bogen easel

[CMoore]

This question is abort the Two Bladed type.....like this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-BO...d=263307037687&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
My question is in regards to printing a 35mm negative, on a sheet of 8x10 paper, and not doing any cropping.....just printing the entire 35mm negative and not leaving anything out.
I have never really used a "real" easel before, never really produced what you might call a "Finished Print".
Anyway.......maybe i do not fully understand how these work.? Are they supposed to leave you with a "Centered" print, or are you supposed to to trim off the larger borders to match the smaller ones.?
It could be that i do not understand how to Use/Adjust this thing, but with only two adjustable blades, and a 35mm negative, I get two white borders that are bigger than the other two. Is that normal.? Do they figure you will just cut off the excess.?
It seems like The Saunders Easel, with 4 adjustable blades allows you to center the print in the middle of the paper.
Am i not using the Bogen properly.? There is Some Sort of adjustment to The Bogen, but i am not really sure what it does, or how much.
Thank You

 

[pentaxuser]

I might be wrong but it looks similar to the LPL 2 blade easels. If this is the case it may be that the top left corner gives a fixed border to the left side and top side so if you want equal borders on all four sides then the movable blades need to be set to replicate these borders. Otherwise you need to cut the bottom and right side borders to match the top and left side border.

The general rule is that if you want to be able to vary all four borders with a 2 blade easel get one which allows separate variations on the top left corner in both the top and left side borders. The 2 blade Beard easel is one such example. Naturally such easels are more expensive

pentaxuser

 

[saman13]

When I took my first darkroom class in college, my professor never bothered to teach us how to use a two blade easel, so I always just adjusted the border sizes by eye and wondered why they would make it so hard to get even borders. Well, they don’t. Watch this short video, like I did, and realize how easy it is!



Also, if you want even borders with 35mm on 4x5 or 8x10 paper you’ll have to crop. If you don’t want to crop, use 4x6 paper, which I’ve just started using and I like the size.

 

[winger]

My question is in regards to printing a 35mm negative, on a sheet of 8x10 paper, and not doing any cropping.....just printing the entire 35mm negative and not leaving anything out.

If you aren't cropping, then two borders will be different from the other two, no matter what type of easel you use. The aspect ratios of 8x10 paper and 35mm film are not the same.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

2 bladed easels are fine, but the upper left and top borders are fixed. If you can, buy a Saunders 4 bladed 11x14 easel. They're much more flexible with borders.

 

[Svenedin]

The trouble with enlarging a 35mm negative, with no cropping onto 8"x10" paper is that they are not a good match in terms of the ratio of height to width. The 35mm frame has a ratio of short side to long side of 1 to 1.5. This is an exact match for 4"x6" paper but not 8"x10".

You have already found out that if you want to print your full 35mm frame on 8"x10" and you want to "centre" the print you would need to have small borders on the left and right and much bigger borders on the top and bottom.

Your Bogen easel looks from the pictures to have an adjustment system that cannot independently adjust the left and top border; you can only adjust both at once by moving the silver stop that you can see when you open the easel in the top left of the paper area. This probably has a a screw to loosen the adjustment underneath the easel.

This leaves you with a choice. You can either print your full frame and trim after you have processed and dried the print (wasteful) or trim the paper down (under safelight of course) before printing and keep the offcuts for test strips.

Or other ideas: you could make a printing mask out of mounting board so that you can always print the full 35mm frame and have it with small borders left and right and large borders top and bottom; you could get a Baird type 2 blade easel that allows independent adjustment of left and top borders (but the adjustment is at fixed intervals not continuously adjustable).

I usually crop 35mm onto 8"x10" but sometimes I do want to print the full frame especially if I have used a wide angle lens specifically to fit something into the picture when I took it. In such a case I print in the "centred" way you mention but it does look a bit odd. The advantage for me by not trimming the paper is I can still use cheap 8"x10" clip type frames.

PS: I have JJ Baird 2 blade easels which allow a large top border. They are quite expensive, British (London made) easels which do not have the 2 blades "flopping" around but following a guide frame at their far ends so this type of easel is better at keeping the blades from going out of true. You can though use tape to temporarily keep the blades true so that your borders are a nice and parallel to the paper edge.

Stephen

 

[CMoore]

Thanks for all the info Guys.
My questions have been answered...and THANKS for that video link.
My Apologies.......when i said Uneven/Unequal borders, i was referring to Just the two bladed easel. I realize, that even if centered, a 35mm Neg will not have even borders (on 8x10) when comparing Top and Bottom to the Side measurements.It is more like a 6x9 centered on a 8x10.
Anyway.....I was just referring to the One large top and One large side Vs One small bottom and One small side border of the 2 blade types.
If you know what i mean.
Thanks Again

 

[Svenedin]

The only way I can think of to do what you want with your current easel is to take a piece of fairly thick black card or mounting board, cut it to 8"x10" and then cut out a window in the card that matches say 6"x9" with the borders equal left and right and top and bottom (but bigger borders top and bottom than left and right). Then when you make a print place your card mask over the paper and print. You could use your card mask over and over.

 

[CMoore]

Hey Sven -
Yeah...clever idea.
I am not necessarily interested in centering a 35mm Neg on an 8x10.
I was asking because i have only used a 4 Blade easel, and with that, you would normally have the print centered. I thought i might have been doing something wrong with this 2 Blade.
No big deal.
Thanks Again for your suggestion.

 

[MattKing]

You will note on your Bogen easel that it is possible to make a small adjustment to the borders at the top left corner. Essentially, this allows you to vary the border width there from about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch.
One hint with two bladed easels: If you are having trouble keeping the paper flat, add a magnet to where the two blades cross themselves.

 

[gary in nj]

To print the full image you will either print an 8x12 (from an 11x14 sheet) or a 6-2/3x10 from an 8x10 sheet. I have a fixed 8x10 frame, so I use a metal strip along the top edge to get a clean border. I then cut a little more then than an inch from the top to get a uniform border on all four sides.

 

[darkroommike]

I normally set the borders to about 7x10 nominal, image size more like 6.5 x 9.5 inches and have a larger border at the bottom, or do the David Vestal thing and trim my paper before printing, that way I get a nice 7x10 print and two 1x5 test strips per sheet of paper. I also have a very nice, but I am sure discontinued, Ganz Speed-E-Zel that makes a centered "7x10" on a sheet of 8x10 paper.