inside. I may have to crawl through the maze to get in and out.
There is a ceiling fan in this bedroom that will be turned on when the darkroom is in use. And that should blow at least some of the air into the maze. Though as the maze will be 'U' or 'S' shape, light won't get in obviously but air will....but would be slowed down somewhat. I also don't plan to have very long darkroom sessions. I doubt that I would be in there for hours.
Suppose that the ventilation may possibly be adequate during darkroom use......would there be any issues after the whole thing is packed away? The fixer and makeshift cafenol developer and vinegar stop bath, trays etc would be removed from the bedroom and stored in another room. Though would any fumes from the fixer still be present in the bedroom after it has been used and removed? Would the ceiling fan and open windows help to dissipate any remaining fumes?
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