Practical Cropping in the Darkroom

[Pieter12]

Not wanted to start a discussion about the merits or evils of cropping, I sometimes want to crop an image and do not find the practice of moving (more like wrestling) the easel to do so. Is there a device that would allow me to easily and accurately position the easel under the projected image? Possibly a device driven by screw & gear to move along an X-Y axis.

 

[Bob Carnie]

You are better to move the area of the negative to the center of the lens, bulb easel plane . rather than move the easel. Its difficult but insures sharpness of final image.

 

[Pieter12]

You are better to move the area of the negative to the center of the lens, bulb easel plane . rather than move the easel. Its difficult but insures sharpness of final image.

Sounds good in theory, but seems like it would be even harder to accurately frame and crop the image--I am talking about cropping less than 25% of the negative area, which is about leaves me with a little over 5x5cm for a 6x6 negative. As it is, unless I am making a 16x20" print, I usually use a longer lens than necessary (150mm for 6x6) so think the negative is in the sweet spot regardless.

 

[MattKing]

What type of easel are you struggling with?
What sort of surface is it resting on?

 

[Sirius Glass]

What type of easel are you struggling with?
What sort of surface is it resting on?

I agree. It sounds like an easel problem. I use a four bladed easel and that means that the easel is stationary and the blades move. OR you need a larger enlarger base.

 

[Pieter12]

What type of easel are you struggling with?
What sort of surface is it resting on?

A Beseler 16x20 4-blade on a butcher block table top. The easel is fairly heavy and has rubber feet for stability, but that makes making small, accurate moves difficult. If I use the blades to crop, the margins get uneven. I could always print on larger paper and trim it later, but that seems wasteful and expensive.

 

[Sirius Glass]

OR you could print the full image and then crop with a mat.

 

[Pieter12]

OR you could print the full image and then crop with a mat.

C'mon. If I took a neg to a commercial darkroom with specific cropping instructions, they must have a method.

 

[eddie]

C'mon. If I took a neg to a commercial darkroom with specific cropping instructions, they must have a method.

When I worked in a commercial lab, we moved the easel. I don't think there's an easier way to accomplish it.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The problem is really about moving the easel. I am close by in Westwood. PM me and I will come over to see if we can figure out a solution.

 

[ic-racer]

I use felt "funiture mover" type pads under my largest easels. Moving the easel is essential in my case; with glass carriers the negative is never exactly in the same spot.

My Durst L1840 does give about an inch of negative stage movement but, of course, the axes are reversed from what you see on the easel and the movements are magnified x2. So it is always easier the move the easel unless you are doing something special requiring perfect lens centering.

 

[MattKing]

I work with rubberized kitchen cabinet shelf liner material between my easel and the table beneath.
It comes in rolls and it is inexpensive.
It also is washable.
The material seems to offer the right compromise between ensuring that the easel stays still when I want it to and permitting small easel movements when required.

 

[Pieter12]

The problem is really about moving the easel. I am close by in Westwood. PM me and I will come over to see if we can figure out a solution.

I realize the solution is moving the easel. I am looking for a precise and convenient way to do so. Ideally, a way to easily position the easel then lock it in place. I guess there might not be such a method. I am starting to think I will try to build something with ball bearing shelf glides if I think it will stay parallel with the negative stage.

 

[btaylor]

This all seems pretty complicated. I also have the Beseler 16x20 easel and it is a bit of a monster- not to mention running out of room on the baseboard depending on how you need to crop. I have a set of Speed Ez-els too— are very easy to move around.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Not wanted to start a discussion about the merits or evils of cropping, I sometimes want to crop an image and do not find the practice of moving (more like wrestling) the easel to do so. Is there a device that would allow me to easily and accurately position the easel under the projected image? Possibly a device driven by screw & gear to move along an X-Y axis.

sounds a bit OTT

 

[tedr1]

Mechanical slides and screw motions might be possible, a lot of work, and it may be one of those cases of the devil being in the details, screw motion is too slow for experimenting with different crops, some sort of quick-slide option might be needed. Slides need locks, after a while releasing the locks and resetting them every time may become tiresome.

Easel location is one of those things that doesn't have a perfect solution just a set of compromises that folk can choose from. I agree with Matt, an easel needs to slide when you need to adjust the cropping and remain steady when you load the paper. From the OP description it sounds as if the stock Beseler easel has "non-optimum" feet for its weight. I recommend trials with different feet (from the hardware store) and perhaps also a different base material that supports the easel. My experience is that there is a fine line between "pig to move" and "woops I nudged it" and we want to find that friction value that meets both needs at the same time. With my set up I like to have things slightly on the slippery side and then I am extremely careful about inserting the paper without nudging the easel.

 

[removed account4]

there are 2 ways a commercial lab would do it
1 like bob carnie suggested ( he runs a commerical lab )
and
2 like eddie suggested ( he worked in a commercial lab )
or a combination of both
there really is no other way to do it.
i move the negative ..
i guess for some reason you don't want to do that
if you need a bigger baseboard becasue your easel won't go that far without falling off the
baseboard you have ... get a sheet of plywood or something big and flat and put your easel on that.
not sure what enlarger you have, some enlargers don't like that ( omega d3v or similar auto focus )

have fun !

 

[Bob Carnie]

I use oversized glass carriers and moving the neg into the middle sweet spot is easy , I never move the easel, have had all kinds of issues with this approach..

 

[Arklatexian]

A Beseler 16x20 4-blade on a butcher block table top. The easel is fairly heavy and has rubber feet for stability, but that makes making small, accurate moves difficult. If I use the blades to crop, the margins get uneven. I could always print on larger paper and trim it later, but that seems wasteful and expensive.[/QUO

This all seems pretty complicated. I also have the Beseler 16x20 easel and it is a bit of a monster- not to mention running out of room on the baseboard depending on how you need to crop. I have a set of Speed Ez-els too— are very easy to move around.

