Guide to Setting Up a Darkroom at Home by Taylor Blanchard

Written by Taylor Blanchard

In a world where our lives are dominated by screens and we’re accustomed to instant gratification, film photography forces me to slow down, think, and enjoy the process.

The tactile feel of film and film cameras is important to me, and seeing a digital scan can, at times, feel underwhelming.

Printing my film photography in the darkroom is the ultimate reward. It’s where the journey from the click of the shutter ends with the final print. The smell of the chemistry, dialing in the right exposure, seeing an image emerge on the paper: it’s magical.

I grew up in the time when darkrooms were a familiar staple of high school art programs, but, as much as I enjoyed photography, I never printed in the darkroom until seven years ago, when I took a darkroom class in Charlotte at The Light Factory, an arts and education nonprofit. And then I took another class. And another. I was hooked.

After I was comfortable printing, a friend who is an art teacher lent me her enlarger, so I set up a home darkroom for my film photography. Since then, I’ve upgraded my enlarger and set up a second, more permanent darkroom. 

Maybe you’ve developed your own film and printed in a darkroom previously or love the analogue process and want to set up your own home darkroom for black and white printing. Below is an overview to help you get started. 

Finding the Right Room for Your At-Home Darkroom and Minimizing Light

You need a dark room – one that you can make completely light tight. This is one of the most important considerations, because even the smallest bit of light can fog the printing paper.

Many people choose to set up their darkroom in a room with no windows, such as an interior bathroom or a basement with limited light. I set up my first home darkroom in a spare room with three exterior windows! 

After several unsuccessful attempts at blocking light, my husband and I built wood frames to hang over the window frames and covered them with black landscape plastic from a home improvement store.

This was the perfect solution for the room. You can also buy or make your own blackout curtains or craft inserts for the windows with foam board or similar. The key is to ensure that no light is seeping in.

You will also need to block any light coming under the door, which you can do with a rolled-up towel. You can also minimize light entering the room if you turn the lights off outside the darkroom. 

It may seem counter intuitive, but it helps if your room has white or light-colored walls – it’ll  help reflect your safelight, making it easier to see while you’re working.

Access to Running Water

Another consideration for the room is water. It’s nice, but not necessary, to have running water in your darkroom to rinse your final prints.

If you don’t have a sink in your darkroom, you can rinse your developed and fixed prints in a tray or bucket of water, and then take them to another room for a final rinse under running water. 

You can read more about making your own print washer here.

Next, Gather the Equipment Needed for Your Darkroom

1. An Enlarger

If you want to start by making contact prints, or prints where the negative is placed directly on the paper, then you can skip the enlarger and test the rest of your setup with only a light. 

If you want to print images that are bigger than the negative, you’ll need an enlarger (find on eBay). This is one of the most significant upfront costs for your darkroom. 

An enlarger has several parts; however, especially in the secondary market, you’ll probably buy everything together and assembled. Read A Beginner’s Guide to Enlargers for an in-depth overview of the types of enlarger light sources and more. 

Enlargers come in various sizes, and you should buy one that will support the largest negative size you think you’ll print. For example, if you only shoot 35mm film now and are remotely interested in trying medium format, then buy a medium format enlarger.

There are countless considerations for an enlarger. My advice is to look on a site like Craigslist, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace to find an enlarger in your area that you don’t have to pay to ship.

One hint: when you find an enlarger that you’re considering buying, do some research online before you buy it. Are people posting tips about it on forums? Has anyone written a blog post on how to use it? Do people report any consistent problems with it? Can you find the original manual online?

Find darkroom enlargers on eBay or at Adorama.

2. Enlarger Lens

As with all glass in photography, increasing quality increases the cost. Other than the enlarger, this is the most significant investment you will make.

As with camera lenses, enlarging lenses (find on eBay) with smaller f stops are typically more expensive. A brighter lens (with a smaller f stop) will render a brighter image when you’re focusing and setting up the print. Better quality lenses will also create sharper prints. 

There are three major manufacturers of enlarging lenses: Nikon, Rodenstock, and Schneider, although you will also find lenses from many other companies. 

In addition to quality, you’ll need to ensure you buy a lens that will accommodate the various image formats that you print. You’ll find plenty of information online; for example, a 50mm lens will work for 35mm negatives and 75-90mm lens for 120 film, and 135-150mm for 4×5.

While you can use a longer lens to print smaller negatives, you will need to raise the enlarger head much more than you would with a 50mm. Conversely, if you use a 50mm lens to print 4×5 negatives, then you’ll get vignetting on the corners. 

Find enlarger lenses on eBay or at Adorama.

3. Negative Carrier

The negative carrier is a piece of hinged metal that sandwiches the negative in place below the light and above your paper. It keeps the negative from curling or moving during printing.

They are often sized specifically for your enlarger, so they’re not always transferable between brands. They are also specific to the negative size, so 35mm, 6×6 cm, 6×9 cm, and so forth.

You can also make one yourself out of black heavy paper, or a similar material.

Find negative carriers on eBay or at Adorama.

4. Enlarging Timer

An enlarging timer will plug into your enlarger and control the amount of exposure time for your prints.

Once you have determined your exposure for a print, you set the time on the timer. It automatically starts and then shuts off the light for the exposure time you noted.

While you can just turn the enlarger on and off, you won’t be able to dial in very specific times or note how long you dodge or burn. An example of an enlarging timer is a Time-O-Lite.

Find enlarging timers on eBay or at Adorama.

5. Enlarging Easel

An easel allows you to position your paper and hold it flat, which provides consistency print to print, and keeps the paper in place for dodging or burning. 

