How This Photographer Turned His Kitchen into a Darkroom

Photography Tips

Unlike digital photography, processing film photographs is not very convenient. You need to develop the film by either paying a shop or setting up your own darkroom. If you have a darkroom in your home, it can be difficult to maintain, since the development process requires working with photosensitive materials and complete darkness. Let’s say you want to try and create your own darkroom—where would you even begin? If you’ve been asking that question, we have the perfect video for you. In this video, photographer Willem Verbeeck shares how he turned his kitchen into a darkroom:

A convenient alternative to working in a darkroom is to scan the film and edit the image on a computer. After all, working in a darkroom can be difficult, expensive and time-consuming. However, there’s something special about the darkroom process that many photographers feel cannot be experienced while editing on a computer.

Watch the video to see Verbeek explain how he was able to get an enlarger and a color processor for himself. He also shows us how he set the equipment up in his kitchen and his bathroom. As he explains, it took him quite a number of trips to his local Home Depot, and also some interstate travels to get everything to work correctly.

It’s labor-intensive for sure, but toward the end of the video, you can see how satisfying it is to print your own photos at home through ingenuity and time-honored techniques.