Can i Make a makeshift darkroom safelight? please help .

Frank Pittel wrote:

Ignore the troll and it will go away.

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In article , "j"
wrote:

Frank Pittel wrote:

Ignore the troll and it will go away.

When UC's around I feel like I should be wearing a flea collar.

Hey everyone in the Newsgroup take note: I am going keep from adding
commentary, honest I am. :^)

Whistling I am just going to walk away...
--
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and never looking back.

www.gregblankphoto.com

Greg "_" wrote:
In article , "j"
wrote:

Frank Pittel wrote:

Ignore the troll and it will go away.

When UC's around I feel like I should be wearing a flea collar.

Hey everyone in the Newsgroup take note: I am going keep from adding
commentary, honest I am. :^)

Whistling I am just going to walk away...

I don't have glue. Can I use dung? I don't have water. Can I use yak
urine? I don't have a squegee. Can I use a tampon?

PhotoFaerie spake thus:

i'd like to set-up a darkroom in my apt. (ive always only worked in public
labs...highschool. college, etc. ) i have a standard ceiling light fixture
that takes standard 40 or 60 watt bulbs. I am curious as to what i can do to
transform it into a (makeshift) safe light ? I will be doing black and white
printing. is there a special amber, made to be used as a safelight, bulb that
i can buy and just replace the standard white "phillips" 40 watt, one with ?
just screw in the new one to take its place? estimated expense ?

If I may jump into this thread a little late: the answer to your
question is, of course, yes, no matter what some disagreeable people
here may say. This means either using a red light bulb, if you can find
one (including red Xmas lights), or using some kind of red filter.

There's a really easy way to find out if your light is "safe" or not:
the standard "coin" test. Just put a piece of paper out where you
normally would process it, with a coin or other object to block the
light on top of it, expose it to the safelight light for a period (say,
the amount of time it'll take you to process one print)), then develop
the paper as if it were a print. If you can see anything where the coin
covered the paper, then the light isn't safe; otherwise, it is.

I'm cheap, too, so I sympathize with your quest.


--
Napoleon won the battle of Waterloo. The German Wehrmacht won World War
II. The United States won in Vietnam, and the Soviets in Afghanistan.
The Zealots won against the Romans, and Ehud Olmert won the Second
Lebanon War.

- Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist
(http://counterpunch.org/avnery09022006.html)

"PhotoFaerie" u26359@uwe wrote in message news:65fd2d7f042d5@uwe...
i'd like to set-up a darkroom in my apt. (ive always only worked in public
labs...highschool. college, etc. ) i have a standard ceiling light
fixture
that takes standard 40 or 60 watt bulbs. I am curious as to what i can do
to
transform it into a (makeshift) safe light ? I will be doing black and
white
printing. is there a special amber, made to be used as a safelight, bulb
that
i can buy and just replace the standard white "phillips" 40 watt, one with
?
just screw in the new one to take its place? estimated expense ?


You can buy safelight bulbs that screw into a standard ("Edison") fixture.
You can also buy safelights that screw into a standard fixture and have
different filters for different types of paper/film/processes.

With the number of people who seem to be (foolishly!) giving up on
conventional wet darkrooms these days, there are bargains to be had in the
used market. Spend some time on eBay.

Most safelights or safelight bulbs are in the 15Watt range. A ceiling
fixture in the center of the room might not be the best working arrangement.
I have several hanging fixtures with globe-type safelights positioned at
work areas in my darkroom.

Ken Hart

On Fri, 08 Sep 2006 15:08:30 GMT,
"PhotoFaerie" u26359@uwe wrote:
....
transform it into a (makeshift) safe light ? ...



September 11, 2006, from Lloyd Erlick,

A slightly more offbeat way to make a
safelight is to use a product called
"Colorine", made by a company called Rosco.
They specialize in products to control the
color of light. Colorine is a 'dipping'
paint. Light bulbs are dipped in it to
control the color of the light they emit. (It
would be easy to coat the inside of a glass
lamp shade, too. This would put the color
layer very far from the heat of a bulb.
Probably last a lifetime that way.)

Rosco Colorine 7610 (Red 27), which is
available in a small paint can (pint, I
think) for around twenty dollars (at least, I
paid abut twenty dollars in Canada), is rated
at passing red light only, wavelength longer
(only) than a specified figure. It's a good
red for a safelight, and there are no other
colors passed that could harm photosensitive
materials.

Colorine is specified acceptable for lamps
(light bulbs) up to forty watts. Heat will
kill the coating. But a safe light need only
be fifteen watts. I like to use clear Xmas
tree bulbs, five or seven watts. They will
never burn the coating.

The beauty of using a bulb coating is that no
construction of the lamp fixture is needed.
Put the bulb in any type of holder, it is a
safelight. I like it in a Luxo-type
articulated lamp that is endlessly
directable.

I found the actual job of coating the bulbs
with a bit of Colorine very easy. I expected
a whole production, but a few sheets of
newsprint and some patience is all that's
needed. Big secret: don't dip the whole glass
part of the bulb. Dip the tip-most tippy tip.
Then use gravity (and your hands!) — turn the
bulb every which way until the glass surface
is covered. Dipping the whole thing will pick
up so much paint the whole screw base and
your hands and the floor and your shoes will
be coated. Make absolutely sure the color
goes right to the connection between the
glass and the metal base. Leave no speck of
uncoated glass to pass wrong light. (This all
takes a lot more effort to write about than
to do. The only hard part is finding out
where to send the money for the paint and
then waiting for it to arrive.)