Find enlarging easels on eBay or at Adorama.

6. Safelight

Once you have a darkroom and you’ve made sure it’s completely dark, you need a way to see what you’re doing.

You can buy a safelight specifically for a darkroom, or use red LED lights.

Find darkroom safelights on eBay or at Adorama.

7. Photo Paper

There are two primary types of darkroom printing paper: resin coated (or RC) and fiber.

I always recommend starting with RC paper when setting up a home darkroom because it develops faster, is less expensive, and dries flat. Ilford Multigrade RC Pearl is my favorite for beginners. 

Fiber paper is beautiful and has an incredible tonal range, but it’s more finicky: it requires longer time in the chemistry, requires longer rinsing, and dries with curled up edges.

Once you’ve dialed in your exposure and are comfortable printing on RC paper at home, then you can begin to experiment with fiber. 

After the RC versus fiber decision, you’ll find papers of many finishes and weights. Much of this comes down to personal preference.

A glossy paper will generally show the most tonal range; a matte or pearl paper will reflect less light. You can also find papers that are warmer or cooler and ones that are a heavier “art” weight. 

Find darkroom photo paper on Amazon.

8. Chemicals for Paper Developing

The steps of printing in a darkroom are similar to developing your negatives – you need developer, stop bath, fixer, and possibly perma wash.

The developer chemistry is the only one that is different for paper developing than film developing. 

Perma wash isn’t necessary for RC paper, although it doesn’t hurt and should help with the final rinse. You should use it for fiber paper.

Find paper developing chemicals at Adorama.

9. Trays or Containers for the Chemistry

You’ll need to have darkroom trays or another container to hold your chemistry.

Trays are easy to find on the secondhand market, like eBay. It’s best to have trays for the various paper sizes that you’ll print: one for 8×10, 11×14, and so forth. The largest trays you can buy are usually 20×24.

I also like to have a large timer, like a GraLab photography timer from eBay, set near the trays, so I quickly see when it’s time to move the paper to the next tray of chemistry.

Find darkroom trays on Amazon.

10. Tongs

You need a set of tongs for each tray of chemistry so you can move the paper between trays – without cross contaminating the chemistry.

People often use gloves instead of tongs – just remember to rinse after you move the chemistry into the next tray.

Find darkroom tongs on Amazon.

11. Grain Focuser

You can get a decent idea of focus with your naked eye, but a grain focuser will help you dial in the focus of the negative before you print.

Find grain focusers on eBay or at Adorama.

12. Filters

Photographic papers used to be graded by contrast; now, you print on a multigrade paper and use filters to add or subtract contrast (or to use filters to both add and subtract, which is called split filter, or slit grade, printing).

When I first started printing in the darkroom, I didn’t use contrast filters, but now I consider them integral.

The Ilford Multigrade filter set is easy to find on eBay and works great. 

Find enlarger filter sets on eBay or at Adorama.

13. Dodging and Burning Tools

You can buy dodging and burning tools, but you can also make them yourself. A dodging tool is anything that blocks the light in a part of the image to lessen the exposure, and a burn tool is anything that lets extra light hit part of the image to increase the exposure.

You can dodge with your hand, or cut out shapes and tape to a thin piece of wire. To burn, you can use pieces of cardboard.

14. An Apron and a Towel

I wear an apron in the darkroom to keep chemistry off of my clothes, and to have a pocket for a pen or pencil and my phone.

I also use a towel in case I get any chemistry on my hands or need to rinse and dry my hands. 

15. Notebook

I take notes for each of my prints – writing down the exposure time, f stop of the lens, if I split filter printed, and if I did any dodging and burning.

It’s come in handy for printing the same negative again, or for printing negatives from the same roll. 

Phew! Now we’re ready to set up the room.

Configuring Your Darkroom Space

There are many ways you can configure your darkroom. A few thoughts:

Ideally you will have two separate flat surfaces: one for the enlarger and one for the chemistry, because it’s best to keep the enlarger space separate from the chemistry to keep the enlarger space dry and free from chemistry.

Protect wood or other porous surfaces from the chemistry with thick drop cloths or plastic.

You can set up your chemistry trays left to right or right to left, as long as you always put them in the same order: Developer, Stop, Fix, Wash.

Position your safelight in the area that will provide the most illumination. It’s best to avoid putting the safelight right next to the enlarger. 

An ‘L’ shape is a great set up for the darkroom, where the small end of the L has the enlarger and the longer end contains the chemistry.

If that doesn’t work, set up the chemistry directly across from the enlarger, so you simply have to turn to place your paper into the developer. 

One Final Note

Even if you don’t print in the darkroom, print your work!

Some ideas: Print a book every year, make prints to give to family and friends, frame prints for your house, or frame your work to submit in a show. You will never regret having prints of your work. 

Do you have any questions about darkroom printing at home? Have you set up a darkroom at home? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you so much, Taylor! Taylor is a regular contributor here at Shoot It With Film, and you can check out her other articles here, such as Kodak Tri-X 400 vs Kodak T-MAX 400 Film Comparison and The World of Infrared and Red-Sensitive Black and White Film.

You can also check out Taylor’s work on Instagram.

Leave your questions about building a darkroom at home below in the comments!

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Taylor Blanchard

Taylor Blanchard is a landscape and travel film photographer and a regular contributor for Shoot It With Film. Find her other articles here, such as My Foray Into Large Format Photography and The World of Infrared and Red-Sensitive Black and White Film.

Image Credit: Ashley Thalman

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