Easel and borders

[darin3200]

If I want clean, white borders on large prints do I have to buy an easel? Any advice?

 

[Jeff Canes]

Yes I think so, It been a very long time since I made any prints, but it I recall right the easel cover edges of paper blocking the light

 

[PlasticSpanner]

An easel is the easiest & most effective way to get a clean, sharp white border around your photograph.

If you are really stuck and don't want to buy an easel you could mask off your border with tape but that isn't going to be easy under a red safe light and impossible with a colour print with no light at all!

 

[stingray]

**EDIT** sorry... didn't read "large"...

 

[Torus34]

For really large prints -- crude but cheap:

1. Large sheet of non-stainless steel. Strips of magnetic tape. Quick and dirty, but not very cheap.

2. Large flat sheet of fiberboard or plywood and straight strips of opaque cardboard such as thin matte board. You can glue up two long 'L' strips of different widths of the thin opaque cardboard [ ------- ] and then glue them to the ply at right angles to each other. The lip ^ overhang forms the border. Slip the paper under the channel lips to position it. Registration nails will then permit you to position two plain strips to form the other two borders. Additional registration nails permit size adjustment. You are now limited only by the size of the paper. Takes time to construct [paint the board, etc.], but it's almost as cheap as dirt.

Additionally, you might have to turn the enlarger column 180 degrees on its baseboard so that you can project onto the floor. Remember to weight the baseboard!

Finally,for really big prints, have a radio in the darkroom to provide entertainment while making those rather long exposures!

 

[darin3200]

Cool. Thanks for the help everyone. I'll try a couple of the ideas and see which ones work well.