[Leica] Light table

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

In my kitchen / office I have a 24x48 inch plain white florescent fixture on
the ceiling off to the side a bit in which I put 4 Ultalume 5000's or the
equivalent full spectrum bulbs. It spills plenty of light over the kitchen
table where I retouch my prints and this is where my clients see their
prints for the first time.
Its also where I read the colorful pages of the New York Times on Sundays.

The same fixture with the same bulbs exists in my basement darkroom.
Only it is upside down and sitting on a table on the dry side of my darkroom
only a couple of feet from where my enlarger is.

An advantage to this seemingly overly large light "table" is that you can
lay a full strip of 36ex 35mm film on it for viewing and cutting and
stuffing into a print file.
Same with 220.

I also use it when I put a neg in my filed out negative carrier as it's a
critical thing making sure there is clear space on all sides and no dust.

And you can sort a couple of rolls of slides at the same time.

For a while I had white glass on it and I miss not being about to cut stuff
with my Xacto knife.

A friend put his elbow though it, I had a warning sign but no luck. He gave
me 50 bucks and I got plain vanilla white Plexiglas. Like is in my Aristo
Softlight.

When I'm done printing I generally turn the light box on as it doubles the
illumination in my darkroom on top of the overheads by twice.

Plus there's nothing like the cheerful clarity you get from full spectrum
florescent bulbs which cost 10 or 20 bucks each.
I think they fight depression but you never know.

Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/