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John Jarosz
14-Oct-2014, 16:56
This may seem trivial to some but I would like to know what other practitioners do.

Using 8x10 or 11x14 negatives contact printed. When mounting them for display (or portfolio), how do you trim the prints? By that I mean do you trim each print to the SAME exact dimensions, or do you do some miniscule 'cropping' resulting in slightly different sizes of prints?

I find it almost impossible to trim to the same exact dimensions.

john

Vaughn
14-Oct-2014, 17:08
I do not trim them. I either cut a window to show everything but the film rebate -- or also show the rebate. Or sometimes do something completely different

jbenedict
14-Oct-2014, 21:26
This may seem trivial to some but I would like to know what other practitioners do.

Using 8x10 or 11x14 negatives contact printed. When mounting them for display (or portfolio), how do you trim the prints? By that I mean do you trim each print to the SAME exact dimensions, or do you do some miniscule 'cropping' resulting in slightly different sizes of prints?

I find it almost impossible to trim to the same exact dimensions.

I am happy when I can show the entire negative including the notches and the small part that was not covered up by the pieces that holds the film in the holder. There probably is a name for that part but I don't know it. This full use of the film frame is the mark of the contact print in my opinion.

After that, I trim them so they look the best. I frequently determined the final cropping when I made the negative. I only own one lens so sometimes, to get the composition I envisioned, I need to cut the print smaller. I don't have an enlarger so I have to do it that way. It works.

N Dhananjay
14-Oct-2014, 21:44
I use floating window mounts - so the print floats inside the window with about a quarter inch of the mount board showing on the edges of the print (a little more on the bottom) before you reach the beveled edge of the over mat. I like to compose without recourse to cropping later, so I contact print the full negative. However, I do not want to show the rebate etc. because I find it distracts from the dynamics going on in the photograph - this is given the kinds of visual concerns I have, others might choose differently. I use a tacking iron to get a drymount sheet on the back of the print, trim as close as possible to the edge to remove the film holder rebate etc., then tack to the mount board and put the sandwich into a drymount press.

A good paper trimmer like the Rototrim helps a great deal in trimming the print accurately. I cannot imagine getting, nor do I require, greater accuracy. Since the overmat is floating, minute errors in trimming (I'm assuming along the order of fractions of a millimeter) are immaterial as the print floats within the window.

Hope that helps. Cheers, DJ

Oren Grad
14-Oct-2014, 22:01
I don't trim prints. I contact print on a paper size larger than the negative, to allow for safe handling and corner mounting. On those rare occasions when I get around to matting a contact print, I'll choose the size of the mat opening to either show the full picture with border, or else hide just the border, depending what I'm in the mood for.

andreios
15-Oct-2014, 00:20
In my case it depends on the image and how I wish to present it - lately I most often mask the paper prior to sensitizing it in such a way that there is clean edge around the image without brush streaks and without the film rebate showing. then I can allow to cut the mat window larger so that the image "floats" in the opening nicely.

John Jarosz
15-Oct-2014, 05:53
Hmm. I had not thought of printing on paper larger than the neg. Sounds like something to try. Thanks Oren.