why aren’t you darkroom printing?! Tour + print review

[@hackaninstant]

"darkroom printing is the best source of truth for what a print should look like" YES! RA4 paper with enlarger filtration is colour balanced for negative film and its orange film mask. Plus, you have a print to show for it that you can handle, look at as a piece of art, and show others. This is an excellent demonstration showing that a darkroom can be setup in almost any "dark room." Mine is crammed in the bathroom and has produced lots of b&w prints...

[@ribsy]

Yup! It’s the truth!

[@grifftur]

This was the push I needed as well as a little bit of the info I wasn't sure about. I've been sitting on 2 enlargers and some equipment I bought during the pandemic so I think it's time to dust it all off and see what I can do. I'm in an apratment situation currently but I have the drum and a sous vide so I think I can make it happen with blocking out my bathroom or a closet. Thanks for the inspo Ribs!

[@ribsy]

Yup! I started in a bathroom as well, and it work very well for me

[@AI-Hallucination]

@@ribsyAre you still in the UK or back in states

[@AI-Hallucination]

The RH design timers are good I just got one definitely worth a look f-stop print suppose you can use a chart

[@sbills]

I love to see this! There's something so special about holding in your hands a print that was made in the darkroom. I've been in my makeshift darkroom closet for five years now and I don't regret it one bit. I stuffed a Beseler 45MXT with a cold light head in this tiny space. I also have no running water, but being a black and white darkroom, I store them in a holding tray until I'm ready to wash. I got an 11x14 print washer in my kitchen 🤣🤣 I've been experimenting with different B&W toners such as Selenium and Sepia. I've even done split toning with the two. Keep up the great work, I'm really happy to see you back in the darkroom.

[@ribsy]

It’s magic!

[@tedphillips2951]

Really interesting video & it shows your dedication to your craft. The new darkroom has the benefit of giving you exercise as you run from one place to another to complete your prints.

[@ribsy]

Haha lots of exercise. Up and down the stairs and lots of standing

[@titofly00]

dope prints and ripped legs gonna be the new ribsy. I love these darkroom sessions, those are some great shots and nice prints bro.

[@ribsy]

Appreciate you! Gonna be making more darkroom content

[@scottplumer3668]

I still get a little thrill when the image appears on paper. It's the closest to magic I can imagine. Unfortunately, I just don't have enough dark space in my house. I did set up a darkroom in my garage, but it was a pain because I had to stuff a blanket along the bottom of the door to prevent light coming in. It wasn't so bad at night except when cars went by.

[@ribsy]

literally magic! put it in the drum and voila!

[@Resgerr]

What about using a draught excluder?- would make it a bit easier 🤔

[@allmediaguy1]

if i have learned anything its that creativity finds a way! love the prints

[@ribsy]

exactly! where there is a will, theres a way

[@sangmincha5661]

I've just finished your previous home darkroom tutorials to start my own color printing at home, and just found this new video! Super congrats for the better setup for your work and thanks for the great videos brooooo!

[@ribsy]

That’s great. Glad the information is helping people!

[@antnguyen]

Always nice to see new Ribsy’s video, hope you’ve been doing well, sir!

[@ribsy]

Thanks for watching!

[@leocarlsson3753]

Watched a lot of your and others enlarger videos. Now I'm bidding on an entire enlarger darkroom set close to my parents in Sweden, an LPL 7700 colour. Just missing a dev drum!

[@ribsy]

Amazing! Good luck

[@michael195b]

Thanks for the video. Just moved house, had a light tight bathroom before but not in the new place. Inspired me to get off my ass and get one set up again.

[@ribsy]

Just need some cardboard to cover windows while printing 😃

[@ZOMBIELUIS666]

I love printing RA but it is a huge pain in the ass sometimes lol I feel like I go through so much more paper and developer than I do with black and white! Also I tried out a chibachrome drum but was having problems with the paper getting a uniform amount of chemicals, I ended up using trays and found my results were a lot better. Glad to see you're still printing stuff, Ribs, you're an inspiriation. Much love from the Bay Area 💯

[@ribsy]

Thanks! Hmmm maybe you weren’t using enough chems in the drum?

[@AI-Hallucination]

Keep this alive I have full working darkroom in the highlands of Scotland teach the local kids for free they love it

[@ribsy]

I don’t plan on stopping!

