Classical White Borders

artur ferreira · Sep 10, 2017

I've been wondering how these white borders on classical pictures where achieved.

I don't know if they came along with the film the photographer choose or if they came after, in printing. Are these possible to achieve today? How to make them?

E. von Hoegh · Sep 10, 2017

Printing easel. Simple as dirt.

pentaxuser · Sep 10, 2017

E. von Hoegh said:
Printing easel. Simple as dirt.

It isn't clear to me what the OP means by classical borders. Does he simply mean white borders of equal size or white borders, some sides having black edges of different intensity as in the examples

Perhaps the OP will clarify matters for us

pentaxuser

E. von Hoegh · Sep 10, 2017

pentaxuser said:
It isn't clear to me what the OP means by classical borders. Does he simply mean white borders of equal size or white borders, some sides having black edges of different intensity as in the examples

Perhaps the OP will clarify matters for us

pentaxuser

Both examples are commercial prints, and for a very long time these prints, and most others were made with borders. Matted prints were not made with borders. The printing easel covered the borders leaving them unexposed - white.
The black lines appear to be scanning artifacts.
White borders are hardly "classical", novel to the Op obviously but many of us still use them.

Nodda Duma · Sep 10, 2017

OP: look up "4 in 1 easel" (no quotes) on eBay. That is what gets you white borders on standard size prints in the darkroom.

RalphLambrecht · Sep 11, 2017

E. von Hoegh said:
Printing easel. Simple as dirt.

Yes, they are made by the blades of the printing easel during printing; then and now.

Poisson Du Jour · Sep 11, 2017

Apart from old world, traditional aesthetics, white borders (or black, in the case of Ilfochrome Classic print material) of whatever dimension are useful for handling prints in the matting stage, the usual instruction being 'mat to edge' rather than leave any of the white border visible (though sometimes this is the case).

E. von Hoegh · Sep 11, 2017

Also for mounting in albums, as in the op's examples.

locutus · Sep 11, 2017

Call me silly: i contact print a lot and find that i prefer black borders created that way.

E. von Hoegh · Sep 11, 2017

locutus said:
Call me silly: i contact print a lot and find that i prefer black borders created that way.

I write the exposure and development on the negative margin with an archival ultrafine pigment marker, so that info appears on the print.

Alan Johnson · Sep 11, 2017

If you are hybrid process there is a temporary free download that has a selection of borders:
https://www.on1.com/free/

MattKing · Sep 11, 2017

I don't know whether I like it that the "normal" I spent so many years with is now being referred to as "classical".
I do remember though when "borderless" 4" x 6" prints from 35mm negatives were first offered by all the photofinishers - at the time they seemed to be so much better than the 3.5" x 5" bordered prints that were "normal" before them.
To the OP: some of us here on APUG/PHOTRIO participate in the APUG/PHOTRIO Postcard exchange, where we exchange postcards with others from around the world. Most of those postcards are hand printed in our darkrooms, and a majority of them are on 4" x 6" paper.
Some of us print them with borders, while others print them without borders, and some switch back and forth. It is simply a choice, dictated by preference and the availability of appropriate equipment.

pentaxuser · Sep 11, 2017

I know that we have a generation now and Artur may belong to it, that knows nothing about darkroom silver gelatin printing and how it is light-sensitive such that preventing light getting to it results in white paper after processing but I had imagined that easels that covered up the edges of paper for borders were still known to exist..

I remain unconvinced that Artur's question is as simple as it appears. Pity he hasn't replied

pentaxuser

Ces1um · Sep 11, 2017

artur ferreira said:
I've been wondering how these white borders on classical pictures where achieved.

I don't know if they came along with the film the photographer choose or if they came after, in printing. Are these possible to achieve today? How to make them?

]

You can still get the lab to print your photos with a border now. You just have to ask for them.

foc · Sep 11, 2017

As has been already said, the white border is achieved at the printing stage. Most commercially produced prints had a border until the mid 1970's. If I remember correctly, most labs changed to borderless prints when the standard print changed from 3.5x5 inch to 6x4 size prints. These days prints are printed digitally on photo paper (or inkjet) and the border it applied digitally.

Traditionally in optically printed prints the border was created by covering the edge of the print (with a printing mask/easel). This photo from http://twelvesmallsquares.blogspot.ie is an example of what a darkroom photo easel look like.

In the colour print shown by the OP, the black line, off centre at the top of the print, is a mark to let the auto print cutter know where to cut the prints off a large roll. (in a wholesale commercial lab, prints were printed in large rolls of paper).

