Reads as if you are not letting the negative heat up enough. Keep warming it until the focus is stable, then cap the lens with the light still heating the negative (or swing the red filter in place), place the paper and set the timer. Uncap the lens (or swing the red filter out) and start the timer.
Paper flatness is remarkably irrelevant in making typical enlargements. For example paper can be as much as an inch (!) out of flat when enlarging 35mm to 16x20 and it makes no difference to sharpness. Negative flatness is, on the other hand, super-critical and ic-racer is probably on the money about the negative "popping" in reaction to heat from the enlarger.
Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".
any ideas?
(Not a fix but a different approach).
>The silly paper thickness. Change your paper source. Other manufacturers made papers that simply remain flatter.
>Use your paper. Looks like some papers get worst along the time, so don`t let it grow inside the box (humidity?). Buy smaller batches, better envelops instead of boxes. Keep them flattened under weight.
To have paper perfectly flat, I place a 10mm thick glass on the bed, I spray on it some 3M Re Mount glue. IMHO I gets as flat as if it was in a vacuum table. I used that to test enlarger alignment...Originally Posted by dave4242
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks