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A darkroom is a given space, usually a separate area in a building or a vehicle, that is made dark so as to allow photographers to use light-sensitive materials to develop photographs and film.
Darkrooms were widely used in the late 19th and early to late 20th centuries (until about 1980) before color photography became universally popular. Using black and white film, amateur photographers could control every step of the photographic process and achieve much more finely tuned results at home for a reasonable price than with store-developed prints.
Due to the relative complexity involved in processing colour film (see (C-41 process) and printing color photographs, and to the rise of first Polaroid technology and later digital photography, darkrooms are quickly decreasing in popularity amongst both the amateur and professional class. Nevertheless, darkrooms still enjoy considerable popularity on school campuses and are still used by many professional or hobbyist photographers.
The heart of every darkroom is the enlarger -- an optical apparatus that projects the image on a negative to a base. On the base, a sheet of photographic paper, typically either Resin-coated or fibre-based paper, is exposed. It is during this initial exposure that the photo can be modified, mostly by burning (giving more light to specific parts of an image by exposing it while blocking light to the rest) and/or dodging (reducing light to a specific part of an image by blocking light to it). The paper is then developed, rinsed or put into a stop bath, "fixed", then rinsed again and dried. Some darkrooms also have special print washers used to most thoroughly clean the paper.
The darkroom does not have to be completely dark when making black and white prints. Red light or low-intensity orange or yellow light, known as safelights, make it possible to see when making prints without exposing the photographic paper. Color film, on the other hand, must be kept in complete darkness until the prints are properly fixed.
Depending on personal preference, a darkroom may have a "paper-safe", which is a light-proof box to store photographic paper not in use as opposed to the light-proof bags that the paper comes packaged in, and a changing bag, which is a small bag with arm holes specially designed to be completely light proof and used to prepare film prior to developing. The key advantage of using a changing bag is that items used while loading or handling film are less likely to fall or be misplaced as they are enclosed in a small area.