i am new at black and white photography and i have a dark room yet,having a problem.My problem is that i can't get satisfactory images at the stage of paper developing.The colours,especially the black is not exactly the black.What shall i do to get sharp colours?

-- Engin Kwamark (ohas@hotmail.com), April 08, 2000

Answers

Response to having problem with the sharpness

Maybe post exactly what you do to produce a print, including brands of paper and chemicals for us to help you, however...

Probably two different things you need to sort out

1st, to deal with the sharpness aspect, ensure your enlarger is aligned to the baseboard and when making enlargements you're stopping down your lens 2 or 3 stops. Also ensure you've focused accurately and are not knocking the enlarger or bench when exposing the paper.

Once that's done, make sure you can get a full black from your paper/developer combo. Expose a small piece of paper (make sure it's the right way up) to white light (say 10secs with no neg in carrier) and develop for the recommended time. This I think should come out black. If it doesn't, do another but expose for a lot longer. If it still doesn't go black, mix up some more developer, ensuring the correct dilution and redo the test (actually you'd be best to start with new developer) If that's no ok, I don't know what you should try next! However, if it is black then I'd suggest you're not exposing the prints long enough. All enlargers have different light outputs so it's hard to say how long is a representative time/aperture combination

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), April 08, 2000.

Response to having problem with the sharpness

I forgot a basic but overlooked thing.. are you sure the negatives are sharp?

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@eisa.net.au), April 08, 2000.

Response to having problem with the sharpness

Enlargers, such as the Beseler 23C are pretty prone to move a little when free standing. If possible, secure your upright column to the wall.

Also, are you familiar with negative popping due to the heat generated by the enlarger bulb?

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 09, 2000.