black border around prints: is there a viable workaround?

[MattKing]

I would think that it would make the most sense to:
1) frame the image area on your adjustable easel;
2) cut a mask equal to the image area;
3) position the mask on the photographic paper using the easel blades as the guide;
4) lift the blades while ensuring the mask stays in place;
5) expose the borders;
6) remove the mask;
7) lower the blades and then adjust them slightly to increase the image area;
8) expose the image, which should bleed slightly into the black borders.

It might help if you could put something tacky on the back of the photographic paper, to ensure it stays still. Some easels may be unsuitable for this, as they may have a tendency to move the paper when you move the blades away.
Actually cutting the mask may be finicky. A mat cutter might be helpful.

 

[AgX]

A technical or ruling pen can be tricky to use if you are not familiar with it. It can blob, skip and smear, and scratch the print surface.

That is why there is a good chance a technical pen (Isograph etc.) bought used is not in working order.

 

[John51]

I can't figure out a concise way of explaining this so I'm going to go the long way round.

Start with a (hypothetical) Durst Comask mulitformat easel, 8x10, Take one of the 4x5 masks and trim off say 1/16" on 2 adjacent sides but not all the way. Leave 2" at the ends that do not meet. With the mask up against the outer frame, cover the rest of the paper. Expose. Repeat for the other 3 corners.

Because it's an 8x10 frame and only a 4x5 mask, the 1/16" black borders won't be connected but you get the idea I hope. A suitably sized mask will butt up against your easel blades and be large enough to connect the black borders.

Will probably look bad if the easel blades move.

 

[David Lyga]

Instead of a dedicated mask size needed for a particular print size, I have another idea which does not require extreme accuracy needed TO PLACE that mask on the print (so that all four borders are perfectly even):

Why not make a stiff, rectangular mask (somewhat larger than any print you would want to make)? Make two small, precise 1/4 inch protrusions at two of the opposing corners of the mask. Place the photo paper (emulsion side up) on a borderless easel, using one side of the easel's stops to move the paper as far upward as possible (so it meets the stop). Then place the mask on top of this photo paper so that its protrusions also meet that stop and covers the whole of the photo paper except for the 1/4 inch area width left exposed (because of the mask's protrusions). Expose this area (by full room light) for four times, (once for each edge of the photo paper). After development, you will have a neat 1/4 inch black border on all four sides of your print... and print size did not matter because you were doing one edge at a time. .IF set up correctly, this 'four edge approach' would not take much time.

Doing this obviates the need to care about paper sizes, as the large mask covers any size and, in each case, leaves only the 1/4 inch border (of any length) of the photo paper open to being exposed by the room light. These black border exposures can be done to the photo paper either before or after print exposure. Obviously, the mask has to be utterly light-tight. - David Lyga

 

[cowanw]

You can do two adjacent sides and the right angle at once, for just two exposures. I believe I have seen this on the market. See page 456 "Way beyond Monochrome"
The Kostiner pen line liner is another option for those with a Kostiner enlarger

 

[David Lyga]

Yes, the right angle configuration would work even better. (Not having thought of that myself reminds me that inventing the wheel was, indeed, a formidable task.) - David Lyga

 

[John51]

The wheel was invented by a lazy man known for cutting corners.

 

[cowanw]

Thinking on it, a large carpenters square for the corner and a flat sheet of steel or opaque material a bit bigger than the size of your print would do it.

 

[faberryman]

Why do you want to make a think black border around your print?

 

[KenS]

I know that the best way to do this is photographically (burning in the border with light), but is there a viable alternative, one using a marker? Will a Sharpie hold up with time? A simple crayon? Another type of 'paint'? Please give your thoughts. - David Lyga

David

Get some 'Rubylith' cut to 8x10 and 'strip a quarter inch (or less) of the 'edges', mate that with your exposed print under some clean glass and use a hand-held flash light 'around the 4 'clear' edges.

Ken

 

[David Lyga]

Why do you want to make a think black border around your print?

Not thick, but black. I think that it isolates it better than white does. - David Lyga

 

[Bill Burk]

I think the trick will be, if you are using light, to have a fairly accurate jig to position the paper on the easel and hold it there while you make the black border exposure.

You will likely want to expose to maximum black otherwise bits of your picture will be visible in the border.

 

[Helinophoto]

Just create a makeshift copy of your mask, with a slightly bigger hole in it.

I made several out of cardboard for my Durst, works perfectly well to create borders.
It all depends on what kind of borders you are looking for.

 

[Hilo]

An ink-pencil drawn black border will always look fake. Not the same black you have in the image, no rounded inside corners of the border. I think you need to print it and mask off using the easel. So your negative holder must be (slightly) larger than the negative's image. This border only becomes one with the image when it is was printed. There will be slight imperfections of the easel, hardly visible most likely. But the feeling it gives will be that of an analog print. Alive.

 

[Bill Burk]

That’s the black border I get. David I think is talking about a presentation quality crisp design border around a clean cropped image.

 

[David Lyga]

Yep, Bill.

 

[~andi]

Rapidograph. Simple and works well.

 

[esearing]

invention idea. A flashing tool with a slit for light, shaped like a step so it can sit on paper and easel blades and just expose the edges. [---------]