10 Sep How to do Darkroom Printing part 1

The Joy of Black & White Darkroom Printing

Darkroom printing used to be the primary way photographers brought their work to life. It was a true rite of passage, and anyone who spent time under the safelight likely has a host of stories to tell. I certainly do – like the time we set a wall of fire around an unsuspecting colleague… but more on that later in this post.

This guide covers the fundamentals of black and white darkroom printing. In upcoming posts, we’ll dive deeper into specific techniques ranging from beginner setups to advanced methods. Like many photographers who learned their craft in home, college, or commercial darkrooms, Ally and I share a deep love of the darkroom process.

If you grew up in the digital age and have never experienced the magic of watching an image slowly appear in a developer tray, this guide is for you. And if you’re a seasoned printer longing for the old days, consider this a warm reminder of how satisfying it feels to emerge from an evening session with a fresh stack of hand-crafted prints.

(New to film? If you’re still considering black and white film photography, check out our guide to the Best Film Camera for Travel Photography.)

How does B&W Darkroom Printing work?

At its core, darkroom printing involves projecting light through a negative onto light-sensitive paper, then using a series of chemical baths to reveal and permanently lock in the image.

1. Light & Exposure: The enlarger projects light through the negative onto the baseboard. Lighter areas on the negative allow more light through, creating darker areas on the paper. Darker areas on the negative block light, leaving those sections of the paper white.

2. Emulsion & Latent Image: The paper is coated on one side with a light-sensitive silver salt emulsion. This emulsion is sensitive to most light, but not red light. When light hits the paper, it creates an invisible “latent image.”

3. Chemical Processing: The exposed paper goes through three chemical stages:

• • Developer: Converts the latent image into a visible black-and-white print.
  • Stop Bath: Instantly halts the development process.
  • Fixer (Hypo): Makes the image permanent and safe to expose to regular light.
  • Water Rinse: Washes away leftover chemical residue.

 

 

Finding a B&W Darkroom to Use

We were very fortunate as there is a community darkroom in the middle of our former city. For a very reasonable monthly fee you can use the darkroom as much as you need. Ally bought me several months of access for my birthday. Awesome present! 

Many towns and cities have similar setups but if you don’t have one nearby you can try these options:

• Local Camera (Photographic) Clubs: Many host shared darkroom spaces or equipment rentals.
• Build Your Own: A lightproof room with running water is all you need. I can’t count the number of times I have blacked out windows in bathrooms to use as a makeshift darkroom.
• Second-Hand Gear: Used enlargers, trays and timers are plentiful on eBay and can often be acquired very affordably. Alternatively you can buy new on Amazon or other photographic outlets. This is a great starter kit* for some of the essentials from Amazon. I’ll put other links for enlargers and trays below.
  
  

Getting Started

For advice on loading the film into your camera have a look at our How to Load Film into Your Camera post.

Preparing Your Negatives

Before printing, you need developed film. While we’ll cover home negative processing in a future tutorial – including chemistry selection, development times, temperature control, and advanced fine-grain techniques – the easiest starting point is using a mail-in lab.

• Mail-In Labs: Most reputable mail-in labs offer push/pull processing (over- or under-developing) and contact sheets. Some even offer “clip tests,” where they cut a small strip of your film and test-develop it to determine the exact time needed for the rest of the roll.
• Pro Tip: Always check TrustPilot or Google reviews before sending your film to a new lab.

For advice on picking the right film for you, read out Guide to Choosing Black & White Film.

Choosing Your Photographic Paper

1. There are 2 main types – FB or RC

• Resin Coated* (RC). This resin coated paper is ideal for beginners. You can judge the exposure while it is still wet and it doesn’t take too long to wash. The other benefit is it dries flat.
•  Fibre based* (FB) is the usual choice for art or archival and fine-art prints. FB papers yield rich, deep blacks and exceptional longevity. However, they require extensive washing, tend to curl as they dry, and experience “dry down” (the blacks darken as the paper dries, making precise exposure trickier).

2. Graded vs Variable (Multigrade) Paper

Graded and Multigrade (or multi contrast) papers are as the name suggests, all about contrast.

• Graded Paper: These come in 5 fixed contrast levels / grades. If in doubt start with the middle grades. Your choice of paper will depend on your negative and the result you wish to achieve.
• Variable / Multigrade Paper: These are much easier to use although you need to have filters to change the grade. These can be bought reasonably cheaply from photographic suppliers or Amazon*. You can also dial in contrast using a colour enlarger head—a great feature when burning in specific sections of a print to retain detail in highlights without muddying midtones. I like this option as its easy for me to “dial in” contrast when I’m burning in. I did this with the image above so the sky and background was burned in with more contrast while keeping details in the white stone that had less contrast.

