I am about to set up my darkroom, and am thinking about the optimum colour to paint the walls.

At first glance, I had assumed black (or at least a dark colour) would be good, so as to absorb as much stray light as possible.

On the other hand, it would also soak up the safelight. What I would probably end up doing is place a concentrated safe light source nearer to sensitive materials, thereby negating some of the benefit of the dark walls.

So perhaps a light colour (or a colour close to safelight colour) would be good, to help me to get a general, gentle background level of safe illumination.

Any views?

-- Ed Hurst (BullMoo@hotmail.com), October 11, 2001

Answers

Ed, I like and have light colored walls. For one thing, my darkroom is also my studio and has a window, and I just like the more natural environment that presents. I have not noticed that the light walls give me any trouble when printing. While there may be technical reasons why wall should be one color or another, I think it is also important - to me anyhow - that my darkroom present a pleasant environment in which to be, think, and work.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), October 11, 2001.

I painted the walls flat black only around the enlarger. Everywhere else I recommend a light, pleasant color. I went with grey, and it's a bit depressing. I think I would opt for a light yellow or even a mauve next time.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edb@unblinkingeye.com), October 11, 2001.

My darkroom walls and ceiling are white, except near the enlarger, where they are flat black.

-- Chris Ellinger (chris@ellingerphoto.com), October 11, 2001.

Greetings,

I painted my darkroom off-white. I was going to hang black cloth behind the enlarger, but have found it isn't necessary. I've not had problems using B&W, color and infrared materials. Under the safelight, the white walls help reflect what little light there is and make it easier to see.

Regards,

-- Pete Caluori (pcaluori@hotmail.com), October 11, 2001.

Since I built my darkroom 20 years ago, I haven't been able to see a wall for all the stuff on the shelves. I think the walls are a nasty salmon color. However, don't paint them a dark color unless you have a lot of light leaks. Then fix the leaks and repaint lighter.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), October 11, 2001.

My darkroom has gloss white walls & ceiling, middle gray countertops. I've not had any problems with fogging from enlarger leaks (my enlarger doesn't have much anyhow), possibly because the glossy surfaces cause specular reflections away from the paper.

I chose gray counters because on them, it contrasts with both printing paper and black cardboard (for dodging, burning-in).

My walls are tile board, so the gloss white isn't paint.

When I built it, I figured I could paint any areas that needed it black, but they didn't need it.

This darkroom is a cheerful place to work.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), October 11, 2001.

If the light is a "safe" light, it is okay if it is reflected, so white or a shade of white does the best job. Allows for maximum illumination with the least amount of lighting. I am putting the final touch on my darkroom, and rather than having to paint the area around my enlarger black to reduce the reflection of "bad" light, I will use flat black mat board behind and on each side of my enlarger (and on the ceiling.

I have also found that cutting black mat board into thin strips and attaching it with double-sided tape works wonders on the inside of door jambs (the area around where the door closes) to absorb light. I tried all kinds of weather stripping, and was pleasantly surprised to find how effective the black mat board was in absorbing light. Also cut strips that I tacked to overlap the edge of the door panel that covers up the slit when it is closed. Placed the white side of the black mat towards the inside of the darkroom, and the black facing the slit. All this can hardly be noticed, as opposed to the extensive weather stripping I had considered installing.

-- Jim Rock (jameswrock@aol.com), October 11, 2001.

My darkroom walls are painted gloss white with an "anti-mildew bathroom paint". My original intention was to paint the walls adjacent the enlarger flat black, but after 3 years this hasn't been necessary. After a few seconds under the safelight, visibility is surprisingly good.

-- Robert Orofino (minotaur1949@iopener.net), October 11, 2001.

Since my new darkroom is under construction (well the house that is providing the 4 walls and roof, is!) this has been an interesting read! The grey counter top is something I hadn't considered and since I intend mounting the enlarger on the wall, might be a good idea when wanting to make borderless prints as well as chasing dodgeing/burning tools around the bench.

Liked Keith's comments on not seeing the shelves! :)

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), October 11, 2001.

Decades ago in high school we had a flat black darkroom. It was a TERRIBLE choice. All the safelight power on the planet couldn't light it up, and it was very hard on the eyes. Go with everyone's suggestions and choose a nice light pleasant color. Technically, there's some merit in painting the area around the enlarger flat black, but in practice I don't think it makes any difference. I have a white formica counter and white walls, but an unfinished ceiling. I prefer a few smaller safelights rather than one big one.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), October 11, 2001.

Gloss white enamel. Reflects the safelight most efficiently and easy to clean up. Gray counter tops, as mentioned above.

A black darkroom is misery to work in.

-- Bob Keefer (bob@bkpix.com), October 12, 2001.

This conversation really stimulated me, as I also intend to start building my new darkroom soon (it has been a year now that I intend to do that, soon)... I gave it serious thought and concluded that bright red might be a good choice, since if ever there is some stray light it will be converted to a (somewhat) safe stray light and be of help than a nuisance. This thought was extended to the floor tiles, which I will choose to be of the same colour, of course. The safelight will be reflected 100% and when I will be working with the red light on, I will not even notice the difference between my red walls and floor and some other (white) ones). The only problem will occur when I will turn the white light on (to clean the darkroom) and I will realise that everything in this room is red. I guess that if someone stays for too long in a red room (not red rum) shall, sooner or later encounter psychic disturbance and might end up in a straightjacket whith the company of nice men in white suits. I also fear for my wive's life, because my axe is in the basement (where my new darkroom will be) and, affected by the red colour around me I might start acting strange... Why couldn't they make green - insensitive paper ?

