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Rafal Lukawiecki
6-Mar-2008, 06:28
I'm looking for suggestions on techniques for printing thin black keylines with a white border/rebate around. I enlarge from 4x5 B&W negs with minor cropping, so filing the neg holder would not work. At the moment I use a piece of black cardboard which is slightly smaller than the image size, center it and weigh it down and flash 1sec with a small torch. What I don't like about this technique is that 70% of the time my keylines are not really centred and the widths tend to vary, no matter how long I spend positioning the cut-out. Is there a cleverer way? Thanks for your wisdom.

Michael Alpert
6-Mar-2008, 10:11
I am sure others will have clever ways to do what you want. One approach might be to attach a piece of rectangular ruby-lith or thin cardboard (cut to the exact size of the image you want) to a slightly larger transparent piece of plastic which is cut so that it exactly fits the blades of your easel. (In practice, you would move your easel blades so that they fit exactly around the transparent plastic.) The ruby-lith or cardboard would be attached in the exact center, with even edges all around. If you build this little half-sandwich carefully, you will be able to use your enlarger to expose the edges after you have exposed your image. For crisp edges, attach the cardboard or ruby-lith underneath the transparent plastic.

PViapiano
7-Mar-2008, 01:30
I just tried this as well (black cardstock)...after I positioned it with lights on, I taped it to an easel blade with two pieces of transparent tape to create a hinge. Worked pretty well, but still needs a little work, but for the moment it allowed me to create a nice keyline.

Glenn Thoreson
8-Mar-2008, 12:44
I take a sheet of black poster board and cut it to the size of the paper. I cut out the center to the desired image size. Then, I cut off the center piece, the width of the line you want, on only two sides. One cut off the narrow side and one cut off the long side. To use, place your paper on the easel with the open mask over it. Expose your image. Then, place the center cutout in the mask, holding it to a corner so you can expose two lines. Then, move the cutout diagonally to the other corner and expose the other two lines. It makes perfect, neat black lines every time. I have a set of black plastic masks I bought some years ago to make a 5X7 image on 8X10 paper and 8X10 on 11X14, with key lines. I don't know if these are sold any more. It's easy to make your own.

Robert A. Zeichner
8-Mar-2008, 13:35
There was an easel produced some years ago that was built to do this. It was made by Kostiner and it had the ability to create fine lines around the image as well as black borders. I used to have one, but sold it years ago. I never did try that feature. I have seen these on the used market on rare occasion. The models were EA-21 and EA-16 and they were called masking easels.

Mark_C
10-Mar-2008, 17:26
Hello Rafal and anybody interested in this

How to create a thin keyline for your prints?

- you need to decide if you want the keyline to be with a margin around the image or border (bleed into) the image, in both cases you require very accurate registration and some lithographic film assembly skills (film stripping)

- in both cases you need to contact print (let's call it "double-burn") the keyline from a separate neg, prefferably output from an imagesetter

- you can start by creating the keyline in InDesign or QuarkXpress - apply a 4 point (or bigger) solid black frame to a text box centered on a page half of an inch bigger than your paper - page size -> 11.5'' x 14.5'', frame 10'' x 13'' as an example for the 11'' x 14'' photographic paper; you can create it with whatever proportions and sizes you want, but remember that for each one you will need separate film (and ruby mask as described further)

- take that file (or a pdf output from it) to a film house (or pre-press departement at a printing shop) with an imagesetter and ask them to output for you a neg with a three hole punch and to supply a punched rubylith mask - now you will need pins and a light table, place the neg and the rubylith on pins and cut out the middle part of ruby (with the mylar base) overlapping half way in to the keyline, but do not damage the neg in the process (stripping skills)

- that ruby mask will be needed to mask out what you don't want outside of the keyline, you will need to attach the photographic paper (with some removable tape) to a piece of plywood with smooth surface to which you need to tape pins on which the ruby over the paper will be in position (registration is critical with a thin keyline), you can place blocks of wood or metal rulers on sides of ruby to have it in contact with paper

- after making the exposure with your enlarger remove the ruby and place the neg with keyline and a sheet of glass on top it, expose either with a different light or with your enlarger (without the neg), for that purpose I actually move the plywood with taped paper and neg to my other enlarger for a short exposure let's say 10 seconds (no need to remove the neg you are enlarging)

All that my sound complicated and at first it seems so, you just need to set-up the procedure if you need to make series of prints from the same neg or a whole series of different images

Rafal, if you need more info you can send me a PM offline and I can explain it in more detail

Quality of your keyline will be much higher than with any other method

cheers
- Mark_C

cyrus
10-Mar-2008, 22:06
I use a piece of black cardboard which is slightly smaller than the image size, center it ...

Ah, well that's your problem right there. Centering anything is difficult. You're supposed to NOT center it.

Using an easel, make a regular 8x10 exposure. So far so good.

Now, supposed you want a .25 inch black border.

Cut out a piece of cardboard that is 7.75 inches by 9.75 inches.

Use that cardboard as a mask to cover the exposed print, but do NOT attempt to center it in between the easel blades. Rather, press it up against one of the corners made by the easel blades, and then flash the opposite corner which now has a .25 inch gap showing on two sides. Then, press the cardboard up against the diagonally opposite corner, and now flash the gap on the other two sides. All four sides are now flashed and dark.

(Tip 1: Make sure that you cut out the cardboard with perfectly 90 degree corners and straight edges, using a good trimmer. Even then, some light may still leak through the edge that is pressed up against the easel blade, so cover the seam with something when flashing.)

(Tip 2: to flash the border, don't bother removing the negative from the enlarger to use the enlarger as a light source -- it is a lot easier to flash the border using a small flashlight. That way you don't mess around with the negative or need to refocus for the next print)

(Tip 3: Saunders used to? make a pre-cut non-adjustable easel with the pre-cut center piece that was called the Special Border Salon easel. You might buy one if you don't want to try to cut perfect center pieces yourself -- photo of one here, on the left: http://haircut100.atspace.com/images/group02.jpg

Also, see the Versamask http://www.versamask.de/randtechn.htm
)

PViapiano
11-Mar-2008, 01:52
I take a sheet of black poster board and cut it to the size of the paper. I cut out the center to the desired image size. Then, I cut off the center piece, the width of the line you want, on only two sides. One cut off the narrow side and one cut off the long side. To use, place your paper on the easel with the open mask over it. Expose your image. Then, place the center cutout in the mask, holding it to a corner so you can expose two lines. Then, move the cutout diagonally to the other corner and expose the other two lines. It makes perfect, neat black lines every time. I have a set of black plastic masks I bought some years ago to make a 5X7 image on 8X10 paper and 8X10 on 11X14, with key lines. I don't know if these are sold any more. It's easy to make your own.

Glenn...brilliant!

It's amazing how sometimes the simplest things elude us ;-)

Rafal Lukawiecki
11-Mar-2008, 18:02
Thanks to you all. I found this very useful, though Glenn's technique doesn't work with my easel yet, as the top section has no positive "stop" at paper level. I will need to make a much thicker (1/4 inch or more) card to try that approach again. Cyrus: I am not sure I am that motivated at this stage, but I will have a think about it next time I have volume to print - which may be a long time from now... :-)

The main problem I now have seems not getting any keyline, but getting a perfect one. The eye and the brain are horribly good at spotting a hair's width of an imbalance, especially with thin keylines. So for the time being I am going back to no keylines and to dry-mounting, which kind of solves my original problem of "setting" those of my images which have high value areas close to edges.

Thanks a million!
R.