The DARKROOM COOKBOOK, Third Edition

8 THE DARKROOM COOKBOOK
Figure 1-4 To make a dark drawer light-tight , install a sliding lid that fi ts in a groove around the top perimeter of the drawer. Paint the inside of the drawer
and lid fl at black. Attach a small block of wood on the top of the lid and another one on the underside of the counter top to push the lid closed when you close
the drawer.
Light-colored darkroom walls create a safer and healthier environment, with less eyestrain.
I have found that the best color to use is a fl at neutral gray. Unless your enlarger is a major
source of light leaks, you can paint neutral gray behind and around it. Use fl at white for the
ceiling.
Personal Appeal to Educators
I have guest instructed darkroom workshops from Los Angeles to New York City and in
Europe. I have found that in schools everywhere the walls are invariably painted black,
especially around and behind the enlargers. A darkroom with black walls is depressing
and oppressive. If I were a student at a high school or college and faced with the choice
of spending three hours in a black darkroom or in front of a computer I would choose
the computer simply to get out of the black room. If you are an educator and the walls
in your school darkroom are painted black I urge you to take the next spring break or
summer holiday and paint the walls light gray, even behind and around the enlargers,
and the ceiling white. You will change not only your students attitude towards the darkroom
experience but your own as well.