• Welcome to Photrio!
    Registration is fast and free. Join today to unlock search, see fewer ads, and access all forum features.
    Click here to sign up

No image?

rowghani

Member
Allowing Ads
Joined
Jan 28, 2015
Messages
268
Format
Med. Format RF
I recently bought a beseler 23c and was testing it out today and something weird is happening: after I expose the paper to the image (and I've tried for long times) nothing happens when I put it in the developer, however when I turn the lights on and expose a piece of paper to the light it goes pitch black when developed (as we would expect) so it's not the paper. The light the beseler gives off is red if that has anything to do to it. Thanks in advance for any assistance.
 
get rid of the red filter ... magic is coming your way.
 
hi rowghani

if you haven't done it already, flip up the name plate on tne enlarger head
and see if the former owner left the red filter in there. that might be the reason
your paper is playing hard to get ...

good luck ( and have fun with your new enlarger ! )
john


added 2 seconds later:
bob beat me to it
 
Of course Bob is correct, assuming you understood his response. B&W photo paper does not respond to red light, which is why darkroom safelights are usually red lights. Somewhere in your light path you have a red filter which effectively means no light is reaching your paper. The filter can either be above your negative if the enlarger has a filter drawer (my memory is that the Beseler does), or it can be a swing-out filter below the enlarging lens. Whichever it is, find it and get it out of the way. Then your enlarger will work as expected, and the magic Bob mentions will appear as the image emerges in your developer tray.
 
Yup thought so. Thanks guys and to be honest I almost cried when I got the enlarger. Such a beautiful piece of machinery and cost me less than $100? Something is really wrong with photography.
 
rowghani said:
What is the red filter for?
Click to expand...

I've used it to position a burn tool, and to help re-position an easel that was inadvertently moved.
 
i have used it if i developed a print, then washed it,
put it under the enlarger again and aligned it with the red filter ...
then burned in and re-developed with burned+solarized parts of an image .
without the red filter the image wouldn't have been aligned ... and burning wouldn't have worked
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register