Are dark rooms dead?

I think i'd like to have a dark room and do my own prints from film. But my friend all say dark rooms are dead now that we have digital cameras. Is that true? Are they a thing of the past?

Don't believe everything you hear, Bernie. My husband and I are good friends with the director of the art department at the local community college. He's also in charge of all the photography classes. The school talked him into closing down the darkroom. That lasted exactly one semester. He went back to them and told them teaching students without the fundamentals they learn using film and dark rooms was a lost cause. Either the school gave him back a dark room or he wouldn't teach photography anymore. They built him the new dark room.

If you really want to learn, go for it.

What's a dark room? ha ha ha Nah, that's before me. I mean I got into photography during the digital cam's, so never even seen a darkroom.

-V

Not dead, just... becoming pointless in many cases.

Sure the occasional professor/teacher/enthusiast will still use them, but seriously PS give you all the tools of a darkroom and more.

Ansel Adams use to "process" the crap outta his photos. Dodging, burning using layers etc. all things you do in PS.

jennyjohn52 wrote: Don't believe everything you hear, Bernie. My husband and I are good friends with the director of the art department at the local community college. He's also in charge of all the photography classes. The school talked him into closing down the darkroom. That lasted exactly one semester. He went back to them and told them teaching students without the fundamentals they learn using film and dark rooms was a lost cause. Either the school gave him back a dark room or he wouldn't teach photography anymore. They built him the new dark room.

If you really want to learn, go for it.

Sounds to me like that teacher doesn't understand digital processing enough to teach it more than "needing" a darkroom. Which I suppose he does "need" a darkroom then or else he wouldn't be able to explain how things work.

A lot of film guys have trouble making the transition to digital. I worked with a photographer once who's been a National Geographic photographer for the last 20 years. While a brilliant photographer, he doesn't really understand the digital darkroom very much.

So basically speaking, the Darkroom isn't dead so long as people still shoot film (face it some people just like the process... which is cool). But you really, really don't need those skills anymore.

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

jennyjohn52 wrote: Don't believe everything you hear, Bernie. My husband and I are good friends with the director of the art department at the local community college. He's also in charge of all the photography classes. The school talked him into closing down the darkroom. That lasted exactly one semester. He went back to them and told them teaching students without the fundamentals they learn using film and dark rooms was a lost cause. Either the school gave him back a dark room or he wouldn't teach photography anymore. They built him the new dark room.

If you really want to learn, go for it.

Sounds to me like that teacher doesn't understand digital processing enough to teach it more than "needing" a darkroom. Which I suppose he does "need" a darkroom then or else he wouldn't be able to explain how things work.

A lot of film guys have trouble making the transition to digital. I worked with a photographer once who's been a National Geographic photographer for the last 20 years. While a brilliant photographer, he doesn't really understand the digital darkroom very much.

So basically speaking, the Darkroom isn't dead so long as people still shoot film (face it some people just like the process... which is cool). But you really, really don't need those skills anymore.

Agreed it's intriguing but not needed.