Using the Enlarger: Your First Steps in the Dark

When you are ready to make your first print, turn off the lights. Give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the low wattage of the safe lights before beginning.

Enlarging a Print: (Lights OFF)

• Make a Test Strip using the negative you plan on making a full sized print of. Hold your negatives up to the safe light to find the one you want.
• Set the enlarger's timer to expose for the amount of time you thought was best for your  negative in the test strip.
• Focus the picture onto the base of the enlarger.
• Check that all lights (except the safe lights) are off and take a sheet of photographic paper out of the lightproof container. Try to touch the 'shiny' side as little as possible.
• Lay the paper onto the enlarger, making sure it is 'shiny' side up. That is where the light-sensitive chemicals are.
• Open the paper frame on the base of the enlarger and place the paper so the entire sheet will be exposed to light except the small slice covered by the frame.
• Close the frame and check to make sure the paper is aligned with where the light will shine.
• Hit the switch or button on your enlarger that makes the aperture open, exposing the paper to light for the amount of time you had set earlier.

                    You have now made a print!

                But... Don't turn the lights on yet!

The image is still latent (invisible) on the paper, and exposing it to normal light now would ruin it. Chemical baths will make the image appear as well as take away the paper's light sensitivity.

 

 

Fig 2.1 shows a modern enlarger. There are many types of enlarger available so it is hard to give definitive directions on how to use them all. Practicing with your own enlarger with the lights on should make you confident enough to begin making prints in the dark.

Fig 2.1 A Bogen Enlarger

Note: While tedious, making test strips like Fig 2.1 for each frame you plan on making a print of will greatly reduce your wastage of entire sheets of expensive photographic paper.