A History Lesson
When I was a kid, my dad bought a darkroom kit so he could develop his own photographs.
I clearly remember that box and how it sat, untouched, on top of a hall closet. For years. Why did
my dad never get around to setting up his darkroom? In a nutshell, it was just too much trouble.
Darkrooms require, well, darkness. You have to have a room that you can dedicate to the
task and trust that people won??™t come barging in while you??™re developing film (or hang their wet
bathing suit in there when you??™re not watching).
And then there are the chemicals. Film processing is all about using nasty, toxic chemicals
that, if you were running a business, would get the attention of OSHA. When I worked in the
space launch business, I??™m sure that some of the rocket fuels we used weren??™t as frightening
CHAPTER 1: Go Digital 5
as the chemicals that home darkroomers routinely exposed themselves to. Who wants to muck
around with that stuff?
Oh, yeah??”and it isn??™t all that easy, either. Black-and-white processing isn??™t really brain
surgery, but working with color film is tough. It??™s not a hobby you can master in a few weeks, to
be sure. And the whole point of having your own darkroom is so you can get better results than
the corner store delivers, right?
No wonder my dad never got too far with his darkroom kit.
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