Filing a negative carrier?

M Carter

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My first enlarger was a beseler printmaker 35, uses the same carriers as the 67 series.

When I had some prints I liked enough to frame, I realized the 35 carrier hole wasn't square. (It was a rectangle - I mean square in the carpentry sense, all corners 90°). Ended up having to close-matte everything that I hadn't printed with an easel. Grumble.
 

bence8810

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Hi there,

Just file away a few mm's all around so the negative can still be firmly held. Don't worry about the sides not being 100% straight as you can later frame the borders using your 4 blade easel which I assume you have.

Here's a print I did of my son from 35mm, it's wall projected and 110cm X 80cm in size.

Ben

Here it is wall projected - you can see the borders. I used black tape on the paper to control the borders.



And the final print hanging to dry:

 

Terry Breedlove

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Oh perfect the thank you. That print looks amazing i love it. Yes I have a couple four blade easels to use
 

bence8810

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Terry Breedlove said:
Oh perfect the thank you. That print looks amazing i love it. Yes I have a couple four blade easels to use
Click to expand...

Thanks!

You can control the thickness of the borders with the easel then so you should be good to go. Just file away as much as you think you'll use maximum and then adjust as you go with the blades of the easel. The good thing about a filed away carrier is that you don't have to print with borders, only if you want to. The easel can always hide the borders...

Ben
 

Terry Breedlove

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I am going to get on eBay and find a beat up 6x6 carrier and give it a go when I get back from vacation. I think the square format will be amazing with a rough black border. I have a plan to make triptychs or maybe even four images together. I am mostly thinking about portraits this way.
 

Vaughn

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Ben's image is a great example of the black border working -- not some passe method from the 60s/70s, but a valid use to the balck border.
 

Bill Burk

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Terry Breedlove said:
I am going to get on eBay and find a beat up 6x6 carrier and give it a go when I get back from vacation. I think the square format will be amazing with a rough black border.
Click to expand...

I think it's interesting to look at how Diane Arbus changed her taste in borders over time. Since she worked in square format, it may be relevant to your plans.
 

Terry Breedlove

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Bill Burk said:
I think it's interesting to look at how Diane Arbus changed her taste in borders over time. Since she worked in square format, it may be relevant to your plans.
Click to expand...


Very interesting thank you for the suggestion. I googled her and I wonder how she got these rough borders.
 

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MattKing

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I really enjoy the contribution that unusual borders can make to some photographs.
(full frame Omega D6 35mm carrier but no filing of same):


Some people file carriers to ensure that they can access the entire negative at printing time. That, IMHO, is an entirely valid approach - as long as they are willing to put up with more challenges with curved negatives.
 

williaty

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You can also get that effect by suspending a roughly cut mask somewhat above the print/easel. The closer you are to the easel, the sharper the edge will be and the more clearly it'll show the way you cut the mask. The farther you move the mask up way from the easel, the softer the edge transition and the more it'll even our any roughness in your mask.
 

NedL

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oh yikes. I just got a new glass carrier to print film from this camera, and it didn't occur to me that this could happen.... it should have because I had to cut a new mat board carrier and make a new easel when I first started printing from it... the frames are definitely wider than my other 6x9 folders. I got the glass carrier because the film I've been using lately is curly, but didn't think about the frame size.

Jerry's reply made me laugh. I really liked the black borders when I first started printing again, but I was after a neat thin black line, not to show that I printed the "full frame". Now if I want a black border, I make it by sliding a black cutout rectangle around inside the easel... but tastes change I guess. I haven't done that in a long time and now I like clean crisp white borders.

EDIT: just tried it and it looks like I'll lose 2mm from each end of the frame, and none at all from the top and bottom. I'm pretty sure that when I cut my matboard carrier, I used 1.5 mm all the way around, so not really much different. But important to keep in mind when composing the photo. Whew!
 
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Bill Burk

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bence8810 said:
Uneven emulsion on the film around the edges I think...

Ben
Click to expand...

Oh, I could have told you... In the big Diane Arbus book my wife gave me... there is an explanation given by the guy who made prints for an exhibit to go with the book...

He couldn't figure it out either until he found some old ratty pieces of cardboard taped to her enlarger.

They were strips of cheap cardboard something like you would get from breaking down the sides of paper boxes.
 

NedL

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I don't know if you care or not, but on 120 film the edge markings can be quite close to the image. You might take a look at your negatives and see how close they are... your borders might show "TX400" or whatever...
 

williaty

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Oh cool, that's confirmation of what I suggested might be the case (raggedly cut mask above the easel). It's definitely a nice look.
 

Valerie

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Terry Breedlove said:
I was thinking about doing this very thing. How did it work out for you ?
Click to expand...
It worked exceedingly well for what I wanted to achieve. The key was to file a little at a time, try it out on a print, and file a little more if needed.
 
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