Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century. Darkrooms have many various manifestations, from the elaborate space used by Ansel Adamsto the retooled automobile trunk used by Weegee.

From the initial development to the creation of prints, the darkroom process allows complete control over the medium. For the purpose of this instruction we will only be dealing with B&W printing and processing, though many of the processes are similar, the color darkroom has greater requirement and for most purposes is no longer a practical format. In order to simplify the order of operations, the buttons to the lower left deal with loading & processing film, and the buttons to the lower right deal with processing the print.

The creative genius of the celebrated New York Documentary Photographer Weegee, included an office/darkroom in the trunk of his car.