Why use an easel?

Susan J. · Jul 10, 2016

It occurred to me during my first print session this morning that the easel was more trouble than it is worth. I shoot square format and will typically be printing 7x7 prints, sometimes larger. I do not wish to have any white borders. It seems easier to focus on the nice white baseboard and then lay the photo paper on it directly. I can always make marks on the baseboard for the size paper I use. Susan

GRHazelton · Jul 10, 2016

Well, unless the paper lies perfectly flat you'll lose sharpness somewhere on the print. There are easels available which don't "leave" white borders, but IIRC they are pretty expensive. If you plan to make square prints you'll have to trim, so why worry about trimming a white border?

removed account4 · Jul 10, 2016

hi susan
i use an easel to know where to put the paper i am going to enlarge on. if you don't use one,
sometimes you put the paper in the wrong place . don't forget to take a scrap of paper the same
thickness as your print will be to focus on or your prints might be a smidgen out of focus.

have fun!
john

Susan J. · Jul 10, 2016

jnanian said:
hi susan
i use an easel to know where to put the paper i am going to enlarge on. if you don't use one,
sometimes you put the paper in the wrong place . don't forget to take a scrap of paper the same
thickness as your print will be to focus on or your prints might be a smidgen out of focus.

have fun!
john

I think I will mark the baseboard for exact placement. The type of easel I have does not make my paper lie flat anyway. I figured it would be easy to use blue tac material or something weighty on the edges for flatness.

tedr1 · Jul 10, 2016

So the paper location can be set once and repeated exactly
so the paper doesn't get accidentally nudged out of position

for simple inexpensive "easels" check out ebay "speed-easel" the paper slides in from the end (not square and with borders)

Chan Tran · Jul 10, 2016

I used to print RA-4 and almost never B&W so I have to put my paper on the easel in complete darkness. I can't do it without an easel. I had the Saunder's 11x14 borderless easel that worked quite well. I gave it away to the guy who bought my enlarger.

grahamp · Jul 10, 2016

RC paper will lie reasonably* flat, but fibre is going to curl. Paterson used to make some L-shaped magnets with curved and ribbed inner edges that allowed for border-less prints using a steel plate. You could also try spraying a marked board (not the enlarger baseboard) with low-tack repositionable adhesive.

The nice thing about a proper 4-blade easel (or a 7x7 cutout in a plate) is that you could position your 7x7 image into the middle of an 8x10 sheet. That gives you a decent border to protect against handling damage and helps with centering in frames.

* What constitutes 'reasonable' is open to debate, of course.

Susan J. · Jul 10, 2016

grahamp said:
RC paper will lie reasonably* flat, but fibre is going to curl. Paterson used to make some L-shaped magnets with curved and ribbed inner edges that allowed for border-less prints using a steel plate. You could also try spraying a marked board (not the enlarger baseboard) with low-tack repositionable adhesive.

The nice thing about a proper 4-blade easel (or a 7x7 cutout in a plate) is that you could position your 7x7 image into the middle of an 8x10 sheet. That gives you a decent border to protect against handling damage and helps with centering in frames.

* What constitutes 'reasonable' is open to debate, of course.

I see your point...I have a Saunders borderless easel now and there is nothing accurate about it, lots of room for error by not being squared up like a 4 blade would be.

removed account4 · Jul 10, 2016

Susan J. said:
I think I will mark the baseboard for exact placement. The type of easel I have does not make my paper lie flat anyway. I figured it would be easy to use blue tac material or something weighty on the edges for flatness.

sounds good !
a big sheet of thick plate glass will help keep things flat

bsdunek · Jul 10, 2016

When I first started printing (about 55 years ago), I just put tape in the enlarger base to locate the paper, and used a good piece of glass to hold the paper flat. Worked fine. I now use a Saunders borderless easel and love it. I do have a strip of blue tape to locate the edge of the paper. Works great.
As far as holding square paper, it will do fine. When I make square prints, I often use the paper as it comes and trim later. Of course, if you trim first, you now have test strips. I usually mat my prints, so exact edges are a moot point. Enjoy!

Doremus Scudder · Jul 10, 2016

You don't want glass between the lens and the image; it will degrade the image quality.

Cheap easels aren't worth the money; I agree, it's better to not use one and just tape the paper to the baseboard or use weights to hold it down.

However, if you ever want to crop, use fiber-base paper, have the ease of not having to align your paper with your registration marks in the dark, not have to throw away prints because you've mispositioned the paper, etc, then get a good easel and use it. A Saunders 4-bladed easel is the way to go. Get one in the largest size you plan to commonly print and you'll be happy for the rest of your printing career.

If you want borderless prints, then get a good paper trimmer (Rotatrim) and trim off the borders (which is what I do before dry-mounting).

Best,

Doremus

Jim Jones · Jul 10, 2016

Susan, if you can find a suitable thin flat sheet of iron, you can make a borderless easel that will function almost as well as many that cost much more. This may matter more to us cheapskates than to Hasselblad and Rollie owners. Flexible magnetic strips with the magnetic edge slightly beveled should hold the paper flat. If the iron sheet is light weight, bonding it to plywood for more weight saves potential problems with accidently shifting the easel. Fixed guides along two adjacent edges of the image area may work better than the magnetic strips. The surface of the easel is best painted yellow, not white, to prevent light from reflecting back through the paper and degrading the image. In graphic arts, we used single edge razor blades extensively. For prints that have a white border to be trimmed off, a razor blade and straight edge can be more precise than any trimmer I've seen. If you worry about placing a straight edge on the image, lay a sheet of paper on the photo paper.

ollie owners.

