What is a good method of keeping the print paper flat under my enlarger. I dont have a safelight, so I have to do it blind.

Mark

-- Mark Vincent (marcoos74@hotmail.com), November 22, 2001

Answers

Speed easels work well (I believe the actual product name has a tricky spelling but is pronounced speed easel). The paper is slid into twochannels from either end of the easel. The channels hold the paper flat and provide a white border about a quarter inch wide all around. The easels come in various sizes. Or you can use an easel with movable blades that permit making a rectangular image of any size anywhere on the paper. Saunders makes a lot of these. There are borderless easels, too. Or, if you use RC paper, which lies pretty flat all by itself, you can make your own easel by drawingf a rectangle the size of your paper on a sheet of cardboard and pasting a couple of stops on it to position the paper. Using any easel will be easier when you get a safelight.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), November 22, 2001.

I have a Durst Commask that must be a speed easel as described above. It is double sided with one side a 8x10 (with a small border) and the flip side has windows that allow either two 5x8's (with small borders) or four 4x5's. Any easel would make your life easier, just alogn it with the enlarger on, turn it off, get your paper and place in easel and make exposure!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), November 23, 2001.

Mark:

Why not a safelight? Even colour paper can tolerate week one. A simple red 15 Watt bulb for 2 dollars can do the job for B&W.

When I get paper with a curl, I roll it tightly in the opposite direction and that usually keeps it flat for long enough to make the exposure.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 23, 2001.

Hi Mark ... A little bit of double coated tape on the board, one bit for every corner of the paper will do the job. Place the paper and press very easy. You can use a knife or a plastic ruler to remove the paper. /Lars

-- Lars Kristensen (krislars@algonet.se), November 23, 2001.

I thought you might like a laugh so... I use drafting tape. I can't afford a high quality new easel, so I improvise. I also use electrical tape to "frame" in my paper so I know where to tape it! Maybe someday when I hit the lottery I can get some nice equipment instead of my old Nikon N2000!

-- Janet Morley (photojanet2256@cs.com), November 23, 2001.

For years I used a borderless easel that was just a piece of plywood with a strip of wood on two edges. The surface was sprayed with a couple coats of 3M spray adhesive to make it tacky. The paper was located against the two strips, then pressed down. I think there's even a receipe in Anchell's book for sticky easel goo.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), November 23, 2001.