Beginner's problem when enlarging

Ottl1303 · 2009-08-15T12:05:56+00:00

Hallo Leute, habe vor zwei Monaten mit dem Vergrößern von SW-Bildern begonnen und bin nun (u.a.) auf folgendes Problem gestoßen: nach der Entwicklung zeigt...

Ottl1303

Hi everyone, I started enlarging black-and-white photos two months ago and have now come across the following problem (among others): after development, there’s a more heavily exposed, i.e. blackened, area in the centre of the print. It almost looks as if the wheels have been shaded. It also seems to be slightly more pronounced on the left than on the right... I don’t see any difference with exposure bracketing using different apertures either :lol: I’m using a Kaiser VC 60 black-and-white enlarger with a Nikkor lens. Could you give me a few tips? Thanks in advance! Jürgen

StefanCaspari

Hi everyone, I started enlarging black-and-white images two months ago and have now come across the following problem (among others): after development, a more heavily exposed, i.e. blackened, inner area appears on the paper. It almost looks as if the wheels have been shaded. It also seems to me to be slightly more pronounced on the left than on the right... I don’t see any difference with exposure bracketing using different apertures either :( I’m using a Kaiser VC 60 black-and-white enlarger with a Nikkor lens. Could you give me a few tips? Thanks in advance! Jürgen

Hello Jürgen! It looks like you have an enlarger with condenser lighting. You’ll need to adjust the lighting, i.e. you need to adjust the opal bulb so that the negative is evenly illuminated. The best way to do this is to focus on an area of at least 18x24, then, without the negative and with the aperture closed down, adjust the bulb so that the entire area is evenly lit (it’s best to project onto a sheet of white paper). If you want to be absolutely sure, check every spot on the projection surface with the light meter, or perform an exposure on a sheet of photographic paper to medium grey; this will show you exactly whether everything is uniformly grey or whether you need to make further adjustments. Best regards: Stefan

uworischki

Hello Jürgen, It would be helpful if you could tell us what size negative you’re enlarging and what enlarger lens you’re using. Based on your description, it could also be that the negative isn’t being fully illuminated and you’re experiencing a drop in light towards the edges. I’m not familiar with the VC 60 from Kaiser (I’ve only ever used the 6x9 with a colour head), but it might be worth taking a closer look at the condenser. You can find the user manuals here: http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/de/servic...n/4_3_index.asp Best regards, Uwe

Ottl1303

Hello Jürgen, It would be helpful if you could tell us what size negative you’re enlarging and what enlarger lens you’re using. Based on your description, it could also be that the negative isn’t being fully illuminated and you’re experiencing a drop in light towards the edges. I’m not familiar with the VC 60 from Kaiser (I’ve only ever used the 6x9 with a colour head), but it might be worth taking a closer look at the condenser You can find the user manuals here: http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/de/servic...n/4_3_index.asp Best regards, Uwe

Hello and thanks for now! I’ll try both and post the results. Regards Jürgen

TR

I had this problem once when I was using framed filters that were too small in the filter drawer. The frames were blocking light at the edges. So have a look in the filter drawer too, if your enlarger has one. Regarding the lens/negative size (as has already been mentioned): if you have a 50mm lens and are working with medium-format negatives, it won’t work. Is that perhaps the case? Regards, Thomas