Getting the easel straight on the base board.

[Simonh82]

One thing that has always eluded me is a method for reliably positioning the easel straight on the base board. I print with an LPL/Saunders C7700 and use a basic LPL 12x16 easel. The image is projected onto the middle of the base board and when I position the easel under it, it doesn't line up against any straight edges. I have to use my eye to try to assess when it is square.

This means that even if I position the paper carefully and make sure all my boarders are even, I can still end up with wonky prints, where, for instance, the horizon is misaligned with the boarder.

How do others deal with this issue? Do I just need to improve my eye or is there an obvious trick I'm missing?

I don't see how I could use blocks or other things to help position the easel, as it needs to be able to move freely depending on the enlargement size, crop, etc.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Is your projected image keystoned? If it is, you probably have to align your enlarger.

 

[dasBlute]

I use a small triangle, which I place against the blades [inside, where the paper would sit] and move the easel until I've correctly aligned the
suspect horizontal/vertical elements [with the image projected]
-Tim

 

[polyglot]

Who cares if it's straight on the baseboard? It needs to be straight with respect to your photo. Given that the negative probably has 2 degrees or so of slop when placed in its carrier, the easel could be anywhere. You must eyeball it.

If there's a vertical or horizon I want to preserve, I will sometimes use one of the movable easel blades to line that up. Put the easel in basically the right place, slide the blade across until it is coincident with the reference line in the image, rotate to suit, then slide the blade back to its correct position for the crop you want.

And like Mainecoonemaniac says, your enlarger has to be straight. If you're printing keystoned due to misalignment in the head, you MUST fix that first. Nothing to do with easel placement; it will make your images distorted no matter where you put the easel.

 

[paul_c5x4]

Any number of tricks can be used to square up a print. Insert a sheet of graph paper in the easel and line up the important horizontals or verticals on the grid. Mark out where you want the horizon to be on a sheet of plain paper and use a pen & ruler to draw a line across the full width.

Placing the easel dead square on the baseboard is all well and good, but it places a reliance on the negative also being square. If you pick up a negative that has been shot on the wonk, you are back to square one lining everything up by eye.

 

[tim elder]

I line up the easel so the top of it is basically parallel with the easer, then close the enlarger head and play with the negative carrier until it is in position. I try to remind myself to line the negative up with the easel and not the other way around. It helps if you can reach the light switch so you can turn the room lights on and off quickly and see how you're doing. I don't worry if it's a little off.
-Tim

 

[winger]

With Beseler enlargers, the negative carrier can rotate. I've never had a problem getting edges lined up. I've occasionally been in too much of a hurry and not put the paper in straight, but that's not the same thing. I use a Saunders 4-bladed easel. I do it by eye. I can see a horizon in a shot and make sure it's lined up with the blade on that side fairly easily. When you focus and adjust the easel's position, do you have the lens wide open? That's usually enough to see really well.

 

[ic-racer]

How I do it: With the easel blades already adjusted to the aspect ratio of the negative frame, I shift the easel to align the top and a side blades exactly to the projected frame edge. Then I look at the other two blades. If the magnification is correct I'll have about 1/4" to 1/8" overlap. Then, while watching the overlapped image on the blade, I carefully shift the easel so the projected frame overlap on two blades is one-half what it was. This gives an equal small overlap of the projected frame onto all 4 blades.
This is simpler and easer than trying to center and align all 4 edges.

 

[Simonh82]

Thanks everyone there are lots of good suggestions. I'm sure my projected image isn't keystoned. I think the issue is obvious now that I think about it.

I have, as suggested been trying to line up the edge of the projected image with the easel blades, however I'm using an adjustable carrier and the blades on this may not match the horizontal of the negative. I've been thinking about getting the frame square, rather than the image.

Thanks for pointing out an obvious mistake.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I use the paper slots as a guide to straighten out horizons on my prints. You can also use a sheet of paper with a grid on it when you compose your print. I usually print full frame, so when I shoot, I make sure the image is squared up in the view finder before taking the shot.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

I use a grid type print out that I made from an online graphing paper creation tool. It let's me specific the size of the grid and the ability to add in diagonal lines etc. I just load up the paper type I need for that image into the easel slot and match up the projected image to the printed paper. Easy as pie!