What's your trick/tip to keep the lines horizontal/vertical?

[Fatih Ayoglu]

So assuming my subject line is not clear, time to time I have difficulty to make sure my horizon line is really horizontal and building are vertical. So what do you do to make sure the lines are correct? How do I make sure my easel is correctly aligned with those lines?

Cheers, Fatih

 

[ic-racer]

I crank the upper blade down to the horizon and adjust the easel. The put the blade back to its original position.

 

[jimjm]

For focusing, I place a sheet of scrapped enlarging paper in the easel, back side up. I usually draw several lines across the paper in both directions and use those to help orient verticals and horzontals in the image.

 

[warden]

I mostly use the Jimjm method but the ic-racer method sounds good too.

 

[BobUK]

Stay teetotal.

 

[PicklesFrog]

i fitted my easel with thin tape in a tic tac toe formation, then i use wooden planks to move my easel from there.

 

[Pieter12]

Graph paper

 

[Sirius Glass]

I crank the upper blade down to the horizon and adjust the easel. The put the blade back to its original position.

I too use the easel blades for horizontal and vertical alignment when needed.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

All of the above are good.

And, your eye is really good at assessing this as well. If a test print looks skewed, then correct. Usually you'll have a couple of chances to get it right before arriving at the right exposure, contrast and manipulation scheme anyway.

Doremus

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Draftsman's triangle, position against the masking blade to the side. I keep one hanging on the wall in the darkroom.

A Local Contractor Reminded Me How Useful Drafting Triangles Could Be

toolguyd.com

But I find my eye's are plenty good enough when making prints. I do, however, have trouble keeping the horizon horizontal when taking slides so my cameras are equiped with gridded screens (Nikon E-Screens).

 

[David Brown]

Graph paper

Me, too. I make my own, with 1/2" squares. But that's the general idea. The paper also serves the purpose of setting the easel blades for various cropping/aspect ratios.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Draw a grid on the easel and line up the negative without paper in the easel first.

 

[Fatih Ayoglu]

Thank you all. Easel blades were my plan to use but then graph paper idea came. I was searching for an adhesive option and then found transfer paper on Amazon, bought a roll and tried. The result is not too bad.