The Makerspace members are in the process of creating a photographic studio with lighting and backdrops together with a darkroom, for wet processing black & white and colour film. On  Monday 16th at 7pm  we will be working to outfit our new wet darkroom at the Makerspace. Come along and see what we are doing! We have all the equipment that we need with the exception of an electronic darkroom timer and a darkroom wall clock. On Monday evening we will be starting to install power and lighting in the darkroom and repairing the rear door to ensure it is light tight.  Our aim is o have the darkroon up and running in November.

Fitting Out the Studio

The studio has now been in use for about a year. We have a range of backdrops including several wall panels, white paper roll,  portrait background, black panels  and green screen sheet. We have a range of lighting options and light scattering options. We also have a shop mannequin to aid in setting up lighting.

Fitting Out the Darkroom

So far we have identified a suitable room for the darkroom that has an operational sink with running water. We have painted the walls to absorb scattered light. We  are currently  installing suitable darkroom lighting and power points.

Darkroom Equipment

At the meeting on the 19th August 2019 we did a dry run of the processing to check that  we have all the equipment needed to process both film and prints. We have been very fortunate that  Kevin Roche , Keith Polwin and Graham Beale  have donated most of the equipment we need.

 Currently available equipment:

• • Three enlargers
  • Three sets of trays (small medium and large) in three colours
  • Film clips, tongs,  thermometers,
  •  A4 and A3 Print trays
  • Two film grain focussing devices
  • Automated heated bath colour processing tanks
  • Six hand operated developing tanks

The two items we appear to be missing are a darkroom clock and an electronic timer for the enlargers.

As there is limited potential dry space in the darkroom  for  enlargers, we assembled  the three donated darkroom enlargers  to decide if one enlarger could serve for both B&W and colour  or will it be necessary to use two enlargers; one for each type of film.

Hasp 66 Vintage Photographic Enlarger