[Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?

[jonathan at openhealth.org (Jonathan Borden)]

Wade Heninger wrote:

> I am just in the process of building a B/W darkroom at my new house.  
> The
> plan is to take down the existing garage and rebuild it with a separate
> darkroom/office area for me.
>
> Funny, but I have access to the hardware: scanners, computers, 
> printers etc.
> I work at Adobe Systems, and part of my job is focusing on the digital
> imaging portions of Photoshop. As expected, I spend all day in the
> application.
>
> So why am I going into the dark?
>
> First, because I enjoy the analog process.  Second, and most 
> importantly,
> because I like the quality *much* better than anything I can get with
> digital (either using film and scanning or trying to deal with the 
> crappy
> hardware in digital cameras).  There is just no contest in my 
> experience,
> which I'll admit isn't as encompassing as some here, but the amount of 
> pain
> people go thru with their clogged heads, shifting colors and such, it 
> makes
> my Bessler 23C XL seem positively enjoyable by comparison.

As someone who also spends much of his days in digital land, I 
completely agree.

In fact, my latest darkroom has a #3 Kodak filter over a 15 watt bulb 
that I am using to develop by inspection in ABC pyro soup... of course 
these are 8x10 negatives.

Contact print azo in amidol. What could be better than 80 year old 
technology? :-)

>
> Digital is great for color; I never shoot color film these days.  I 
> scan all
> my film and use that for the contact sheet process.  I post the good 
> ones on
> the web and then go into the darkroom to print the few selects.

I am also underwhelmed by scanning color negative film, on the other 
hand the quality one can obtain by scanning color slides is amazing.

>
> Am I dogmatic about this?  Not really.  When I can output them with 
> the same
> quality of a good fiber print and with the ease in which I can produce 
> them
> in the dark, I'll probably walk away from the darkroom.
>
Personally, I find the darkroom relaxing. Over the years I've gotten 
into the habit of listening to NPR on the radio. It is a rather 
pleasant escape for me.

Jonathan