I think you have come up with the "practical" answer. Unless the cropped area to be enlarged is going to be 16 x 20, a 16 x 20 easel is an example of "over-kill". If the final print will be no larger than 11 x 14, then an easel, no larger than that is needed. The smaller easel would work for 8x10, 5x7, also with less problems than a person encounters with the monster. In my darkroom are several easels for smaller than 11 x 14, one for 11 x 14 borderless (can be used for smaller borderless formats also) and one borderless 16 x 20 (used 3 times in 30 years, I think). This is a time when "Big is not better".........Regards!

 

[silveror0]

I realize the solution is moving the easel. I am looking for a precise and convenient way to do so. Ideally, a way to easily position the easel then lock it in place. I guess there might not be such a method. I am starting to think I will try to build something with ball bearing shelf glides if I think it will stay parallel with the negative stage.

I used to have a Leitz Focomat 1c enlarger that had a mechanism on the baseboard that allowed the easel to be easily and quickly moved around on the baseboard and then lock it to the baseboard in the desired location. Both the baseboard and easel were varnished wood for easy sliding one on the other. The locking mechanism was on the underside of the baseboard and had a specially configured T-shaped pin (the top of the T was a dovetail-shaped bar) that came up through a slot in the baseboard and engaged the easel in a matching dovetail slot (that had a metal dovetail liner to minimize wear). When the easel was in the desired location on the baseboard the locking mechanism pulled the easel downward to squeeze it against the baseboard and hold the two together via friction. Hard to describe in words; See the link to the enlarger's instruction manual below that shows the assembly of the locking mechanism on pp.3 & 4 if that helps. To totally understand the details of the concept you may be able to acquire a used baseboard with the mechanism attached and an easel to go with it. My easel was 8x10, but I'm not aware of a larger version ever being available.

http://www.jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll/manuals/enlargers/misc/Leitz_1C_manual.pdf

 

[Sirius Glass]

Use a 4"x5" glass carrier and move the negative.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Use a 4"x5" glass carrier and move the negative.

Dude

 

[David Brown]

I do not wish to even imply that the OP is not having a problem, and I certainly bow to Mr Carnie’s extensive experience in this matter.

However. I have been printing for 49 years, with everything from “toy” Testrite and Lucky enlargers up through big Beselers, Dursts, and Omegas. Most baseboards are a type of formica or melamine material that is fairly smooth. I’ve also used varnished wood countertops with enlargers mounted to the wall. Easels have been SpeedEzels of all sizes and 2 and 4 bladers up through 16 x 20.

I have never encountered the OP’s problem. I crop almost everything to some extent. A negative rarely (if ever) fits the exact aspect ratio of the paper and/or the print size I’m making, and I do not print the rebates. Also, after removing one negative and placing another in the same negative carrier, and then placing the carrier back into the enlarger, it is never in the exact same spot. There always has to be some incremental moving of the easel. Sometimes the horizon needs to be “leveled” a degree or two. Etc.

I suspect that the “butcher block” of the OP is maybe just a bit too rough for his easel to move easily. And/or, the feet or backing on the easel is the wrong material. In any event, I don’t think a mechanism that moves on only two axis (and I gather this is what the OP is considering) will solve the problem. Again, minute variations in where the negative is placed in the carrier and where the carrier seats in the enlarger would require moving the easel not only left to right and up and down, but also rotated clockwise or counter clockwise.

I recommend changing the interaction between the easel and the baseboard surface before attempting to construct some mechanical means to move the easel. Sometimes the simplest approach is the best.

 

[silveror0]

I didn't mention in my post above that my Leitz system did allow for limited x-movement and limited y-movement but also 360* rotation, and i never came close to exceeding those limits. True, it's important that the easel needs to slide easily on the baseboard.

 

[Pieter12]

I do not wish to even imply that the OP is not having a problem, and I certainly bow to Mr Carnie’s extensive experience in this matter.

However. I have been printing for 49 years, with everything from “toy” Testrite and Lucky enlargers up through big Beselers, Dursts, and Omegas. Most baseboards are a type of formica or melamine material that is fairly smooth. I’ve also used varnished wood countertops with enlargers mounted to the wall. Easels have been SpeedEzels of all sizes and 2 and 4 bladers up through 16 x 20.

I have never encountered the OP’s problem. I crop almost everything to some extent. A negative rarely (if ever) fits the exact aspect ratio of the paper and/or the print size I’m making, and I do not print the rebates. Also, after removing one negative and placing another in the same negative carrier, and then placing the carrier back into the enlarger, it is never in the exact same spot. There always has to be some incremental moving of the easel. Sometimes the horizon needs to be “leveled” a degree or two. Etc.

I suspect that the “butcher block” of the OP is maybe just a bit too rough for his easel to move easily. And/or, the feet or backing on the easel is the wrong material. In any event, I don’t think a mechanism that moves on only two axis (and I gather this is what the OP is considering) will solve the problem. Again, minute variations in where the negative is placed in the carrier and where the carrier seats in the enlarger would require moving the easel not only left to right and up and down, but also rotated clockwise or counter clockwise.

I recommend changing the interaction between the easel and the baseboard surface before attempting to construct some mechanical means to move the easel. Sometimes the simplest approach is the best.

I found a 16x20 sheet of acrylic that I am going to put on the table top below the easel, and will look for something to replace the cork strips that are on the bottom of the easel right now. (BTW, the Omega D5 allows the negative carrier to be rotated easily enough.)