Making a Print

To begin printing your monochrome film you will need a room, which can be blacked out and made safe of any light sources that will fog your paper. In the absence of a permanent darkroom set up many photographers use the bathroom as a temporary darkroom sometimes much to the annoyance of the rest of the family. Temporary workbench can be erected over the bath for equipment and will also give you the advantage of running water, which is very useful but by no means essential. My own permanent darkroom has operated very successfully for many years without a water supply, the prints simply put into a large tray of water and washed at the end of the printing session.

Equipment wise your main expense will be your enlarger. There are several good makes around, look for one that is solidly built and therefore less likely to vibrate during use. Have a look at the used equipment market you will find adverts in the back of most photographic publications either private sellers or from dealers who sell used photographic items. Remember that you will need an enlarging lens 50mm is required for 35mm film but if you enlarger can be used with other film formats you also require a different lens for each film format size.

To process the prints you will need shallow dishes for the chemicals, the graduated measure you already have along with the thermometer and stopwatch. There are a number of timers on the market, which allows you to make accurately exposed prints by automatically switching on/off the enlarger with more control. Very useful if you making a number of prints from the same negative where consistent results are required. Although you can get by without an elaborate timer you should consider a good quality safe light, good illumination in the darkroom is essential, the brighter the better for your own safety reasons. Care must be used in sighting the safe light follow the guide lines and the minimum distance from paper must be kept to avoid fogging the paper at any stage of its processing.

Your choice of photographic paper is something down to you own personal taste, to begin with I would recommend a resin coated paper as it is easy to handle, as you become a more experienced printer you might like to try some of the wonderful fibre based papers the exist which can deliver some outstanding results.

For this article I have used Ilford Multi grade RC paper, with multi grade paper you need only carry one type of paper which you can change the grades by the use of filters, if your enlarger has a colour head you can simply dial in the contrast grade required or use special printing filters that can used above or below the lens.

To process your prints you will a new type of developer designed for papers, the stop bath and fixer used for developing the film can be used but it is wise to check the dilution rates are safe to use with papers at this strength.