Keeping it flat

Glass carriers are the way.

Then align your enlarger.

Depth of field will easily cover any slight waviness of the paper in the easel.

Flat negatives in the enlarger begins with storing them in a way that always keeps them flat. For decades I used Print File Archival Preservers style 35-7A 35mm negative wallets. These apparently are now discontinued. Unlike flat sheet negative files, the wallets, when folded, kept the negatives alternately emulsion up and emulsion down. This counteracted the natural tendency of the film to curl. Flat file sheets could be alternately stored alternately emulsion up and emulsion down to accomplish the same. They could also be zig-zag folded to duplicate the advantage of the negative wallet. Whichever method one uses, the negative files are best stored under moderate pressure for optimum negative flatness.

Sirius Glass said:

The blades of an easel should be able to hold the edges down of double weight fiber paper.

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Especially since FB paper bows inwards and the edges that would curl up are held down by the blades.

As certain b&w FB papers get older they can gain a stubborn curl. What is really nice is the current Fuji RA4 color papers which lie especially flat on their own. But I have a vacuum draw-down option on several of my easels, just in case.

Per film. Plastic Printfiles and smooth sleeves have certain serious risks. The emulsion can ferrotypes under too much pressure and end up with permanent (!!) Newton rings on the film itself. Condensation can get trapped if the storage environment is humid, and induce mold and mildew. I've seen entire pro film collections ruined that way. Of course, in the bad old day, sleeves and photo albums were made of clear PVC vinyl plastic, which chemically ruined many pictures due to its outgassing.

Then you have the distinction between Polyester/Estar/PET film base, which is highly stable, and acetate film base which is not, and shrinks over time, warps more easily etc.

DREW WILEY said:

As certain b&w FB papers get older they can gain a stubborn curl. What is really nice is the current Fuji RA4 color papers which lie especially flat on their own. But I have a vacuum draw-down option on several of my easels, just in case.

Per film. Plastic Printfiles and smooth sleeves have certain serious risks. The emulsion can ferrotypes under too much pressure and end up with permanent (!!) Newton rings on the film itself. Condensation can get trapped if the storage environment is humid, and induce mold and mildew. I've seen entire pro film collections ruined that way. Of course, in the bad old day, sleeves and photo albums were made of clear PVC vinyl plastic, which chemically ruined many pictures due to its outgassing.

Then you have the distinction between Polyester/Estar/PET film base, which is highly stable, and acetate film base which is not, and shrinks over time, warps more easily etc.

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I last used ferrotype when I was in high school and when it worked correctly it worked and provided a better glossy surface than drying books or screens. When I started up again, I bought a drum dryer and never thought about ferrotyping again.

Well, deliberate ferrotyping of paper is a whole different subject than accidental unwanted ferrotyping of film, creating inconsistent sheen on that. When my older brother was in the Photo academy, they'd hot drum ferrotype smaller dye transfer print, and wow, did those look good. Don't know if that extra heat was bad for the dyes or not. Didn't matter ... What prematurely ruined his DT work was the damned vinyl album sleeves of that era. I'm more of the Cibachrome generation, so high gloss came automatically.

Sirius Glass said:

The blades of an easel should be able to hold the edges down of double weight fiber paper.

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I agree. I upgraded from an LPL with blades that weren’t at right angles, to a Beard. I was disappointed that the magnet proved necessary. But hey-ho, all my photographic kit is imperfect in one way or another. I just correct what I can.

The blades on the classic Saunders Pro easels are easily re-squared if needed. But anything larger than 20X24, and my adjustably bladed easels are made in-house.

Jim Jones said:

Flat negatives in the enlarger begins with storing them in a way that always keeps them flat. For decades I used Print File Archival Preservers style 35-7A 35mm negative wallets. These apparently are now discontinued. Unlike flat sheet negative files, the wallets, when folded, kept the negatives alternately emulsion up and emulsion down. This counteracted the natural tendency of the film to curl. Flat file sheets could be alternately stored alternately emulsion up and emulsion down to accomplish the same. They could also be zig-zag folded to duplicate the advantage of the negative wallet. Whichever method one uses, the negative files are best stored under moderate pressure for optimum negative flatness.

Click to expand...

This technique can also be used to flatten bendy printing paper by restoring them in the box emulsion to emulsion and back to back.

Emulsion to emulsion never a good idea for long. There are way better ways to flatten paper.

DREW WILEY said:

Emulsion to emulsion never a good idea for long. There are way better ways to flatten paper.

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Like what?

Sometimes emulsion to emulsion gets stuck together, especially if the prints aren't totally dry or the storage box gets place in a humid closet etc. I just flatten the prints under a big thick plate of glass, the same one I use in relation to drymounting. Then they go into stacked storage, either dry-mounted or not, all of them face up.

Simply place a strong magnet, or three, on top of each easel blade, like Saunders, to keep the paper flat.

Likewise, using a thin anti-Newton pane of glass and a flat mild steel base, or a double thick easel base made of cabinet grade plywood, joined flat with glue, use some carefully marked Forster bits to make a series of holes the same size as a round, rare earth magnet, and hot glueing these in place (clean with alcohol to remove skin oils,etc) and once finished, with all magnets level, square to the top plain, make a temple of metal, cardstock, wallboard, etc, that has each magnet hole located in place, when lined up with the glass, covering the double weight paper, so additional strong magnets can keep it all aligned and flat in a single plain.

If you can afford it, the magnets touching glass, should have a coat or two of clear rubberized "Flexi-seal" spray, both sides, so they do no scratch, marr the glass nore have a hard metal to to glass impact when gently placing them at their stations.

I have some small, black painted wood bars with small embedded rare earth magnets that I use to use on a steel metal easel, without blades, to hold FB papers flat and give the negative image a border.

They can also hold notes on a steel wipe away ink board, above my sink, which is handy at times.

A last, simple solution is getting some granet store (no Home Depot or Lowe's) 3 CM thick sink cutouts from past jobs and cut, edge and polish them to fit one inside each of the enlarging papers or their boxes, in their various sizes.

Up to 16"x 20", you should be able to manage them OK, depending on your physical conditioning and use them as weights to flatten your printing papers a few days before exposing them.

After the prints have dried completely in a few days, you can again use them to flatten them as well, but use thick glassing papers between each finished print, just in case the papers are no yet dry enough, to prevent lifting the emulsion.

Cheers,
Eli

ic-racer does a great job in illustrating the point about the lack of necessity of keeping paper absolutely flat in the easel, with his post about corrections performed using an enlarger...


Note the 3rd photo in the opening post.