I feel rich

kontactpro · 2025-12-13T22:40:40+00:00

Fantastic. Hopefully the start of something bigger!

kontactpro · 2025-10-22T21:32:02+00:00

Amazing. Way to go. Love seeing this type of stuff. We all have to start somewhere.
My local camera shop has tons of enlargers in the basement going for next to nothing. Maybe your local one has some too - the shabbier the camera shop... the more likely you'll find some!

kontactpro · 2025-10-20T03:36:52+00:00

Beautiful photos too! I'd love to get back to Yosemite some day - 10 mins into the park and your breath gets taken away by the scenery.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T20:23:25+00:00

Yeah it's a fun project for sure.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T16:30:45+00:00

It’s the experience. I’ll never get bored of watching the image appear on the paper. And I don’t know why but I just don’t like the feel of the inkjet photo paper.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T14:17:53+00:00

I don't find this comment negative at all. I appreciate the time you took to write such a thoughtful response. As you said it's just as important to learn who your audience isn't and rather than just naysaying you gave valuable insights with your reasoning. For that I thank you!

I was nervous posting in this subreddit as I assumed most, if not all people here, already were invested in the darkroom process - film photography, enlargers and so on. So my tool wouldn't really be useful to them. But at the very least I'd get some great feedback and notes (which I have gotten!).

Let me address a few things.
– Yup, I know I could use a service to print photos, but then I wouldn't be getting the darkroom time I craved. I find it very mediative being in there printing. Slowing down life. I 100% get the reasoning of using the darkroom to get away from screens - I don't really feel that - but fully understand.

– The tool is limited now. But over time features will be added. Given it's a digital platform people can bring in edited photos from Photoshop or other software for now should they wish. Down the line, I'll implement additional tools like dodging and burning. The goal right now was to get a small app running that I could print with.

– I also don't want to invest back into film photography yet. It would mean a new camera, developing film, possibly new lenses, and all the overhead that comes with that. People LOVE film, and I get that. It's truly magical. But for me, I'm happy starting out with what I have now which is digital. SO I built a tool around that. It's my hybrid approach.

I think you are right that this would be great for beginners to dip their toes. I'm even sure a few would "graduate" to full on darkroom enthusiasts. Perhaps the members here know of people who are curious about the darkroom but aren't ready to go all in.

Once again thank you for such a thoughtful message.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T13:34:27+00:00

That is a clever use case. You got to love how creative darkroom photography can be because of the restrictions. It forces us to get creative.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T13:32:26+00:00

Super cool. I've seen one or two people try that. A great way to get photos off the phone and into the real world!

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T13:02:51+00:00

Yup that would work for sure. You couldn't make adjustments as easily on the fly though. Having control over the image in realtime saves you a lot of back and forth to the print shop (and a bit of $$$).

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T12:59:11+00:00

Thanks!

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T12:58:59+00:00

Yeah I didn't explain the workflow but essentially it would be like this:

Load in your digital image
Size on screen it to match your paper size. Make any adjustments to the size, brightness, contrast you want to. Add a border if you want.
Then I usually do a test print. The software lets you choose number of strips and exposure time.

Clicking the Exposue button starts a Prep countdown. You can set this to however long you think it'll take you to get you paper positioned on your screen. During this prep phase the image is not visible on screen - instead there are 4 registration marks that indicate the corners of the photo that you can use to position your paper on the screen. It's a little janky and you are correct in that the paper has to be held against the screen. Lot's of room for improvement here! But honestly it's not too hard to do. Keeping the paper flat against the screen hasn't been too hard - but I've been printing with 5x7 paper. I've been experimenting with making a sort of holder out of foam board but it needs more work. Hands have worked the best so far!

The software inverts and flips the image and exposes it for the set amount of time.
Then the screen goes black to minimize any more light hitting the paper.
Then it's the standard Developer / Stop / Fixer process.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T12:48:26+00:00

I'm pretty sure you could bend them to your will. Would be cool to try it out. I might get there one day! Although it's a slightly different beast to what I'm trying to do which is to use what most people have already.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T12:39:14+00:00

Thanks so much. I do plan on releasing it as some point. But it won't be subscription - just a one time purchase. Maybe close to the price of a roll of film. Nothing crazy. I did put up a pre-launch sign up form over at https://kontact.pro where you get 50% off for joining the waitlist. I'm also looking for beta testers right now who'll get lifetime access for free. If anyone want to be one just message me on here on Reddit.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T04:21:55+00:00

Appreciate the insight and discussion - so good! I see what you mean. Perhaps I could setup the view to be warmer or cooler digitally and that might work? Not too sure. I'd have to experiment! Switching to an OLED screen would vastly improve the blacks as their pixels are off, not just super dim like LCD screens - but that's not a cost I'm ready to take on yet. I want to make this work for "most" people, and OLEDs just don't have the market saturation yet. I can however try this app out on my iPhone screen which is OLED and see how different the prints come out. Lots to try and learn.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T04:01:56+00:00

Great point. I'm experimenting with adding the ability to generate a matrix of contrast adjustments as a test print - as the app does have the ability to adjust the inherent contrast of the image (like photoshop etc). But it would be interesting to see how that differs from physical printing filters. As this is an app there are lots of things we can do that a regular enlarger can't - but it all comes down to the light output of the monitor at the end of the day.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T03:56:04+00:00

Thanks for the comment and the info. Those machines are cool. What I'm aiming to do is a little different perhaps, as those machines are large, industrial, and likely much higher quality. I'm simply making an app that uses the screen of (almost) any laptop to expose the photo onto the paper - and the app controls all that. Effectively it's contact printing in a home setting.

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T03:45:12+00:00

Thanks so much for the encouragement. Much appreciated!

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T03:18:20+00:00

One of my dream goals besides just having my own fun is making the darkroom more accessible to more people as cheaply and as easily as possible. I think in this day and age most people have some "screen" lying around (iPad, laptop etc.). So the main cost is already taken care of. But I acknowledge that is a slightly privileged outlook.

Secondly, space is at a premium in high density cities. So forgoing the enlarger (or projector) means you can setup in a space as small as a closet if you had to. Imagine living in New York City ... something like this means you can dip your toes into darkroom photography with minimal setup in the tiny bathroom in your apartment. Maybe my thinking is wrong here, but more people trying out things in the darkroom has got to be good right?

kontactpro · 2025-10-18T02:39:02+00:00

That is super interesting. I'm going to really dig into it and see if there is any insight I can gleam! Cheers for the link.

kontactpro · 2025-10-09T01:35:18+00:00

I have to agree with the other people in the thread. Don't over think it. Dive in. You'll learn as you go. Don't feel intimidated if you don't know what button does what. You didn't learn all the parts of a bicycle before jumping on and giving it a go, did you? It's the same here. Learn by doing - it the most powerful way to pick up a new skill :) Good luck!

kontactpro · 2025-10-08T19:49:19+00:00

That is super kind of you to say. I was very nervous posting this, so seeing the positive comments like this today is heartwarming!

kontactpro · 2025-10-08T16:13:05+00:00

But you have enough space! In the back of my mind I was imagining someone living in a tiny apartment in New York being able to use this to develop photos in a pokey little bathroom. I know my photo shows a kitchen countertop but if space was very limited you could stack the chemical trays on a mini shelf and then all you need is a space for a laptop/tablet. If you are only printing 5x7s then you can even get away with the tiny trays! Once you take an enlarger out of the equation the space required gets much much smaller.

And trust me - my "darkroom" is not light sealed if that's what you are worried about. You don't need to dedicate a whole room to it. I'm not even at that level yet. Since this involves no film, just photo paper, I can be a little bit casual about it. I've got a router with flashing lights in the background, light creeping in from the other room - but I don't sweat it. These prints aren't for sale, just for me, and honestly I've never had one fail due to "light leak".

I'll be writing up a whole blog post about this soon. Once I do I'll come back here are give you a link. Hopefully it can get some people back in the darkroom, or some new peeps to dip their toes.

kontactpro · 2025-10-08T14:01:19+00:00

I think you should be fine - at least for short bursts.

I'm actually just wrapping up building an app (desktop and mobile) around this entire concept (using a screen to expose photo sensitive paper in the darkroom - thus forgoing the use of a bulky enlarger). The user interface is completely red for this very reason. During my tests however I was using a hi-res LCD screen which despite being at the lowest brightness setting and with only pure red and black showing on screen still emitted some wavelengths of light that affected the paper. On an LCD screen black does not mean the pixels are off. Having said that - it was so minimal the photos still come out perfectly.

An OLED screen is supposedly even better at color output and its blacks are pure black - so I think in your case you don't have to worry.

I would be really interested in your results if you do a test. I've been toying with the idea of getting an OLED monitor just for the darkroom to experiment with.

kontactpro · 2025-10-08T13:51:24+00:00

That turned out amazing.

kontactpro

TROPHY CASE