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Maya is “the only darkroom timer you’ll ever need”

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One of the biggest issues in the darkroom is keeping track of time. Whether it’s for developing your rolls of film or exposing negatives onto paper in the enlarger, there’s just very little out there these days to assist with that, and using a phone can be tricky, especially if you’ve got wet chemicals on your hands.

But it seems there’s a new, modern solution to this particular problem; Maya. Billing itself as “The only darkroom timer you’ll ever need”, it has countdown timers, f-stop adjustments, a test strip mode, room light control (what?!?), and it’s modular so you can add more features to it in the future.

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How to develop your own black and white film from start to finish

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As popular as film has become, a lot of people still mention the cost of shooting film being quite high. And we’re not talking about the price of gear, because that’s dirt cheap these days. It’s the actual shooting process that can be expensive. As the rolls are made in fewer quantities, manufacturing is more expensive. Because labs are developing fewer films, their costs go up, too.

The biggest way to help knock down this cost, though, is to develop your own film. In this 36 minute video from photographer James Stevenson, we see the complete process from start to finish. James covers the kit, chemicals, accessories and entire the process from start to finish. James covers a whole lot of information, with some great tips. And best of all, you don’t even need a darkroom to do it.
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I proposed to my girlfriend in the darkroom with a hidden message

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My name is Paul Fehr, and I recently proposed to my girlfriend, Ale, in a photography darkroom. Here’s how I did it.

Ale and I both started learning how to develop and print film photos in our home darkroom about 6 months ago. Ale is in her last semester of architecture school, and I studied graphic design and am currently in an electronic instrumental band called Paul y Carlos. Both of us started analog photography as a hobby, buying equipment from eBay and learning from the Internet.

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Is Darkroom the ultimate mobile toning solution?

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As life is quickly becoming busier and busier for me I’ve had to find solutions to be able to work on the go and with that, naturally comes sacrifice.

I opted for a Surface Pro 4 and an iPhone 6sPlus for my “Travel kit” and with the Wi-Fi abilities of the Sony A7ii it makes for a versatile set of tools that can cover a range of operating systems / platforms and quickly allow me to output some high quality material.

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Is putting a darkroom in a bar a good idea? Guess we are going to find out

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“I’ll have a whatever’s on tap and two stacks of Ilford paper please”.

I know this is not what you expect to hear in a bar. Consider this though: darkrooms are being less common, there is a renaissance for film and everyone loves beer. So why not combine a darkroom with a bar.

And this is just what The Darkroom is aiming at doing. According to the Borderrstan, the bar, located in 207 Florida Ave, Washington DC, submitted an application that states that the business

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If you ever wondered what it was like to be taught by Ansel Adams, here’s your answer

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Ansel Adams is one of those legends of photography that most people have heard of. Whether they’re a photographer themselves or not, they know who he is. They know of his work, they may even own some of it. For those of us who are photographers, have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be taught by the man himself?

Marc Silber of Advancing Your Photography has been making a series of short films over the last few months. Each of them covering a different aspect of Ansel’s life and work. In his newest video, Marc wants to help answer that question. He introduces us to Ansel’s daughter-in-law, Jeanne, who was ran Ansel’s business for over two decades.

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Take a look inside Ansel Adams’ amazing Darkroom

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The room in which Ansel Adams created many of his works has to be the absolute ultimate DIY darkroom.  Back then, many things had to be made yourself as commercially available tools for most of what Ansel wanted or needed to do simply did not exist.

In this video from Marc Silber, we’re guided through Ansel’s darkroom and processes by his son, Michael.  With motorised dolly tracks and an enlarger that holds an array of individually controlled light bulbs, this darkroom features some very interesting and unique engineering.

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Kodak’s Professional Film Photography app is now available for the iPad and Android

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Kodak released its free Professional Film App for the iPhone in 2012, and it’s seen a couple of small updates since then. Now, they’ve released both iPad and Android versions of the app.

As somebody who got back into film a few years ago, I’ve kept my eye on various apps that have spawned for iOS and Android. I’ve still not found anything that lets me do everything I need, but the Kodak app has proven to be occasionally helpful.

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This ‘Portable’ darkroom once owned by the US Army can be yours for just $2500

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If you’ve ever wanted your very own, military-grade portable darkroom, now’s your time to come forward and claim your desired possession.

Up for sale on Hillsborough, North Carolina’s Craigslist classified pages is a completely contained darkroom once used by the United States Army.[Read More…]

See How Photographers Would Photoshop Before Photoshop Existed

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Don’t you just love the creative freedom and post-processing power that digital photography and Photoshop allow?

A couple of weeks ago a 12-year-old budding photographer asked me how Photoshop was used when shooting film was common practice.

This video, created by Lynda in tribute to 25 years of Photoshop, answers that exact question.

If you like to think of yourself as a “purist” and you don’t believe in post-processing because you “only do what was once done in the darkroom”, this video is for you as well.

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