Susan J. · Jul 10, 2016

Jim Jones said:
Susan, if you can find a suitable thin flat sheet of iron, you can make a borderless easel that will function almost as well as many that cost much more. This may matter more to us cheapskates than to Hasselblad and Rollie owners. Flexible magnetic strips with the magnetic edge slightly beveled should hold the paper flat. If the iron sheet is light weight, bonding it to plywood for more weight saves potential problems with accidently shifting the easel. Fixed guides along two adjacent edges of the image area may work better than the magnetic strips. The surface of the easel is best painted yellow, not white, to prevent light from reflecting back through the paper and degrading the image. In graphic arts, we used single edge razor blades extensively. For prints that have a white border to be trimmed off, a razor blade and straight edge can be more precise than any trimmer I've seen. If you worry about placing a straight edge on the image, lay a sheet of paper on the photo paper.

ollie owners.

thank you...and my cameras were acquired carefully and previously enjoyed! I can see that a 4 bladed Saunders easel would be good, but for now would rather save my money and try printing on the baseboard.

Paul Howell · Jul 10, 2016

I print on FB, Salvich SW and double wt graded and Foma VC double wt and Foma VC RC for proofs, I use a inexpensive multi easel for RC proofs and working prints, for final prints I use a vacuum easel for boarderless or a Saunders for 11X14 with boarders. The Saunders needs to be well looked after, does not much to bend the blades out of aliment.

Sirius Glass · Jul 10, 2016

This type of easel makes borderless prints, hold the paper flat, and are not expensive.

removed account4 · Jul 10, 2016

Doremus Scudder said:
You don't want glass between the lens and the image; it will degrade the image quality.

good to know, i have never known/heard about this.
thanks !
john

ps. sorry for the bad advice susan !

John Koehrer · Jul 10, 2016

You can cut a mask to size in rubylith, print on 8X10 paper. Weight the edges anywhere up to the cut edges and use the excess for test strips.

Susan J. · Jul 11, 2016

I went ahead and bought a Saunders 11x14 4 blade easel today on eBay for $136 delivered. I think it will work much better than the borderless one I have. There's no way to flatten the paper with it, nor to keep it squared up. Susan

gone · Jul 11, 2016

I print 16x20, which is much larger than my baseboard, and don't have an easel. I simply take the top off a glass table we have in the house, lay it on the baseboard, and tape the two long edges of my paper to that. Holds everything perfectly flat (or flat enough at f8). DOF will cover most problems w/ a less that perfectly flat piece of paper, as is easy enough to ck yourself.

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 11, 2016

You don't have to use an easel. If you have a filter holder under your enlarger lens, you can position your paper on the baseboard that way. As for getting your paper perfectly flat, it's not necessary if your lens is stopped down enough. I'm sure some will disagree with me.

Doremus Scudder · Jul 11, 2016

jnanian said:
good to know, i have never known/heard about this.
thanks !
john

ps. sorry for the bad advice susan !

Hi John,

Yeah, the problem is that sheets of window glass, etc. are not optical quality; they have small waves and bubbles in them. A filter made of optical glass between the lens and the paper is alright (but many will insist that filters add degradation as well). A sheet of optical glass 11x14 inches is not so easy to come by When contact printing, the glass is above the negative so the problem is smaller. However, a bad piece of glass can even introduce defects into contact prints.

Best,

Doremus

removed account4 · Jul 11, 2016

Doremus Scudder said:
Hi John,

Yeah, the problem is that sheets of window glass, etc. are not optical quality; they have small waves and bubbles in them. A filter made of optical glass between the lens and the paper is alright (but many will insist that filters add degradation as well). A sheet of optical glass 11x14 inches is not so easy to come by When contact printing, the glass is above the negative so the problem is smaller. However, a bad piece of glass can even introduce defects into contact prints.

Best,

Doremus

hi doremus -
i contact print with thick glass, or glass in a contact frame and i from time to time have to "dodge the scratches" i know what you mean !
i am sure degradaton of quality probably helps my photography in the long run, i love shooting through a dirty window after all

thanks again
john

Thomas Bertilsson · Jul 11, 2016

The absolutely best thing you can do is to use a large piece of perfectly flat metal (containing iron) on your enlarger table, and then use magnetic rulers to keep your paper in place. That helps to keep it flat too, and you can turn your enlarger head 90 degrees and project on a wall this too, using the same magnetic rulers to keep the paper in place.

There are actually very few easels that are completely flat, and the ones that are completely flat are expensive.

I use a Saunders 16x20 4-blade easel, because I like having clean white borders on my prints, and I focus a lot more on tonality and mood in my prints than ultimate sharpness corner to corner.
For my use there is nothing better than a 4-blade easel.

Vaughn · Jul 11, 2016

Have fun with your new easel! I found it nice having one less thing to worry about. I used their 16x20 easel. But since a large number of students also used it, I used a triangle and squared all the blades to each other before each printing session (blades taped together for the duration). Putting a piece of graph paper or other cross-lined paper will tell you how square it is, also.

AgX · Jul 11, 2016

GRHazelton said:
Well, unless the paper lies perfectly flat you'll lose sharpness somewhere on the print. There are easels available which don't "leave" white borders, but IIRC they are pretty expensive.

There are/were easels that

-) use a glass pane

-) use a vacuum

-) use wedge-like frames

-) use a sticky surface

The latter can be made makeshift with the appropriate sticky tape or cement.

Why use an easel?

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