For UK readers, we have used a company called AG Photolab and purchased both film and paper there. They offer fantastic customer support and carry a broad range of traditional darkroom supplies (non-sponsored recommendation!)

Step-by-Step Darkroom Printing Guide

Once inside the darkroom, ensure the space is completely light-tight, then switch on your red safelight. Standard B&W printing paper is insensitive to red light, so it will not fog or ruin your paper.

Step 1: Load Your Negative

Place the negative into the enlarger carrier tray. Ensure both the negative and the carrier tray are entirely free of dust and fingerprints. 

Step 2: Focus the Image

Open the enlarger lens to its widest aperture (lowest f-stop number). This brightens the projected image on the baseboard and creates a shallow depth of field making it much easier to achieve perfect focussing.  There are various focus aids you can buy to help with this such as a magnifying loupe*.

Step 3: Make a Test Strip

1. Stop down the enlarger lens by 2 to 3 stops (e.g., from f/2.8 to f/5.6 or f/8) for optimal sharp focus and manageable exposure times.
2. Turn off the enlarger light and place a small test strip of photographic paper on the baseboard.
3. Set your enlarger timer (10 seconds is a good starting baseline).
4. Expose the entire strip for 10 seconds. Cover one-quarter of the strip with a piece of opaque cardboard, then expose for another 10 seconds. Move the card to cover half the strip, expose for 20 seconds, and repeat—doubling the cumulative exposure time for each step (e.g., 10s, 20s, 40s, 80s).

Step 4: Process the Test Strip

1. Place the strip face-up in the Developer tray and gently agitate for roughly 1.5 minutes. Watch the image emerge.
2. Transfer the strip to the Stop Bath for 30 seconds to halt development.
3. Move it to the Fixer for 1 minute.
4. Rinse in clean water. For a test strip a brief rinse is fine.
5. Provided your main box of photographic paper is securely closed, you can now turn on the white light to inspect your test strip.

Step 5: Evaluate & Adjust

Look at your test strip to determine the best exposure time. You might need to do another to get it perfect. Also look at the contrast on the strip as you might need to increase or decrease it using different grade papers or adjusting your multigrade filters.

 

Once you have established your base exposure time, you can selectively tweak your image.

• Burning (Darkening): Add extra exposure light to specific areas after the main exposure. Use a piece of card with a hole cut out, or cup your hands to guide the light beam.
• Dodging (Lightening): Block light from specific areas during the primary exposure using a small piece of dark card attached to a thin wire.

 

(Learn more in our detailed tutorial on How to Dodge and Burn Darkroom Prints.)

Once your final print is out of the fixer, wash it thoroughly in clean running water. For RC paper, wash for 2 to 4 minutes (over-washing can cause water to seep between the resin layers). FB requires a lot longer – around 1 hour in running water, or you can reduce it to about 20 if you use a washing aid like a hypo clearing agent.

Hang the prints to drain, or place them in an electric print dryer.

 

That’s it. You have now created your first awesome Black and White darkroom print and are probably, like us, totally addicted.

 

Remember that wall of fire I mentioned earlier?

A Met Police Story …

Back when I worked as a crime scene photographer for the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) in London, I spent countless hours in the darkroom.

Much of our work involved photographing latent fingerprints found at crime scenes—on plastic car dashboards, bloodied surfaces, or objects coated in superglue vapours inside specialised chambers. We shot on 35mm Nikon cameras with macro lenses and 5×7 monorail technical cameras using Ilford FP4 or Kodak T-Max film, then developed and printed the results by hand.

While the job was fascinating, repetitive laboratory routines naturally opened the door to workplace humour.

Our main department darkroom housed nine enlargers – from a delicate Leica 35mm system to a massive Durst large-format rig – surrounding central trays filled with fresh chemistry. Because it was a high-volume professional lab, entry was gained through a winding, black-painted maze corridor rather than doors, letting photographers move in and out efficiently without light leaks.

Every so often, a colleague would quietly walk into the darkroom holding a container of lighter fluid (which we routinely used for cleaning dust and marks off of negatives).

Because the ambient chemical smell was so strong, no one ever noticed the scent of lighter fluid. The prankster would squirt a continuous trail along the floor, weaving it into a neat ring around the feet of an unsuspecting photographer engrossed in their work, then trail it back down the dark corridor.

Once clear of the maze, they’d light the end.

A rapid wall of flame would shoot down the hallway, encircling the working photographer in a flash of fire. After a burst of panicked shouting, the startled victim would burst out into the hallway to find a row of laughing colleagues.

Health and safety? Different times entirely. But it certainly kept us awake on long printing shifts!

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