[reeftool]

It has been many years but I got away with it using the bathroom. As mentioned, any light will ruin film. Do they still sell changing bags? At one time they were available everywhere. I would seal off the door with a couple of strips of duct tape and a towel at the bottom. I had a piece of cardboard, painted black and pre-cut that I would tape over the window. I would wait a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to make sure the room was light sealed and then go to work. My biggest problem was my 2 young daughters at the time. A soon as I was all set, the knock on the door would come..."Daddy, I got to go..real bad...."

[Ratmagiclady]

If I had the tools and resources, I would most definitely build light traps around the windows. It seems easy enough, it's just that without the proper tools, there's not a whole lot I can do.

Well, a bit of weatherstripping will do for around the door. For the bottom edge? Towels work.

[ytterbium]

Thanks for all the useful advices. Currently it seems that there is no generic best solution and everyone does the best he can. So i shall se what materials are locally available and best suited for my case. Will report back when i finish.

Just a tiny off topic question. Can the RED led form optical mouse be used as a safe light. I've red people using rear bike led's and claiming them to be safe if not brought too close to paper or used for more than 10 minutes.

If I had the tools and resources, I would most definitely build light traps around the windows. It seems easy enough, it's just that without the proper tools, there's not a whole lot I can do.

Think 1 x 2's and luan door skins and glue. The skins can be cut with a utility knife. The 1x can be cut with a hand saw. Or the home center will cut them for you.

[Ratmagiclady]

Just a tiny off topic question. Can the RED led form optical mouse be used as a safe light. I've red people using rear bike led's and claiming them to be safe if not brought too close to paper or used for more than 10 minutes.

If you have good night vision and don't let it shine directly on your paper, (ie, keep it far away and out of direct LOS) it's probably reasonably-safe to navigate with. *Not* for film, if that part didn't get through. And leave it facing down. Mine is actually pretty blinding when it tries to scan in a darkened room. That can't be good.

I got a couple of wimpy little ostensibly-safelight red bulbs off of Ebay when I was trying to make my ill-fated setup work, to be kept far from where paper would interact directly with light sources. (I had one standard safelight coming and had my 'darkroom' divided between two spaces. Budget) They would fit any standard fixture and probably be OK to find things by, probably be a cheaper option.

[ytterbium]

Well the problem i see is that the led would probably work to some degree. That is, i would not get blown (how do you say it?) paper or have dense enough fogging to be obvious - even more if i'm doing this for a first time. I'd just think that that's the way it should be, or I've messed up something with the chemicals. Probably i could try to lit some sheet by direct light, so the uneven shape of led beam is visible, to see if it produces any effects. Unless the direct light would be so intense it would blow the whole frame.

[stevebrot]

Thanks for all the useful advices. Currently it seems that there is no generic best solution and everyone does the best he can. So i shall se what materials are locally available and best suited for my case. Will report back when i finish.

Just a tiny off topic question. Can the RED led form optical mouse be used as a safe light. I've red people using rear bike led's and claiming them to be safe if not brought too close to paper or used for more than 10 minutes.

The usual safelight color for graded and variable-contrast B&W papers is Kodak OC or Ilford S902 (both sort of yellow orange) rather than red. To be sure, check the insert that comes with the paper. Translation...skip the red LED...

Steve

[ytterbium]

I dont think my soviet paper will have such grading. They had one standard and one glass filter you could buy. There was no such choices. But probably those "grades" can be used with this paper. I'll just have to find their matching wavelengths, because that's how led's are "graded". (Just found out that grading is related to paper type not light colour..whoops).

This Thread seems to have a good explanation:
Beginner's Questions About Safelight
In short: it seems, like red light is good for all papers (Variable contrast and Graded - dont know what it means), but the amber is suitable only for Graded paper (sensitive to UV-Blue, VC - UV,Blue,Green). Amber is more pleasant to work under.

Now i just need to find what red is safe red. Here, a kodak PDF showing spectral transmission graphs and descriptions for various filters:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/ti0845/ti0845.pdf
1,2 - RED, DARK RED: Starts cutoff at 700 nm, max density at 600nm.
RED - transmits up to 10% light. DARK RED ~7..8%.

Red led's usually produce light at 633, 660, 635 [nm] - last one being most common.
So i think it should be safe to use one.

Another thought is about perceived intensity. Since it has narrow spectrum, you need higher actual intensity for the light to look bright. But i believe it is the same for paper.

In attachment i've included picture of my paper packaging. There is only unreadable developing information and date of manufacture indicating that the paper is expired .
A Kodak paper response curve confirming what's written in that thread.
A Dark Red filter transmittance graph.

[Ratmagiclady]

I dont think my soviet paper will have such grading. They had one standard and one glass filter you could buy. .

OK. Red *is* safe for about anything B&W *if* it's far away enough and dim enough. From your paper. That's the key, there. You can still see when far less light is falling on the paper itself, even if you don't have the right safelight.

Some former-Eastern bloc stuff is actually *made* for red and only red.... Amber might actually cause problems, there. I've not used that. But I was shopping.

[ytterbium]

So back from home depot type shop.. as far as i could tell by flashlight, the brown type of weather seal blocks light. White lets it trough straightforward. Actually that's the only material i could find that can be used in such door frame sealing style.

As for the floor part (where there is no step-like structure), i could not find a directly usable material. Or one that could be used on the outside surface of doors, covering gaps. I figured i could cut bike inner tube flat and attach it to doors with two sided sticky tape.
Tho there was that brush like thing you can stick to the bottom of the doors, but it was nowhere near the required density.

I think i failed with the LED's. I made a small "lamp" of four 10mm "RED" LED's, but when comparing to my RED laser (that is either 635nm or 650nm) they seem a lot more orange. Maybe it is related to much higher monochromacity of laser? Since most 10mm red led spec's indicate 620-625-630 (or just 630) nm peak output.
My cokin red filter looks like it only makes them darker, not deeper red, but hard to tell because after short time with them, they make all colours seem a bit more green.

[ytterbium]

So i did a partial sealing. The weather tape works very well. The only problem, it is very puffy and i can barely close the doors now.

Attached are 50mm f1.4 images at iso1600, 30 seconds.
First floor images are only with 40W ceiling bulb in adjacent room. All others are with additional 5W led flashlight moved around to flood the gaps. Some shots of the seals as well - i had to add some more after initial sealing, because first seals changed the way doors rest in frame, opening new gaps.

Now there is only the floor left. When i will get the chemicals, i might try the paper test and check my safe light as well.

I hope others find this useful as well.

I would have used the larger stripping on the stops instead.

Hang a quilt on the dark side of the room with velcro.

[Wheatfield]

Hang a quilt on the dark side of the room with velcro.

♠
That was advised in post #5 of this thread prior to the beginning of the home renovation. Apparently this would have been too easy (or difficult, it's kind of hard to decide)

[ytterbium]

♠
That was advised in post #5 of this thread prior to the beginning of the home renovation. Apparently this would have been too easy (or difficult, it's kind of hard to decide)

Lol, good one. I just thought if i'm about to do something, i shall do it so there is 100% confidence. Now i believe it is 100% safe to handle materials in the darkness achieved. Only have to check seal wear from time to time.

[stevebrot]

♠
That was advised in post #5 of this thread prior to the beginning of the home renovation. Apparently this would have been too easy (or difficult, it's kind of hard to decide)

I think someone should have suggested adding another door...

Steve