Dumb question: When making 3.5 x 5 prints, how do you get the grain focuser in there?

rpavich · Jan 31, 2016

Just a question that might be dumb or not. I was making some small prints on the weekend (3.5 x 5) and with the easel I have I couldn't get the grain focuser where it belonged so I resorted to using my head mounted close up goggles. They worked well enough but I was wondering what the correct way to deal with this issue is. At the moment I'm using one of those 4-in-1 easels but also have a 4 bladed Saunders on the way.

Hilo · Jan 31, 2016

It is not at all a dumb question !

I can tell you how I would go about this with a two blade easel. I don't know your 4-in-1 . . .

First you set it up simply using your eyes and the lens wide open. You focus and you adjust the height of your enlarger. And you set your easel's blades for this image. It can help to turn off all darkroom lights. Then I bring down the horizontal blade, which should create the even surface you need to put your grain focuser.

It can depend on which grain focuser you use and on which enlarger. Sometimes you need to push aside a redfilter or filterholder because they're in the way. If all fails you could consider a different lens, like a 60mm instead of a 50mm. If you use an enlarger with automatic focus that can prove to be difficult, non automatic enlargers are easier in that respect

3,5 X 5, is that inches or cm?

rpavich · Jan 31, 2016

Hilo said:
It is not at all a dumb question !

I can tell you how I would go about this with a two blade easel. I don't know your 4-in-1 . . .

First you set it up simply using your eyes and the lens wide open. You focus and you adjust the height of your enlarger. And you set your easel's blades for this image. It can help to turn off all darkroom lights. Then I bring down the horizontal blade, which should create the even surface you need to put your grain focuser.

It can depend on which grain focuser you use and on which enlarger. Sometimes you need to push aside a redfilter or filterholder because they're in the way. If all fails you could consider a different lens, like a 60mm instead of a 50mm. If you use an enlarger with automatic focus that can prove to be difficult, non automatic enlargers are easier in that respect

3,5 X 5, is that inches or cm?

Ahh...yes. I see what you are saying. I guess for now with the 4-in-1 I'm not going to be able to do that but with the 4 blade one it will work just fine.

the 3.5 x 5 is in inches. (I hope I got the size right; it's the smallest one in the 4-in-1 easel.)

Hilo · Jan 31, 2016

If you use the 4-in-1 easel to make it easy to do more than one exposure on a larger paper, you can also consider this: For a horizontal image use 13X18 or 18X24 cm paper and place it vertically in your normal easel. Set it so that the image gets placed on top of the paper. After one exposure (the right one) just turn around the paper and do a second exposure . . . you will end up with two prints from one sheet . . .

ps: with that small size it is doable to just focus on eyesight ! Just check the print once fixed . ..

rpavich · Jan 31, 2016

Hilo said:
If you use the 4-in-1 easel to make it easy to do more than one exposure on a larger paper, you can also consider this: For a horizontal image use 13X18 or 18X24 cm paper and place it vertically in your normal easel. Set it so that the image gets placed on top of the paper. After one exposure (the right one) just turn around the paper and do a second exposure . . . you will end up with two prints from one sheet . . .

ps: with that small size it is doable to just focus on eyesight ! Just check the print once fixed . ..

I'm struggling to understand what you are saying. Can you elaborate?

Doesn't the "other" part of the paper get fogged while I expose the first part?

Hilo · Jan 31, 2016

Ah sorry, you need to cover that with a stiff black carton taped to the easel !

Newt_on_Swings · Jan 31, 2016

If you grain finder is too tall, you can also use just a plain magnifying glass looking at the paper. Put in a sheet of white paper and focus using the magnifying glass for fine focusing. Look for areas of high contrast or edges of objects to help you. You can also stop down the lens a bit as well. Smaller prints will seem sharper anyway.

Patrick Robert James · Jan 31, 2016

Use a longer lens if you have one. If you don't, consider buying one if you are going to be doing a lot of small prints. With an 80mm you won't have any problem getting the grain magnifier under the lens. Unless you have a super basic 35mm only enlarger there should be enough bellows draw.

MattKing · Jan 31, 2016

Those cheap "reading glasses" with high magnification do a good job replacing a grain magnifier when your prints are that small.

rpavich · Feb 1, 2016

Thanks for the tips guys...much appreciated.

ac12 · Feb 3, 2016

At that size, a magnifying glass should be enough.
But just working with a small print, I would use a longer lens, to get the enlarger head higher, so that I have more room to open the easel.

rpavich · Feb 3, 2016

ac12 said:
At that size, a magnifying glass should be enough.
But just working with a small print, I would use a longer lens, to get the enlarger head higher, so that I have more room to open the easel.

After doing it a few times I see that it's a pain because the enlarger head is so far down. I have my eye on an El-Nikkor f/5.6 80mm lens from ebay. That should help raise things up when doing small prints.

bence8810 · Feb 3, 2016

I use an EL Nikkor 75mm f4 lens for all small prints up to 8x10. Great to have room for the hands to do dodging and burning.
Ben

paul ron · Feb 4, 2016

mmmm what did we do before becoming grain focus junkies?

ic-racer · Feb 4, 2016

paul ron said:
mmmm what did we do before becoming grain focus junkies?

Same thing we did before rangefinders were available when taking pictures

For the original poster, try a longer focal length lens. That will increase the lens to paper distance for the same magnification.

mdarnton · Feb 4, 2016

Another tip for tiny prints: it's easier to focus by moving the enlarger up and down, rather than the lens, if your enlarger has a crank for that.

ac12 · Feb 10, 2016

paul ron said:
mmmm what did we do before becoming grain focus junkies?

When I was younger, and my eyes better, it was not a problem focusing by eye.
Open the lens wide open, focus, close the lens down to desired aperture, expose paper.

Today, I would use a grain focuser, as I now have senior citizen eyes.

David Lyga · Mar 15, 2016

rpavich: I do not use a dedicated grain focuser. I have a magnifying glass that I put next to my eye and put my head down into the image. It works fabulously. - David Lyga

Luis-F-S · Mar 15, 2016

Patrick Robert James said:
Use a longer lens if you have one. If you don't, consider buying one if you are going to be doing a lot of small prints. With an 80mm you won't have any problem getting the grain magnifier under the lens. Unless you have a super basic 35mm only enlarger there should be enough bellows draw.

+1

miha · Mar 15, 2016

You need no grain focuser at that size. DoF will take care of the possible focus error.

Dumb question: When making 3.5 x 5 prints, how do you get the grain focuser in there?

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