Am I correct in my experience that when I enlarge I cannot fit the whole of a 35mm negative on an 8x10 sheet of paper? If I am not correct, what am I doing wrong? Thanks. SMM

-- Shelagh Mathers (smathers@sympatico.ca), January 25, 2001

Answers

What enlarging lens are you using? It should go with a standard 50mm lens.

-- Marc Leest (mmm@n2photography.com), January 25, 2001.

The proportions are wrong to get an even border on 8x10 paper from a 35mm neg. You can either crop the neg or adjust the width of the enlargement to give the full widt of the neg and then mask the top and bottom border. This is easy with an adjustable blade easel but you must rig some sort of mask for a single size easel. I believe there is a "speed easel" that is made with borders that mask for a 35mm full frame image as well.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), January 25, 2001.

The aspect ratio of 35 mm is 2 : 3 whereas it's 4 : 5 for an 8x10 sheet. That about says it all. Either loose about 1 1/4 inches of paper by using the 10 inches, or loose about 2 inches of magnified negative by using the 8 inches. (You may, of course, cut off the 1 1/4 inches of paper before enlarging, and use them for test strips.)

Regards, Thomas Wollstein

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), January 26, 2001.

Or, buy your printing paper in A4 size, which more closely matches the 35mm frame proportions.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), January 26, 2001.