Kategorien: Fotografie - Borbin the 🐱

Arduino Darkroom Timer

📅 24. September 2024 · Fotografie

Precise timing is critical in analog photography, especially during the development process in the darkroom. This project presents a versatile darkroom timer built around the Arduino Uno R4 and Gamepad Input Shield, designed to support key photographic development tasks with tactile control and visual feedback. It features an 8x8 LED matrix for ambient illumination and implements five distinct modes: LED brightness adjustment, manual and timed enlarger control, chemical bath sequencing, and a general-purpose timer. Navigation is intuitive via joystick or button input, making it a practical and user-friendly tool for analog photography workflows.

This project uses the Gamepad Input Shield and Arduino Uno R4. Wiring details are available in the source code. The joystick or up/down buttons are used to switch between tasks, while left/right buttons adjust the state or settings.
The first 8x8 LED block is used to illuminate the darkroom.

The timer implements five tasks:

LEDBrightnessTask: Adjusts LED brightness from 0 to 15.
EnlargerOnOffTask: Manual control of the enlarger.
EnlargerTimerTask: Timed control of the enlarger.
DevelopStopFixTask: Three timers for develop, stop bath, and fix stages.
GeneralTimerTask: A general-purpose timer starting from 0 seconds.

LEDBrightnessTask

Sets the brightness of the 8x8 darkroom illumination LEDs from min 0 to max 15.

EnlargerOnOffTask

Manual enlarger switch switched on.

EnlargerTimerTask

Timed enlarger switch.

DevelopStopFixTask

3 timers for develop, stop bath and fix.

GeneralTimerTask

General timer starting from 0s.

Arduino Darkroom Timer Github Project

This darkroom timer project combines modern microcontroller technology with the tactile simplicity of gamepad input to support essential analog photography tasks. Whether you're timing enlarger exposures or chemical baths, this tool offers consistent performance and flexibility for both amateur and professional darkroom enthusiasts. With five dedicated modes and intuitive controls, it provides a reliable and customizable solution for anyone working in a traditional darkroom. The open-source design invites further experimentation and adaptation—whether you're refining your workflow or building your own version.

Analog Photography

📅 12. September 2024 · Fotografie

Start of a new journey.

📷 Nikon F2A - Nikkor AI-S 35-70mm f/3.5

Black&White Film, Ilford HP5 Plus 400
Color Slide Film, Kodak Ektachrome E100
Color Negative Film, Kodak Portra 400
Also used: Nikkor AI 35mm f/2 for bright moments, and Zenitar Fisheye 16mm for a broader perspective when things get interesting.

🎞️ Films sourced from Film Photography Store ¹
📷 Camera and Nikkors sourced from eBay

Lab Scans

🧪 Developed and scanned by The Darkroom ¹ using the 'Enhanced' scan option (available choices: 'Standard', 'Enhanced', 'Super Scan').

The scans are saved as sRGB JPEGs and include a standard EXIF header with the following metadata in one APP1 marker:

Image dimensions 3089×2048
Scan date
Embedded thumbnail: 160×120 pixels
Resolution marker: Standard 72 DPI
EXIF Version 2.20
EXIF Tag 0x0131 ('Software'): EZ Controller 6.60.031 (160615)

The JPEG quality level corresponds to luminance and chrominance settings of 97, resulting in an average file size of approximately 5 MB.

Black&White Film, Ilford HP5 Plus 400

A promising start.

Color Slide Film, Kodak Ektachrome E100

Color Negative Film, Kodak Portra 400

^

And finally, these masterpieces boldly redefined blur and questionable exposure as forms of artistic expression. Some even chose to exist only halfway, lingering at the threshold of beginning or end.