DIY easel

[gmed]

Im planning to build single size easels from aluminum for the following size papers, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and 20x24.

Im planning to apply 3/4" border for the 20x24 and 16x20 papers and 1/2" border for 11x14 and 8x10 papers.

It'll be laser cut 1/8" aluminum, then possibly painted vs anodized. the alternative material is 3/16 black matte acrylic.

My question is, are the border sizes ok? Do you think it should be thicker? I plan to print on FB paper only, and plan to have signature on the white border at the bottom, also they won't be dry mounted, but placed on the matting board with corner clips.

The photo below is an example that was built by a fellow photographer.

[jose angel]

Looks great.
I liker the bottom border to be a bit thicker, to hold space for the signature and other writings. I have my "templates" this way, giving a little more emphasis to the writings. So I need to have both landscape and portrait "templates".
Your idea seem great. I prefer it out of aluminum.
The border size seem right to me, but I don't know if you plan to use use a "passepartout". Wooden frames "eat" a bit of the paper, some more than 1/4 of an inch.

[Jim Michael]

Is laser better than waterjet for cutting openings like this? Taking 1 or 1.5 inch from both dimensions results in a small change in the aspect ratio. Might asymmetric borders make more sense?

[ic-racer]

I have fancied the idea of fixed 'blades' like that, but if I look back at my thousands of prints, the borders are never exactly the same. Even in a series of like size and format prints. Why? I frequently make small changes to the borders to crop near the edge of the film. All kinds of stuff exists at the edges, from processing marks to things not visible on the ground glass.

For example, large format photographers know that with small enlargements (say 1.4x from 8x10) moving the lens stage changes the image size as much as moving the head or baseboard. So the idea of cropping out a millimeter or so on a border by changing magnification is a tedious balancing act between image size and focus that can be accomplished in seconds by just moving the blades of a 4 blade easel.

[Jim Jones]

Try painting the system yellow or amber to make the image more visible and to reduce reflections from the baseboard.