These Are the Darkroom Techniques Photoshop’s Tools Are Based On

PETAPIXEL ^ | 02/26/15 | Michael Zhang

[SWAMPSNIPER]

As a tribute to Photoshop for its recent 25th birthday, Lynda created this “before there was Photoshop” video that shows the darkroom tools and techniques that were used by film photographers before Photoshop and digital photography arrived on the scene.

Photographer Konrad Eek works on a print by dodging, burning, adding gradients, using masks, feathering, and more. If you’ve never made a print in a darkroom before, this video could be quite illuminating.

[Scrambler Bob]

M4L photo

[MeshugeMikey]

I can almost smell the cemicals

[SWAMPSNIPER]

[SWAMPSNIPER]

I can still see the plaster in the hall turning yellow when I spilled chemicals in my boy scout attic darkroom, and hear my mother roaring too!

[llevrok]

Photoshop and Lightroom are pretty amazing tools in how they “replicate” basic darkroom skills.

They do not duplicate the feel of being in a darkroom for hours, alone in your thoughts, creating. There is no smell of the chemicals or the quiet darkness. It’s just not the same.

Perhaps it is that their results are so instantaneous. No mystery - did it come out like I wanted it to ? Can I do another print just like it?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Magic Water...

[MeshugeMikey]

We had a darkroom in the basement when I was a kid. It was my dad’s pride and joy. The smell is unforgetable

[GladesGuru]

From my first 120 roll of B&W developed/dried/printed to Cibachrome prints - A POX ON ALL DARKROOMS! ! !

Darkroom is to computer imaging as rap is to classical - related, but distantly.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

You can photoshop in the dark near the cat’s litterbox!

[Inyo-Mono]

I can almost smell the cemicals

Me too. I developed thousands of prints from the late 1960s through the early 2000s until buying a digital camera. Photoshop is a lot easier.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Been there.

Thanks for the memories....

[MeshugeMikey]

imagine the sort of darkroom that Nasa would need...to develop and print...those....new...32K,,Megapixel SIZED images... were that possible with film

[MeshugeMikey]

U actually stopped using a film camera in the 80’s and didnt start with digital until the mid nineties..

[Mr. Dough]

Good point about the solitude of the experience. That rang a strong bell with me, thanks.

[PUGACHEV]

That was interesting. I've not used a wet darkroom since the mid-90s when I started with Photoshop 4.0. For contrast masks, I would expose Kodalith sheet film the same size as the print I wanted to make and place the Kodalith negative directly over the print paper. You exposed the Kodalith with the enlarger racked out to the same height you intended for the final print. If needed, you could easily make a reverse mask by exposing the Kodalith over another sheet of Kodalith. Kodalith was extremely predictable and you could dial in exactly the density you wanted. With your handy Kodalith mask, you could knock off as many prints as you wanted and not tire your hands wiggling a piece of cardboard, and the results were predictable and perfect every time.

As to working with +40 MP digital prints, I've worked in Photoshop with 4x5 scanned color prints and the files are usually well over 200 MB to start with. Files that size get awkward real quick with even a little processing. OTOH, I routinely worked in 4x5 in my darkroom and aside from a different set of enlarger lenses and carriers, nothing else was different.

[Kirkwood]

For several years I spent about 25 hours a week in the darkroom making custom prints. Then on the weekends I would be doing my own prints. Loads of fun.

I now spend much more time now composing and getting the photo right and less time manipulating it with Photoshop.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

“DARKroom”

That’s RACIST!

[minnesota_bound]

Which one of you is Felix Unger?

[Walmartian]

Anybody remember rolling the drum? (agitation)