Darkroom - Glass or No Glass

[Avotius]

For all those pale faced large pupil dark room dwellers out there:

When you are doing a photo and you put your paper on the table under the enlarger lens, do you use a peice of glass to keep the paper flat, use some sort of frame to keep the corners down (sometimes the center bulges up for me) or do you it just lay it on the table and crank the enlarger lens apature (as my darkroom teacher told me to do).

Back in the day I used to put glass on the paper but dont remember if it did anything to the photo quality or whatnot.

So what do you do?

 

[taffer]

Isn't what you're describing the purpose of an enlarging easel ??

Basically an adjustable frame, I think. I'm still completely new to darkroom though 😛

I've also read somewhere about people building their own vacuum boxes to keep paper really flat on the enlarging board...

 

[Avotius]

Isn't what you're describing the purpose of an enlarging easel ??

Basically an adjustable frame, I think. I'm still completely new to darkroom though 😛

I've also read somewhere about people building their own vacuum boxes to keep paper really flat on the enlarging board...

yeah yeah, thats what they are called I think....those dont work too well for me sometimes though because I want to to an a3 sized print and the easel just pushes the corners down and the center bulges...

that vacum idea sounds neat but not practical for my kitchen, although maybe if I took out the stove....

 

[wyk_penguin]

It is time to get a vacum easel

 

[Justin Low]

I've never had that problem in my darkroom. My 4-bladed Saunders is usually enough to hold down even larger sheets of FB paper. It's odd though; if and when my paper does curl, it usually curls with the emulsion facing inward.

Is your humidity very low?

 

[squeaky_clean]

I always use an easel, and I've never had a problem, up to 11x14 paper. I use glass for making contact sheets, but thats it.

 

[boarini2003]

I do use glass to keep the negative sheet flat when making a contact sheet.

 

[ZorkiKat]

Back in the day I used to put glass on the paper but dont remember if it did anything to the photo quality or whatnot.

So what do you do?

Put glass on the paper? That would distort the image projected on the paper. Glass, no matter how thin (likely thick if it's used to weigh the paper down), diffracts light and can affect the sharpness of the projected image.

Jay

 

[aterlecki]

Depth of field at the plane of the paper is usually so great that it doesn't really matter whether you use an easel or not as long as the paper isn't so wavy as to create obvious distortion (it's the flatness and alignment of the film plane at the negative stage which is more critical for overall sharpness on the print). I think you'll find that even at moderate apertures you can lift one end of an easel up and still get decent sharpness across the print. Never use glass on a print though unless you are contact printing.

 

[Justin Low]

I do use glass to keep the negative sheet flat when making a contact sheet.

Same here, except I use a proofer made by Print-File. It's a sheet of heavy glass hinged to a plastic base with a foam backing. Great for making contact sheets. Incidentally, it's also good for flattening prints. 🙂

 

[Avotius]

I've never had that problem in my darkroom. My 4-bladed Saunders is usually enough to hold down even larger sheets of FB paper. It's odd though; if and when my paper does curl, it usually curls with the emulsion facing inward.

Is your humidity very low?

the humidity here in china ususalys sits around 60-100%

 

[Avotius]

hm...yeah I use glass for making contact sheets too, dont make enough of those though it seems. Im gona look for a better easle thing, the one here barely works

 

[ZorkiKat]

the humidity here in china ususalys sits around 60-100%

Same here in the Philippines. I used a lot of Era （公元） bromide single weight FB paper. It curled really strongly- it was impossible to use without a masking easel.
BTW, it only curled badly when I used in low humidity, airconditioned darkrooms. Otherwise, humidity should make it behave a bit.

I miss that paper. The #2 normal grade did more than what the more expensive
Kodabromide #2 RC did. Erabromide was really an EXPRESSIVE paper. Do you still have it in China?

Jay

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

sounds like you need to get an air conditioner to fit in your darkroom. Do they have the portable units there?

I imagine that a low BTU unit might be fine for a darkrrom.

Maybe a dehumidfier.

 

[ruben]

do you use a peice of glass to keep the paper flat,
So what do you do?

Hi,
WHY YOUR PAPER IS NOT FLAT ON THE FIRST PLACE ?

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[titrisol]

glass over the paper?
only in contacts, otherwise is a bad source of spots in th eprints.

A decent easel should keep paper up to 16x20in (40x50 cm) flat withouth much problems.
BUT if you are having that problem you may need to put some wort of weight over your unexposed paper to make it flat before hand. If it comes in those cardboard envelopes you could even use a couple of bricks, but if it is in boxes. you may need to come up with something

 

[ruben]

Secondly,
Whatever your teacher told you is a recommendation only. Whatever crazy proceedings that you invent and work - this is what really counts.

And do not forget to participate us in your findings, if possible.

Thanks

Ruben

 

[24x30]

Hi,

I normally use this frame system: versamask
I've thrown all the other stuff away.

For the use of RC/PE paper without a frame just do a drip of water under the paper. This will help to keep it plain.

/rudi