Darkroom Prints Explained: What Every Film Photographer Should Know

If you are shooting on film, then you have surely heard photographers refer to darkroom printing in the same regard as an ancient art form. Many lab facilities switched to digital printing long ago, discarding their old enlargers and chemical trays in favour of modern-day scanners and inkjet printers. There are a few labs around that still offer darkroom printing, The few remaining laboratories to use the technique in the traditional way include The Icon, which has remained determined in using the hand-printing method while the rest have shifted.

If you're new to film photography or simply interested in knowing what really goes on behind the scenes from when your negative is developed until it's turned into that print you put up on your wall, then you'll get some insight into what darkroom printing is all about.

What Is a Darkroom Print?

A darkroom print is an optical print. That means your negative is placed in an enlarger and light is projected directly through it onto photographic paper. There's no scanning step, no digital file sitting between your negative and the final image. The paper is then developed through a series of chemical baths, just like the negative itself once was.

How are Darkroom Prints different from Digital Prints?

A darkroom print is unique to an ordinary "print" produced from a digital lab. Your negative will be digitized, the picture modified using the computer screen, and then the picture will be printed out using the computer printer. The two processes may look good in the end, but they are totally different from one another. An optical print has a depth and tonality that is difficult to match using a digital method.

Why Photographers Still Ask for Darkroom Prints

A couple of issues repeatedly arise among our customers:

The look: Optical prints have a certain richness, especially in black and white. The blacks are deeper, the grain has texture instead of looking flat, and skilled dodging and burning by hand brings out detail a machine-driven process tends to miss.

The craft: Every print is exposed and developed individually. A printer is watching your image the whole time, adjusting exposure, holding back light in one area, adding it in another.

The archival quality: Photos printed using traditional chemical methods on resin-coated or fibre-based papers have been proven to last for many years if they have been stored in the proper manner, shielded from exposure to light and moisture.

Your negative stays untouched: The negative only passes through the enlarger to make the exposure. It isn't cut, scanned, or altered in the process.

What Paper Options Look Like

In terms of black and white printing, the printer uses RC paper or fibre paper based on the desired finish. Fibre paper is the traditional choice of paper used to produce gallery-quality prints. RC paper is more economical than fibre paper and also offers good durability. In terms of colour negatives, professionals use photographic paper such as Fuji Crystal Archive.

What to Expect from Darkroom Printing in Los Angeles

If you're searching for darkroom prints in Los Angeles, you should know that the number of labs still offering true optical printing. Most shops that advertise "film printing" are actually scanning your negatives and printing digitally, which isn't a bad option, but it's not the same craft.

The darkroom facility must be able to process 35mm film Processing, 120 and large format sheet film, as well as produce prints in black and white and colour (C-41). Prints may vary from small prints, such as 5x7, to bigger prints, such as 16x20 or 20x24, depending on your negatives.

Turnaround time is something that should be asked about before, since the time that will be taken for hand printing is longer than the digital printing process.

Before You Place Your First Order

• Bring a reference image or note if you want a specific look matched, especially for exposure or colour balance.

• If you want a particular crop, mention it ahead of time rather than after the print is made.

• Inquire about options regarding the borders. The full-frame border, the borderless, and the keyline border each add their own look to the print.

• Keep the completed prints away from sunlight and moisture.

Final Thoughts

Printing in darkrooms is not merely a form of printing but rather an art form that links photographers to the history of the process in photography. There is something different about viewing prints that have been developed through the ancient process of exposure and development after viewing pictures from your film on the computer screen all your life. If you are a photographer in Los Angeles, then you might want to find a lab that still practices this art.

I am a passionate photographer with a keen eye for capturing the beauty and emotion in every frame. With a background in visual arts and a love for storytelling.