[@Johnny_shade]

Ribsy, great to see a new DR video, your original darkroom vids inspired me to set up my own, FR! Only print b&w for now on an old Durst enlarger…but as you know it’s that maniacal final step in bringing your images to life. Keep up the great work, man!!! 🙏🏼💯

[@ribsy]

Great! I’m glad I could inspire

[@TristanColgate]

The colours on the print look far better to me. The orange highlight on his cheek (reflected light from his t-shirt I guess), is a bit more subtle on the print. But also, the giveaway to me is the sky. The sky colour in the scans is pretty weird, vs the print which just looks far more natural. Love to see you printing again! I find printing colour is just much more of a technical challenge, I've always found getting colours right so stressful that I've never gotten to dodging and burning. (probably because I'm using an Intrepid Compat, and the colour filtration controls are a rollercoaster!)

[@ribsy]

Totally agree! I used the sky as my guide, cuz the orange shirt was throwing everything off for me

[@Asiaddicted]

That comes at the right time, been wanting to get back to making prints but can’t find a darkroom in my area, well I’ll make mine !

[@ribsy]

Do it!

[@Liazon098]

Loving the grind that you have with the photography. Like going to the basement and then going to another sink? Hope you create a storage vessel for water. And let gravity be the pressure

[@ribsy]

There is no drainage in the basement tho

[@Liazon098]

@ribsy do a gray water capture with another thing and you probably have a drill and you can from time to time drill pump it up somewhere else or get a submersible pump. Lmk what you think

[@MakersTeleMark]

So looking forward to your next adventure. Glad you got the basic tools to get it started.

[@ribsy]

Yup! Glad to be back

[@cameronwilson8561]

Great to see you printing again, looking forward to seeing more videos in the future

[@ribsy]

Thank you!

[@stephenperera1966]

I totally agree darkroom printing is best. As an aside, scanning is very interpretive, artistic even and a dark art when it comes to colour negatives. Back in the 90s I mainly scanned Fuji Provia, Astia, Velvia etc slide film on a ScanMate 5000 drum scanner. Now I use a Hasselblad Flextight 646 scanner and the profiles for different films supplied via its Flextight app are certainly just starting points. That being said if you shoot a colour chart /grey card in one of your frames that helps a lot if you are scanning.

[@ribsy]

Yea I’ve considered the grey card but tough to waste a shot on that haha

[@stephenperera1966]

@@ribsy I know what you mean, we value a frame, every frame...

[@Pollock.iconoclast]

Inspirational, keep it up! I enjoy printing black and white but have been intimidated to invest in getting started with color.

[@ribsy]

Color isn simpler in some regards

[@joeprete7424]

I had that Chromega, the whole set up with analyzer and all, back in the 70’s. I wish I kept it. I’m using a Printmaker 35 now. The cost of paper and chemicals make this very limiting!

[@ribsy]

yea paper and chems aren't cheap!

[@rgrbrn]

Really miss your darkroom videos!

[@Johnny_shade]

Me too! It was a nice surprise that he dropped one 👏🏼💯

[@ribsy]

Def more to come!

[@josephawatson]

at the moment I don't have the room. I am wanting to get one setup eventually. Been developing my black and white film.

[@ribsy]

nice. will be great once you can do it

[@inkaststudio]

I did color once, had some beautiful results. Just a bit challenging cause unlike B&W printing, there’s no red light.

[@ribsy]

You only have to do one step in the dark

[@inkaststudio]

@@ribsy That’s true. I guess I’m acting spoiled 😅

[@williamkeene6434]

im not darkroom printing as i dont have the room atm for the setup, but once i get the space i do have plans to get a mad setup with developement, scanning, and printing

[@ribsy]

Definitely worth the hassle 😀

[@john_murch]

Ribsy, do you still have Pro 400H? I learned from my own experience the best way to shoot Pro 400H is to use a UV filter on your lens. This corrects a lot of the weird magenta colour cast from this particular film. Try it, you'll see what I mean, it makes a huge difference and there will be much less headaches later for scanning or darkroom printing.

[@ribsy]

Never tried the filter it but that’s a good idea!

