The last time I processed B&W prints myself was in the summer of 1982. I had done photos of the wedding party at our wedding reception. But I soon dismantled my darkroom and sold the equipment that was at my parents house after we got married. I did some photo processing at the photo studio I worked for in 1980’s until they moved their studio and didn’t reassemble the lab. From the late 1980’s up to 2003, when I went all digital, I had all my film processed and printed by commercial labs.
My darkroom is now fully functional and I have used it to process film and print photos. On my first venture back to those days gone by, I chose a few negatives that ranged from thin to dense to get back into the printing process. Printing the negatives of the “Road Closed” and cornfield with the Sandias in the background were particularly challenging because of the large ranges between light and dark — these photos were taken in heavy rain while the sun was shining (a New Mexico phenomenon).
In the last version of the “Road Closed” photo, I accidentally exposed the back side of the paper and noticed nothing was happening in the developer, so I rinsed the paper, squeegeed it off, and then exposed the emulsion side of the paper. After developing it again, there was a ghost image from the exposure on the backside of the paper that makes it look like I picked up a reflection in glass.
Off Center & Not Even 
You finished the dark room!
I still have little things to do to it, but it’s now fully functional.
The darkroom looks good. That brings back memories! Our department had a timer that looked just like that one. Ilford paper…most of what we used was the Agfa P1 through P4 series paper.
Thanks, Lavinia! I don’t think Adfa makes photo paper anymore.
I looked at their website. The company has changed a lot since I did this kind of work. Looks its consumer imaging division was sold off to AgfaPhoto, an independent German company.
Very nice and enjoy.
Thanks!
My best friend use to have a darkroom. Sometimes he asked me to help him and I still can remember the chemical smell inside. But it was very interesting, though…
The exhaust fan I have moves a lot of air, so the smell isn’t bad. The one chemical that smells the most is the fixer, and it’s a smell you never forget..
Well done.
Thanks, Janet!
It is great to see you enjoying your new darkroom! Plus, we get to enjoy the images!
Thanks, Susan. I have some prints of your mom for out of that batch.
Great! 🙂
Dark room looks good and so do the prints.
Thanks!
Good for you â do they still teach developing classes in schools?
They do at UNM.