How to Set up a Digital Darkroom

The quality of inkjet printers has made it feasible for professional photographers to set up their own digital darkrooms at home. The cost of darkroom supplies can vary greatly, but there are the basic steps for setting up a digital darkroom.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Neutral paint
• Fluorescent or halogen lighting
• Window shades
• Printer
• Photo paper
• Archival (acid-free) storage

1. Choose a room and paint it gray or another neutral color. The floors, countertops and ceiling should all be neutral. Eliminate bright colors from the room or the field of view. Some photographers go so far as to not wear bright colors while working with photos.

2. Use fluorescent or filtered halogen lamps for illumination. Professional lighting is important. Consult a photography lighting expert to help you choose lighting that is color-keyed for best image viewing.

3. Put shades up on windows. The goal is to maintain room lighting at a constant level and white point throughout the day.

4. Calibrate your computer monitor. This is a very important step in insuring you produce quality photographs. You can waste valuable time, paper and ink printing photos that just don't look good. Look into color management software to automate the calibration process.

5. Choose a printer that is appropriate for your needs. Consider the type of photography you will be producing. The color quality and print speed should be evaluated. Keep in mind the software you will be using and whether you will be doing archival or portfolio printing.

6. Stock your darkroom with professional-quality supplies, including photo paper in various sizes and archival files for storing prints.

Tips & Warnings

• Research each thing you purchase for your darkroom. Cameras, software, monitor calibrators and other items are relatively expensive. Spend the time to find exactly what you need before you buy.

• Insure your computer has lots of storage. Photographs take up huge amounts of computer memory. You will also want to purchase and install photo editing software. Photoshop is considered the standard.