On 19/09/15 17:24, Graham. wrote:
On Sat, 19 Sep 2015 16:54:42 +0100, Chris French
wrote:

Eldest daughter (14) is very much getting into photography. Digital of
course, but she likes the idea of having a play with film.

Someone on the local Freecycle was offering a load of darkroom gear,
which I've acquired. And I've rooted out my old film SLR. So now need to
construct some sort of darkroom space.

Never had one myself, though did do a little bit a few times with a
friend many moons ago. But' I'm pretty sure plenty of folks here have
done such things in the past.

So any pointers/suggestions for setting it up are welcome. something at
least semi permanent would be preferable I think, and we have a few
places that might be suitable. What is the essentials, what would be
nice.

don't want to spend to much money as it might be a bit of a flash in the
pan.

One possibility is the cellar - a bit damp, but ok plenty of space,- has
power, but no water or drainage. There a few different spaces down there
and only one small window in a light well that doesn't really do
anything much except provide a little ventilation, so making it dark
would be easy.

Another thought is that we have a dressing room that isn't really
properly used. We I could use one end of that. It has two entrances, so
I could partition one end off with black plastic say - no window at that
end (power, accessible drainage and water. We do have plans to create an
en suite bathroom, and a separate storage room with a a partition wall
across dividing the room, so could potentially do the partition wall now
anyway.

Thanks.

I was 13 when I got my first darkroom.
Is she going to do colour negs, reversal, or just black & white negs
and prints?

Top tip,

get her something like this for handling film and loading the tank,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/PATERSON-LAR.../dp/B005770FA6

That way she can do it watching the telly in normal lighting and
pretend she's got a job at Porton Down, and more importantly, you
won't need to make the darkroom quite as dark as you would otherwise.

My dad used one. For loading the camera and then loading the film into a
developer pot.

The pot allowed you to add chemicals and flush out whilst keeping the
light off the film so you can actually develop *film* without a darkroom.

It's prints that you really need the darkroom for.