A lifetime supply of safelight bulbs can
easily be made in a few pleasant hours
sitting in the back yard. Or in front of a
TV, coating and turning and drying and poking
about with a bunch of light bulbs. I used
yogurt container lids (flat, thin plastic),
poked holes in them, pushed a few light bulbs
through the holes, and handled the bulbs that
way. Part way through my little project I
realized if I bought a few small wattage,
rough-service, long-life bulbs (sold for use
in hard-to-reach places that are subject to
impact or vibration) I could have some pretty
long lasting safelights.

The smallest container of Rosco Colorine 7610
(Red 27) will coat many more bulbs than I
could ever use. It reminds me of movies I've
seen where the old pioneer women sit with
vegetables on their aprons, spread across
open laps, gossiping and laughing while their
hands do the, umm, dipping of their
safelights. A bunch of black and white
darkroom nerds having a social ... sharing a
can of paint, dipping their bulbs ...
chattering about how they feel about digital
....

I like being able to change a safelight with
no more bother than putting in a new bulb. No
filter or cover or light-tight box. Just any
old lamp. I haven't colored the interior of a
glass shade type of lamp yet, but I have a
few old glass ones that are quite beautiful.
I'd love to use them as darkroom accessories.



http://www.roscodigital.com
http://www.rosco.com/us/products/index.asp

--
from 'The Rosco Guide to Color Filters'.

....the curve for R27 ['Ruby Red' Colorine
bulb dipping paint is specified as R27]
shows that wavelengths above (longer than)
620 nm will pass through the filter at
varying percentages, while the wavelengths
below (shorter, or higher frequency) will
not.
--



quote:
Technicians have been coloring lamps and
glass with Rosco Colorine since it was first
introduced in 1910. The liquid colors are
available in 8 brilliant shades, formulated
for long lasting color. It is especially
useful for hand dipping most bulbs of forty
watts or less.

Colorine hues can be intermixed to create
custom shades. The addition of Colorine clear
to a shade will result in a lighter tint of
the shade. The thinner is used for cleanup,
the removal of Colorine and reducing the
viscosity of the product.
Specifications
#07601
Cardinal Red *26
#07607
Emerald Green *90
#07602
Ruby Red *27
#07610
Golden Amber *41
#07603
Magenta *49
#07615
Canary Yellow *15
#07604
Moonlight Blue *80
#07617
Clear
#07605
Urban Blue *82
#07680
Thinner
* Roscolux color reference.

Refer to the Roscolux swatchbook for close
representation of color. The two-digit number
following the color name is the Roscolux
match. Colorine is not intended for use in
permanent installations.
(unquote)

Rosco "Guide_to_Color_Filters.pdf" (find it
via Google) is a very educational document.

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
website: www.heylloyd.com
telephone: 416-686-0326
email:
________________________________
--

David Nebenzahl wrote:
PhotoFaerie spake thus:

i'd like to set-up a darkroom in my apt. (ive always only worked in public
labs...highschool. college, etc. ) i have a standard ceiling light fixture
that takes standard 40 or 60 watt bulbs. I am curious as to what i can do to
transform it into a (makeshift) safe light ? I will be doing black and white
printing. is there a special amber, made to be used as a safelight, bulb that
i can buy and just replace the standard white "phillips" 40 watt, one with ?
just screw in the new one to take its place? estimated expense ?

If I may jump into this thread a little late: the answer to your
question is, of course, yes, no matter what some disagreeable people
here may say. This means either using a red light bulb, if you can find
one (including red Xmas lights), or using some kind of red filter.

Bull****. You have no idea what the **** you are talking about. Get the
hell out of here. Ignorant asshole!

Lloyd Erlick wrote:

A slightly more offbeat way to make a
safelight is to use a product called
"Colorine", made by a company called Rosco.

Rosco Colorine 7610 (Red 27), which is
available in a small paint can (pint, I
think) for around twenty dollars

I wonder if they have a tint that would work for dipping clear flashbulbs to
make them blue (arbitrary, I know) or Infrared.

"j" wrote

I wonder if [Rosco has] a tint that would work for dipping clear
flashbulbs to make them blue (arbitrary, I know) or Infrared.

Rosco's color numbers are a close match to Wratten:
25 is deep red, 80/82 are blue, 15 is yellow; Spectral
curves are a close match.

I don't know if you could get the intensity/
thickness of the dip just right without a
lot of fiddling.

Rosco makes color correction gels that can be
placed over lights to adjust color temperature -
might be a better solution. The stuff is
reasonably priced: $5.50 for a 20x24" sheet.

The Rosco swatch books make a good source of
emergency wratten filters. They are not
guaranteed to be 'optical quality' but they
are certainly 'good enough'.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Darkroom Automation
http://www.nolindan.com/da/index.htm
n o lindan at ix dot netcom dot com

I seem to recall both at one time but wonder if either is still
available. If you must use bulbs (and nothing lights up a big room or
banquet better) it might be easier to shoot tungsten film or cheaper to
color correct at the camera, you can even shoot uncorrected and fix it
later in the darkroom or (dare I say it) Photoshop.
darkroommike

j wrote:
Lloyd Erlick wrote:

A slightly more offbeat way to make a
safelight is to use a product called
"Colorine", made by a company called Rosco.

Rosco Colorine 7610 (Red 27), which is
available in a small paint can (pint, I
think) for around twenty dollars

I wonder if they have a tint that would work for dipping clear flashbulbs to
make them blue (arbitrary, I know) or Infrared.