Center filter at enlarger

[Neal Shields]

Is there a down side to shooting wide angle with out a center filter and then placeing a center filter on the enlarger?

I am experimenting with makeing panoramas with a 90mm SA on 8x10 negatives. I get a round image but can crop a 3x8+ panorama from it. However in some cases I find that I like the full un-cropped circular image. Dodgeing and burning doesn't seem practical.

It also seems that with one center filter on the enlarger, I could change the strigth of the filter when making contact prints by simply moving the enlarger head up and down???

Thanks Neal

[Bruce Wehman]

Neal,
If you have Photoshop and some transparency material you can make some neat gradations to insert in your enlarger in place of the negative. You’ll need to throw it out of focus to avoid getting an imprint of the ink jet pattern. The radial gradation tool is all you will need.

[Leonard Evens]

Perhaps you should experiment more with burning in the periphery. In my darkroom days, I did that regularly with little difficulty. Use a circular dodge tool centered over the image and move it up and down in a regular pattern.

One problem with doing it in the enlarger is that you still have to expose properly for the edges when taking the picture, just as you would if you were using a center filter on the camera, which means the center will be overexposed. That should not be a problem with a negative film with sufficient latitude.