Chan Tran · Sep 11, 2017

In the beginning the border I think was actually necessity as it was more difficult to make borderless prints.Today in the darkroom just use the 4 bladed easel. If scan then print the border can be added as well.

Ko.Fe. · Sep 11, 2017

Paper goes into frame (called easel) picture is "printed" within frame, edges inside frame stays white.
You could get the same with printing from printer. It is actually, easy to get it print with them.

CMoore · Sep 11, 2017

I always thought the border was some kind of "Safety Zone".....so your fingers did not touch the print.
It is kind of funny, when you pick up a photo like that in your hands, your fingers just kind of naturally try to Stay In The White.....so to speak.

mshchem · Sep 11, 2017

Nodda Duma said:
OP: look up "4 in 1 easel" (no quotes) on eBay. That is what gets you white borders on standard size prints in the darkroom.

I still occasionally use my Dad's 1947 Airequipt 4 in 1 easel when I want nice 1/4 " borders. I think I have at least a dozen Saunders easels, the Sing-L-size easels with fixed 3/16" borders work well too. This is why I never liked speed EZ easels, borders would always be crooked. Borderless never really caught on until RC paper hit. You needed the frame to keep the paper flat.

Oh if you could still get deckle edged Velox

pentaxuser · Sep 11, 2017

Well hopefully by now we have destroyed any sense of "classical" in the sense of classical novels, music, films or indeed borders( the Glienicke Bridge may be the exception in terms of borders) . We have replaced it with the accurate but prosaic explanation of print easels. Is there no romanticism left?

Mind you, I still wonder if Artur had more in mind when asking the question. Put me out of my misery, Artur

pentaxuser

mshchem · Sep 11, 2017

artur ferreira said:
I've been wondering how these white borders on classical pictures where achieved.

I don't know if they came along with the film the photographer choose or if they came after, in printing. Are these possible to achieve today? How to make them?

View attachment 186513
View attachment 186514

On the color photo you can see a black mark in the top border. That is an index mark that Kodak and others used to index the print for an automatic cutter. The prints were made in long rolls 3 1/2" wide for snap shots. After drying, a cutting machine would cut the prints perfectly using the black mark to trigger the cutter.

E. von Hoegh · Sep 11, 2017

Classic
Classical
Vintage
Awesome
Effect, Affect
Hone, Home
There, They're, Their
Apostrophised plurals
Very sad situation for literacy.

Down Under · Sep 11, 2017

Classic white borders. Classic photography. Classical music. Definitions and distinctions. 21st century literacy (if I dare call it that) is a different world... Do do they all speak perfect English up there in the Adirondaks? Sure as anything, they do not down here in Tasmania, in my old age I may compile a TTasmania -English dictionary for the rest of the world to understand us.

Before 1997 when the internet took over and began its wanton destruction of the civilised world, most people had photo albums..Photos were either pasted on the pages (terrible for us when we want to scan them, but there you are) or stuck down at the corners with - what were they called? Photo stickers, I believe. Me, I think the white borders were to ensure the stickers didn't intrude in the image, and also for better handling without getting fingerprints on the actual image.

Photographically (oh dear, here we go again) I tend to print borderless (ditto) up to 5x7 with my 35mm images, as I believe small images need all the space they can get and look better sans borders. Larger, I allow for borders. My 120 prints are 6x6 on 5x7 with plenty of white space around them. These look ultra good when displayed and they sell quite well, so I must be doing something right.

As the natives in these parts would say, them's just me thought's...

Poisson Du Jour · Sep 11, 2017

CMoore said:
I always thought the border was some kind of "Safety Zone".....so your fingers did not touch the print.

You're right. It still is considered just that for prints that are being dropped in to the framers, for matting or the whole frame-up. Borderless prints look sharp and neat, but they are a PITA to handle without gloves.

Oily finger marks on Ilfochromes were nigh impossible to remove, even worse with RA-4 prints, hence the specification of "print wide borders" to greatly assist handling.

Our family albums have thousands of these old, faded Ilford and Kodak (and a few Agfa) prints with wide borders from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Poisson Du Jour · Sep 11, 2017

ozmoose said:
Sure as anything, they do not down here in Tasmania, in my old age I may compile a TTasmania -English dictionary for the rest of the world to understand us.

They don't? That is entirely news to me, mixing as I do with a large number of Taswegians. The best of English can be experienced at the University of Tasmania and all around Hobart. The worst ... anywhere around Burnie and Ulverstone and the East coast! So it's a matter of where you go.

Classical White Borders

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