The Darkroom

The Darkroom is today's roll laid out as a contact sheet: all 27 frames, in the order you took them, each one showing what happened to that shot. Open it from the canister at the bottom left of the Camera.

The sheet

At the top is the day and how much film is left, "12 left. New roll at 4 AM." Then the frames, five across, numbered like a roll of film:

• Face down: a print back with an orange edge. You haven't turned it over yet.
• Shared: the photo. Your friends have it.
• Private: the photo, dimmed, with a lock. Only you see it.
• Tossed: crossed out. It still used one of your 27.
• Sending: a spinner while it uploads, or the offline mark with no signal.
• Empty: the frames still on the roll.

From your photos

Since build 14 a roll takes photos and clips from your phone's library too. Tap Add from your photos under the day, or the plus on the next empty frame, and pick as many as are left on the roll. Your phone shows only what you pick; Durpin never sees the rest of your library, and doesn't ask for access to it.

Each photo is one of today's 27, on the film you pick for it on Frame it (below), and lands face down like any shot: turn it over, then share it, keep it private or toss it. Its date stamp shows the day it was taken, read from the photo, so last summer's photo says last summer; one with no date in it gets today's. Friends see it like any other shot.

Since build 15 a photo goes on in a camera shot's shape, so a wide one fills its frame on Home and in the viewer instead of sitting small in the middle. A photo that isn't 3:4 (wide, square, or taller than a camera shot) opens Frame it first: the photo under a frame, with what's outside the frame shaded. Since build 18 every photo opens it, so each one gets its film; a 3:4 photo just fills the frame.

• Film (build 18): the four films are under the photo, and it shows on the one picked, developed the way it will be on the roll. It starts on the Camera's film, then on the one you picked for the photo or clip before. The Camera's own film doesn't change. Since build 19 a clip gets its film the same way (below).
• Shape (build 18): the frame is Tall (3:4) or Wide (4:3, the shape of a rotated shot). A wide photo opens in Wide and keeps its sides, and a 4:3 one fills it whole; anything else opens in Tall. Switching starts the framing over.
• Framing: it opens centered, just filling the frame. Drag to move it and pinch to zoom in; it always fills the frame, so it stops at its own edges.

Use this keeps what the frame shows, on the film picked; the x leaves that photo out and goes on to the next. Pick several and each one gets its own turn, in the order you picked them. Its date stamp still shows the day it was taken. Photos added before build 15 stay as they were.

Clips from your library came to Android in build 14 and to iPhone in build 15; before that an iPhone's picker offered photos only. A clip up to 8 seconds goes on whole. A longer one opens Pick 8 seconds: a strip of the clip's frames with an orange window you slide to the part you want. Use these 8 seconds keeps it; the x leaves that clip out and goes on to the next.

Since build 19 every clip opens a screen, so each one gets its film, as a photo does on Frame it: a clip up to 8 seconds opens Pick its film, whole in the window with nothing to slide, and a longer one opens Pick 8 seconds. The four films are under the strip. The picture is a still from the middle of the part you keep, on the film picked, developed the way the clip will be; tap it to play that part as it is, round and round with its sound, and again to go back to the still (the film goes on when it's added, as on a camera clip). It starts on the film picked for the photo or clip before, or the Camera's. Use this or Use these 8 seconds keeps it on that film. Before build 19 a clip went on on the Camera's film, and the part to keep played round and round as you slid the window. Big clips come down to the camera's size, an HDR clip from a newer phone comes out in normal color, and the clip's location and other details are left behind.

On an iPhone, Frame it and a clip's screen open once the picker, or the one before, has finished sliding away. Until then the button shows Adding, and a print, the earlier days and Turn over don't open anything (the x still closes the Darkroom). Opened sooner, they never appeared and the Darkroom stayed on "Adding 1 of 1" (found in build 15 testing on an iPhone simulator).

If one of the things you picked can't be read on your phone (a damaged or cut short clip), the phone's picker hands back none of them, and Durpin can't tell which one it was: it says "Couldn't read something you picked" and adds nothing, so you can pick again and leave that one out. Found in build 15 testing on both phones.

On Android the picker sometimes won't open at all once Durpin's screen has been made again (seen on a Pixel 9 Pro in build 14), and it keeps failing until the app restarts. Since build 15 the Darkroom says so: "Couldn't open your photos. Close Durpin all the way and open it again, then try again." Any other reason it won't open still says "Try again."

Turning shots over

Tap a face-down frame and it turns over where it lies, then opens on its own: share it, keep it private, or toss it. Since build 18 the next face-down frame of that day comes straight after, and so on round the roll, so you keep turning over until you close it or they're all done; each frame on the sheet shows what you chose. A frame that's the day's only face-down one goes straight back to the sheet. Turn over at the bottom does every face-down shot in a row, the same as before.

Tap a shared or private frame to open it full screen. Tap a tossed one and Durpin asks whether to restore it; it goes back to how it was.

Earlier days

The sheet is today's roll only. Shots from earlier days you haven't decided on wait in a row above it, "2 from earlier days". Tap it to turn them over. Undecided shots become private after 7 days. Your earlier days are on the You tab, in Journal and Private.