Lens question

redbandit · Nov 30, 2022

This is an honest question that has me rather pissed off.

all the books on using an enlarger state the following process to put a negative into a negative carrier

1. open carrier,
2. hold negative up so that you can READ the film information correctly
3. place negative that way into the negative carrier.

Why does the image coming through the lens flip? None of the books i have read have mentioned that at all.

AnselMortensen · Nov 30, 2022

For the same reason that the image on the ground glass of a view camera is upside down...
There's no pentaprism to reverse it, like there is with a 35mm camera.
Put your negative in the other way, and it will look correct on the easel.

redbandit · Dec 1, 2022

AnselMortensen said:
For the same reason that the image on the ground glass of a view camera is upside down...
There's no pentaprism to reverse it, like there is with a 35mm camera.
Put your negative in the other way, and it will look correct on the easel.

thanks for verifying what i thought, enlarging is the reverse of taking a photograph so its only logical that it would flip around in the lens like it does in a camera when you take the shot.

MattKing · Dec 1, 2022

First the lens on your camera inverts and flips the image on to your film - because that is what lenses do.
And then the lens on your enlarger inverts and flips the film image on to your paper, because that is what lenses do.
The net result is that the image on the paper - which has been inverted and then re-inverted, as well as flipped and then re-flipped, ends up being back to how things look in real life.

koraks · Dec 1, 2022

redbandit said:
Why does the image coming through the lens flip?

It's what lenses do. I prefer to load my landscape oriented 35mm negs upside down (still emulsion facing the lens, downward! I'm talking about image orientation only) so that the image projects correctly on the baseboard. It somehow makes printing more intuitive for me, especially when cropping is involved.

Sirius Glass · Dec 1, 2022

koraks said:
It's what lenses do. I prefer to load my landscape oriented 35mm negs upside down (still emulsion facing the lens, downward! I'm talking about image orientation only) so that the image projects correctly on the baseboard. It somehow makes printing more intuitive for me, especially when cropping is involved.

I load all film format with the image upside down so what I am seeing on the easel appears right side up. Plus that keeps the subjects from sliding off the print and hitting their heads.

Lens question

redbandit

AnselMortensen

redbandit

MattKing

Moderator

koraks

Moderator

Sirius Glass

Lens question

redbandit

AnselMortensen

redbandit

MattKing

Moderator

koraks

Moderator

Sirius Glass

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency