What is a darkroom?
I found three definitions for darkroom. According to the Hypertext Webster Gateway, a darkroom is “a room in which photographs are developed”. The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus defines it as “a room made lightproof and equipped for processing photographic materials”, and Merrium Webster says it’s “a room with no light or with a safelight for handling and processing light-sensitive photographic materials”. Personally, I prefer to define it as a fun place to make pictures. To me a darkroom is a place where we can partake of our hobby of creating pictures. It can be a large, custom built room, with all the amenities, or a small room with the required items. It can be a temporary set-up, even in the bathroom. If there is absolutely no space available, some aspects of the hobby can be done within a changing bag. What a darkroom is to you will depend on why you build a darkroom.
A darkroom is a specialized light free environment designed for artists who work in the medium of photography. In order to develop film and prints, artists need to work in darkness to avoid exposing the light sensitive emulsions which cover photographic paper and film before they are developed. A darkroom can vary widely in size and design, depending on the type of materials being worked with in the darkroom and the number of artists sharing it. Often, artists work together in the same darkroom to share the costs of photography. Typically, a darkroom is reached through a series of doors and curtains to prevent any kind of light pollution. This is very important in a shared darkroom, where different people may be performing different tasks with varying levels of light sensitivity. Switches to operate overhead lights in a darkroom are usually made difficult to access, so that someone does not accidentally turn them on. A very basic darkroom usually has an enlarger for making prints, alon
