When was the darkroom invented

Photography finally became possible for amateurs, while movies based on roll film grew to extraordinary importance in the next century, as entertainment, news, instruction and propaganda. The 20th century became the age of film. But that film was based on silver halides, and so still required a darkroom.

People merely brought their exposed film to the drugstore or photo shop for processing. Most of this film was black and white. While modern color photography was invented in the s, widespread use of color did not reach the average household until the s. And emulsion-based color processing remained a complicated process. To print color photos required a sophisticated enlarger, expensive chemicals and color photo paper, along with skills beyond most amateur possibilities.

I did use the Cibachrome process in the s to early s. It easily produced brilliant color prints from slides, but it was expensive and slow. It still lives barely today as Ilfochrome. Photo buffs were not satisfied with commercial finishers, however, as they had no control over the quality of the print.

While color remained out of reach to most weekend shooters, black-and-white processing and printing at home certainly was feasible by the s. Equipment consisted of a few trays, a steel or plastic developing tank, and a piece of glass. These were called contact prints.

Contact prints worked all right if your camera used , , or larger film. But beginning in the late s the 35mm film that had grown to dominate photojournalism spilled into amateur photography.

These horizontal-format negatives were pretty small, a little over an inch high. This produced tiny contact prints. Fine for photo editing. Not so fine for general viewing. A machine to project the negative image onto a piece of sensitized paper at a larger size was necessary. That was called an enlarger. But one problem remained: darkrooms had to be, after all, dark. That is, no light could leak in, from any crack, any window shade, anywhere, not even a sliver. Emulsion was so sensitive that even the tiniest speck of light would possibly fog the film.

One obvious solution: a family bathroom. Many amateurs set up equipment in the bathroom, draping a blanket over the door and windows. This also was ideal because darkroom work requires a source of water. A problem, of course, was that people might want to use the bathroom.

And the equipment probably had to be packed away between sessions. Many enthusiasts opted for something more workable. The basement was the obvious answer. A fruit cellar was perfect: generally no windows and pitch dark by its nature. If that were not available, you could drape some blankets behind the furnace, or if you were really lucky, build a little room in a corner.

Most laundry rooms had a sink, and most of them were in the basement. I nailed thick cardboard over a basement window. Because most amateurs relied on darkrooms squeezed into unfinished basements, these spaces were as expected fairly crusty.

Dust was the enemy of print-making, as it left white spots on your prints. Detail-driven photographers aiming for high-quality prints used an inky substance, usually Spotone, and a brush to carefully touch over these spots.

You may imagine this skill took some time to acquire. So did the skill behind effective work in a darkroom. Developing and printing pictures is a process requiring fine motor skill facility. That is, you have to refine your ability to do things by hand. As machines do so much of our work nowadays, most of us do not have the high level of skill needed for detailed hand work. We see this in other areas that have become more automated, such as woodworking.

We also see it in photography, as digital-based images have all but replaced traditional darkroom skills. You do indeed need skill to produce high-quality images using Photoshop software. But that skill is different from the practical hand-on skills required in the darkroom.

When I taught darkroom-based photography, the biggest challenge for most students was learning to develop the film. In total darkness you must open the film cassette, remove the film, tear or cut off the end, roll the film onto a reel, place the reel in the tank, and put the cover on. If you would like a lesson in the difficulties of working blind, this is a good start. As both teacher and student over many years in university darkrooms I have heard all sorts of colorful language emanating from somewhere in the obscurity as students worked to learn film rolling.

The industry offered gadgets to make rolling easier. Real photographers rolled their own. Film, that is. Subscribe for free weekly updates from this Photography site. Past Issues. Introduction to the Photographic Darkroom.

Guest Author - Kaye Barnett. Creating your very own photographs in the darkroom is a long established tradition for photographic enthusiasts. The photographic darkroom stems right back from when the art form was first invented and was essential in developing a photograph in many processes of the time. Today, despite the rise of darkroom free digital photography, the traditional darkroom development is still incredibly popular so let's take a look back at the history of the photographic darkroom.

History of the Darkroom In its very early days of photographic processing in its simplest form a darkened room was used to develop the very first kind of processes, silvered copper plates and papers. Now, we are doing in the digital darkroom with the computer and softwares with multiply processing of the digital photography. You can learn both ways of the darkroom and digital darkroom.

Best to learn the darkroom first before the digital darkroom for your best experiences. Understanding about how the inventors of the pinhole, photography and photographic processing and digital darkroom.