Enlarger

Overview

An enlarger is a camera run backwards. Light passes through the negative, through a lens, and onto paper on a baseboard. Moving the head up magnifies; moving the lens focuses; the aperture and the timer control how much light reaches the paper.

The two lighting systems behave differently. Condenser enlargers pass light through condensers that focus it through the negative — sharp, contrasty, and unforgiving of dust and scratches. Diffusion enlargers scatter the light through an opal or mixing box — softer, with less contrast, and far more tolerant of a less-than-perfect negative. Most people find diffusion easier to live with.

Alignment is the thing that quietly ruins prints. If the negative stage, the lens board and the baseboard are not parallel, one side of the print will be sharp and the other soft, and no amount of stopping down will fully fix it.

What it does well

• Projects any negative to any size within the column height
• Condenser heads give maximum contrast and sharpness
• Diffusion heads hide dust and scratches and print more gently
• Dichroic colour heads give continuously variable contrast on VC paper
• A properly aligned enlarger is the single biggest print-quality win

Safety notes

Working notes

• Align the enlarger with a spirit level on the baseboard, the negative stage and the lens board before you print anything serious.
• Stop down two stops from wide open for the sharpest result — usually f/8 or f/11 on a 50 mm lens.
• Use a glassless negative carrier if you can; glass adds two more dust-catching surfaces.
• Keep a focus finder on the baseboard. Focus on the grain, not on the image.

Compatible with