[@jakobdelion2110]

Thanks man now i really really wish i had my own dark room set up lol

[@ribsy]

Haha one day!

[@williamburkholder769]

Almost no one prints optically these days. I gave it up 25 years ago. I still have all my stuff, except for that late 1970s Chromega B that I had at work. I converted it to a light source for a slide duplicator in the early 1980s. I do have an Omega B-22 XL... WHY did I quit optical printing? I learned digital workflow from the folks at Kodak Professional when we transitioned our huge portrait lab from optical printing from film, to digital printing from film scans and camera JPEGs. I can get what I want from negative film or digital cameras. The dirty little secret is that film has been designed for optical scanning since the late 1990s, and silver halide chromogenic paper has been made primarily for digital printing since the early 2000s. The difference is in the exposure time reciprocity characteristics. You'll get subtle "response curve crossover" effects with the comparatively long exposures used for enlarging. Before papers were reformulated, we got those same effects in reverse when printing digitally on early light valve and laser-based mini-labs.

[@ribsy]

very interesting. digital printing is for sure very capable but the its no magic haha

[@williamburkholder769]

@@ribsy I did darkroom work for 40 years. For me, the magic became watching people react to the images. After the initial learning, it was never the process. I craved to see the positive effects of the images.

[@constantinf.5764]

you had a better enlarger in previous videos, I think it was an Saunders/LPL 670, what happened to that?

[@ribsy]

I sold it before leaving london

[@szabodaniel9447]

Great vid, burning=darker, dodging=lighter

[@ribsy]

Yea I misspoke

[@harleygordon4485]

I don't have anywhere to build a darkroom lol. Also I'm transitioning to kodak vision3 stock due to cost and legitimately prefer ecn2 results

[@ribsy]

Ecn2 is real nice scanned

[@hanapen7681]

Enjoy your darkroom. You take very nice pictures. See you next video...thanks

[@ribsy]

thanks for the kind words

[@Francois_L_7933]

You really need to get this darkroom more finished. And get yourself a color analyzer! These things are really a luxury item that once you've used one, you just can't print color without it. 😉

[@ribsy]

lol I’ve been printing color without one for a few years. I don’t mind

[@Goalieswede]

Lmk if you can show me how to do this

[@ribsy]

Bring some negs!

[@ulyssesnathanialowen3831]

good .. keep up the darkroom, more people did to be doing this , its the whole point to be shooting film, more poeple need to be developing and printing for themselves .. its a whole world and teaches you everything about your photography .. more channels need to be promoting this , instead of doing the same camera reviews for the 1000 time ..

[@ribsy]

Yup darkroom is great

[@TungstenOvergaard]

I would hang in my home walls any print that you discharge ❤

[@ribsy]

That’s very kind 😊

[@joseerazevedo]

I like the way you shoot. Having a darkroom is incredible, more people should go for this. They'd understand better the difference between film and digitalScannig is one thing, printing is another - the original. Never played with color, but I've a B&W at home and love it.it's almost the size of a wardrobe, doesn't have running water, but it's a nice place to spend hours and hours :) If you wanna take a loot at it, here it is: www.flickr.com/photos/jerazevedo/albums/72157717931784293 All the best!

[@ribsy]

Yea darkroom really helps one connect and know their photography in a new way

[@SinaFarhat]

Nice! :)

[@ribsy]

Thanks! 😄

[@SnowmansApartment]

very cheap.. 40 bucks for some 3d printed parts?? .. thats not what i would call cheap, but very interesting that those are normal prices for 3d printed parts for photographic equipment. I should get into the trade 😅

[@ribsy]

Someone did the design and labor. Their work is worth a cost, especially since I am not printing it myself nor investing in 3D printing

[@aglassbrightly]

I'm gonna need a bigger house. 😁

[@ribsy]

Hahaha you just need a big enough closet! 🤣

[@aglassbrightly]

@@ribsy I need a house with a closet! 😆

[@szabodaniel9447]

@@aglassbrightlybathrooms make great darkrooms

[@szabodaniel9447]

Scan looks too saturated, print looks nicer

[@ribsy]

Yea agreed

[@dinosaur4jr548]

So long story short the scan was OK and there is no need for darkroom printing haha

[@ribsy]

I like printing. It’s not about a need