Art and the magic of film
We offer a varied selection of tuition services centred around traditional photographic practice that can be tailored to your exacting requirements. Below are listed some our of popular services - if you want to find out more about something in particular, please just ask us!
CAMERA WALKS
Our camera walks give people the chance to try out an older camera. We have a selection to choose from! Arrange to meet us and take a stroll with one of our film cameras, taking photographs of your favourite scenery and get expert tuition at the same time.
The cameras shown here are our Yashica Electro35 and our Agfa Rollfilm camera (sometimes known as the Agfa Standard). Both of these cameras have a fascinating history. The Agfa is nearly 100 years old but still works great. The Yashica was one of the first meter controlled semi-automatic cameras to be produced, making it very popular amongst press photographers.
Have a look at our info page where we list some of the other cameras we have.
From £40 per half day (includes film costs)
FILM PROCESSING
We teach and give advice on film processing, ideal for people who are interested in starting to process their own films as well as more experienced users. The images to the right show one of our typical 120 black and white roll films and the type of tank it gets transferred into. It gets treated with the chemicals neccessary to make the negative images appear and, importantly, to make them permanent. Darkroom Kitchen was designed primarily to cater for black and white traditional photography but we also have the equipment to cater for for C-41 colour film processing upon special request but please note, this is subject to an extra charge.
We also specialise in film management in non-lab conditions which is of benefit to many of our private and domestic users as well as giving advice on waste chemical management.
Although we use a default, standard chemistry set to process films, it is possible to order, upon request, different developers for your specific requirements. These may include films that have been significantly pushed and/or that have been used in low available light conditions thereby increasing the risk of enlarging the film grain size.
From £60 per half day tutorial (includes chemistry costs)
DARKROOM PRINTING
One of our most popular services, based on location at Darkroom Kitchen. Learn the beautiful art of silver printing, perhaps with one of your newly created negatives from one of our camera walks. 1:1 and 1:2 fully customised packages are available. We cater for new and experienced users alike.
Shown on the left is our R. R. Beard paper easel on the baseboard of our DeVere 504 enlarger. Seen on the top left of the baseboard are a couple of dodging tools that can be used to finely control print exposure. On top of the easel is one of our focus finders.
Our DeVere is also complemented by our Durst M605.
From £60 per half day tutorial (includes chemistry and paper costs)
ALTERNATIVE PROCESSES
Darkroom Kitchen also demonstrates and teaches alternative processing. Our two most popular processes are the Argyrotype and the classic Herschel prussian-blue Cyanotype process (shown here).
The Cyanotype process, pioneered by Sir John Herschel has been in existence since 1842. In nearly 180 years, the process has not differed greatly. It can be used for objects (as shown) or directly exposing negatives.
As these are UV print-out processes, we use one of our biggest natural UV sources available - the Sun! Therefore, these processes work best on clear, sunny days. They do work under light cloud, but the exposure times increase dramatically!
From £40 per half-day tutorial (preferably sunny days!)
FURTHER INFORMATION
Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.