The darkroom.

What is the darkroom?

The dark room is somewhere that you can go to take positive photo’s in the darkroom and develop them onto photo paper straight away and to set up pin hole camera’s to take negative photo’s with outside the darkroom. The darkroom is a room where no visible light is let into it and their is a light switch in there so you can see with light tight boxes in full on light sensitive photo paper so the light from the light’s doesn’t get into the paper and ruin it. When the main lights are off the are other little lights that are on but are not full of normal lights they are orange/red to make sure there is no blue light in the room because blue light is the light that effects the light sensitive photo paper.

The health and safety rules in the darkroom are:

• Don’t take bags or a big items into the darkroom because as it’s mainly dark you could trip over them.
• Be sensible in the darkroom.
• Be sensible with the equipment in the darkroom.

 

Turning negative into positive.

Today in lesson we were taught how to turn negative photo’s into positive photos.
1. turn of the lights in the dark room and get a piece of light sensitive photo paper.
2. place the light sensitive photo paper on the projector with the shiny side facing upwards,  then place your negative photo from your pin hole camera facing downwards and place clear glass or a clear solid over the photo’s to smooth it down and keep everything flat.
3. set the time for the projector best time would be between 10-15 seconds is the best time to keep the light on it and edit the contrast if you wish the higher the contrast the brighter it will be, then turn on the light.
4. when the time is up turn off the projector and then take the light sensitive photo paper to the developer and put it on there for 2 minuets and then out it into the stopper for 2 seconds then then the fixer for another 2 minuets and then the wash and dryer.

how to make a photogram

step1. turn of all the lights in the dark room then you can get the light sensitive paper out and cut it up into the size you want.

2. put the photo paper under the projector and place your objects onto the paper in the pattern you want.

3. turn on the projector and wait for about 40-50 seconds to let the exposure happen.

4. when you have left it for a good amount of time turn of the projector and remove all the objects from the paper and take the paper to the developer and make sure its all covered and serve the water around for about 40 seconds then take the stopper for about 2 seconds the the fixer for another 40 making sure its covered then the washer filled with cool water and then the dryer and when its dry your photo would have been developed.

Last week my class had a lesson in the dark room. We got into groups of around 3 and we got to do two separate testers using a pin hole camera for the first time.

A pinhole camera is a camera that doesn’t let any light through it but has a little whole in it with a shutter covering it so you can decide when to take one picture and the when the lights enters the box it prints an image onto the photo paper.

how to work one?

1. Go into a dark room where no light can get into it and get a piece of light sensitive paper into the back of the box with the shiny face shining towards the hole in the box. make sure the shutter is shut fully before leaving the dark room to take a photo.

2. Place the box on a stable surface with the shutter facing towards the area you want to photo graph.

3. Depending on the lightness of where you are if its a bright sunny day then open the shutter and leave it open for about 40 seconds and then if its a dull grey day then leave the shutter open for about 45-50 seconds.

3. When time is up shut the shutter then take it into the dark room and develop the photo by taking the light sensitive photo out the box and putting it into the developer tray and make sure it is fully covered and then leave it it there moving it slowly around for about 2 minutes.

4. Take the photo from the developer and pout it into the stopper tray for about 2 seconds.

5. Take the photo from the stopper to the fixer leave it in there completely covered moving it around slowly for about  minutes.

6. Take the photo from the fixer the the wash which should have continually running luke warm water then put the photo on the dryer to dry.