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), October 12, 2001.

Since this has come up, what are suggestions for a splash guard on the walls behind a fiber glass sink that would look nice and provide for long term wet protection?

-- Gene Crumpler (hassieguy@att.net), October 12, 2001.

I wonder what happens if one have the colored safelight and the opposit color on the walls? The reflections from the walls should then be white/grey light that could harm the light sensitive meterial?

Just a thought. :-)

The walls in my darkroom have brownish wallpaper.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), October 12, 2001.

Patric, if the walls have the complementary colour of your safelight's one (that is, if they are green, since your safelight is probably red), then they will just reflect no light back (they wiil appear as black in the dark) and you shall realize that they are actually green only if you turn on a white light. The only problem is that any stray light will reflect as green on your walls, which will surely have a negative effect on your psyche, staying for hours in a room lit with red lights, seeing strange green reflections coming from here and there... I am sure my shrink would turn this proposal down.

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), October 13, 2001.

Ed,

I use my bathroom as a darkroom and it is loaded with all kinds of white and chrome reflective surfaces, and the walls and ceiling are white as well. I have not had any problems to speak of. As long as there are no light leaks and your safelite is not too large for the room you are working in, I don't see why you would not have success.

Ken.

-- Ken Bruno (salmon70@hotmail.com), October 17, 2001.

White walls will reflect the color of your safelight thus making them "safe" also, it is a myth to think you need all black, I painted all white walls in my darkroom and I have never had any trouble, and it makes for a much more cheerful place when working on mouting or coating etc.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), October 17, 2001.

A medium-light grey is excellent for a number of reasons. The most important is that it provides a neutral background to your vision when judging colour prints under appropriate colour temperature corrected lighting. The grey is not off white but not as dark as 18% grey--about halfway in between. I chose a slightly warm grey (has a bit of brown in it) so it's partway to taupe. Very pleasant to work in, light enough for safelight reflection but excellent for judging the colour of both colour and black and white prints.

-- David Kaufman (73501.3677@compuserve.com), October 21, 2001.

Wow, what a lot of advice! My personal experience involves an old Kaiser enlarger with various light leaks. I tried curing these, however the lamp overheated, and blew regularly. I therefore now use old and damaged black mounting card to stratically place around the enlarger. This works a treat, and at last I can achieve a grade5 contrast!

-- Lewis Buckle (lbuckleuk@compuserve.com), October 27, 2001.

My darkroom, the third and final one I hope to build in my house, is 10 feet by 18 feet, so I had room to put the enlarger on a counter more or less in the middle of the room. It is at least 5 feet from the nearest wall, so no reflection problems there. I use light walls to "spread" the light from the safelight around, and I have a switch next to the enlarger so I can turn it off during long exposures with lots of burning and dodging, and I also leave it off for much of the developer time. The light walls really help me see the rest of the time, though. And with the white lights on , it is much more pleasant. I see a pattern in the letters (and the thread about what we wish we had done in our darkrooms) that says most of us want to make some changes for the better, but don't easily get around to it because of the pressures of time and money. Do all you can at first, while you're "revved up", because it's harder to get back to it later! Good luck.

-- Don Welch (donwelch@hotmail.com), October 27, 2001.

Well, I seem to be the only here that painted my darkroom flat black. It is in the basement 10x10 feet and the walls were a dirty salmon color with an open ceiling ( you can see the 2x4's). I started painting only around the enlarger when i noticed dust trickling off the wood so I just kept painting. It only has three walls so i enclosed the third with black cloth, vinyl on one side and thick felt on the other. It sounds like I could have gone with a lighter color but my dry side is right beside the darkroom providing me with an off white situation. However. I built my sink, 8'x8'x24" and its teal and my enlarger table that I built is a soft blue. Some color. I do have a question. I bought some safe lights and I would like some advice about hanging them. Is it still 4 feet from the developing trays and the enlarger?

-- KC (dogdishz@prodigy.net), November 01, 2001.

KC, I've had (or worked in) probably about a dozen darkrooms over the past 20 yrs....I had one in a basement of a house I lived in once years ago, that was all black...the basement was pretty rough, so I ended up covering all the studs & ceiling with black plastic---it was pretty low-tech, but seemed like a good idea at the time...I basically built a room out of thick sheets of plastic, duct tape & a staple gun. I made a halfway decent light trap for a door...sort of a zig-zag trap like you'd find in a gang darkroom, and took an old window unit air conditioner---propped up on about 3 milk crates & duct taped in place through the plastic---and used that to get some air moving in this plastic hothouse (literally). All in all it worked pretty well...it was just really rough visually working in it...any lightsource got sucked into the walls. It was easy to keep clean, by running a wet rag down the walls though...I remember developing film down there once, and hearing this pitter-patter type brushing noise...it was from a mouse running around in the plastic overhead!...that was one of my "college" darkrooms though, I've graduated to jumpy crickets and earwigs now....

-- DK Thompson (kthompson@moh.dcr.state.nc.us), November 02, 2001.