If you can download Ctein's Post Exposure (free pdf when last I looked) you'll learn more than you need to know about some of the finer points.
I think that that's the major point covered. If you have to reach up to the lens height when making a large enlargement with your eye on a focusing magnifier, you'll realise how useful the design of De Vere enlargers is in practice, with a focusing wheel at the baseboard, or the Durst method of an attachment to turn the focusing wheel from a distance. The downside is making sure that everything is perfectly parallel when you need it to be so.Įase of focusing when the enlarger is at the top of the column is useful. This leads to depth of field issues, and if you can tilt the negative carrier as well, you can avoid the problem (that's more advanced theory etc., but you might as well know why some enlargers have this feature). Other features: tilting the lens board to correct converging verticals. I have Durst and LPL enlargers for which I have condensers and diffusion boxes to handle smaller and large size negatives. I have a Philips enlarger that can take 6x7 negatives, but only have the condensers to print 35mm.
In both cases, different negative sizes call for a matched diffuser or condenser system. If you have an enlarger with a colour head (can dial in different coloured filters for both colour printing and black and white with variable contrast papers) then it will be a diffuser (in the vast majority of cases).Ī condenser enlarger may have a filter drawer to let you use gels as with a colour head, or may require you to mount filters below the lens (flare and sharpness issues).
The big choice is:Ĭondenser - higher contrast, greater sharpness, better able to show dust and scratches.ĭiffuser - lower contrast, less sharpness, better at concealing defects. You probably won't find a cold cathode (colour changes as it warms up, matters if printing with colour sensitive paper) so I'll pass over them. Getting even illumination is the key and enlargers come with 3 different types of light source. You shine a light through a negative, pass the image through a lens and focus it on the paper to make the print. I'll come back to that in a few moments.Īn enlarger works like a projector. On enlargers: The maximum negative size is partly a design decision that can't be altered, and partly a configuration issue.
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