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An enlarger is a specialized transparency Image projector used to produce Photography prints from film or glass negatives, or from reversal film.
Prints made with an enlarger are called enlargements. Typically, enlargers are used in a darkroom, an enclosed space from which extraneous light may be excluded; some commercial enlargers have an integral dark box so that they can be used in a light-filled room.
In June 1843, Henry Fox Talbot in his patent for an enlarger for his calotype process which produced a paper negative, mentions that using lenses it is possible to produce a large negative from a smaller one, so having made such enlargements has a priority claim to be the inventor of a system for making an enlarged print from a negative, though it did not go into production and was not practical given the lengthy exposures required. (2025). 9780415972352, Routledge. ISBN 9780415972352 In 1848, Talbot recommended to fellow photographer Thomas Malon the enlarging camera made by Thomas Ross of lens manufacturers Ross, Andrew & Thomas.
The advent of collodion negatives on glass in the 1850s made enlargement more practical. Achille Quinet's invention of 1852 used artificial light, but was inefficient, requiring very extended exposures. David Acheson Woodward's 1857 'solar enlarging camera' addressed that problem by tapping the brightest light-source then available – the Sun – with mirrors and a condenser.
Woodward's 1857 solar enlarging camera was a large instrument operated out-of-doors that could produce life size prints from quarter plate and half plate negatives with an exposure of about forty-five minutes, improved in the 1860s and 1870s with a clockwork heliostat to rotate the mirror in synchronisation with the sun's passage to concentrate its light on the condenser lens, while Désiré van Monckhoven's 1863 patent was for a modification of Woodward's design that had an appearance more like a modern horizontal enlarger.
The instrument was used by significant photographers Disderi and Nadar. By 1890, artificial light sources – gas, petroleum, limelight, magnesium, and electric light bulb – were commonly used in enlargers,C. H. Bothamley (ed.). Ilford Manual of Photography. London, England: Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1891. but even at the turn of the century simple folding daylight enlargers still found a use among amateurs to easily produce prints of a fixed size. Some cameras were made convertible to use in a similar manner.
Fast bromide and chloride printing papers largely superseded Albumen print emulsions in the 1880s.
A point source enlarger is a variation of the condenser enlarger designed to cut light diffusion above the negative. Contrast is enhanced and grain in the resultant print is sharper than with a conventional enlarger, and the transition from light to dark at the edge of the shadow areas is dramatic.
An unfrosted clear lamp with a tiny filament is used without diffusers. As the illuminant is narrow, the lamp must be precisely positioned both vertically and horizontally, because the condensers project only that single small filament rather than light that fills the whole housing. However the lens must be kept at full aperture to avoid projecting an image of the light source restricted to the centre of the baseboard, which will cause vignetting and falloff in the print. Exposure is controlled through duration or using a variable transformer.
A diffusion enlarger's light source is Photon diffusion by translucent glass or plastic, providing even illumination for the film. Diffusion enlargers produce an image of the same contrast as a contact print from the negative.
Cold light or cold cathode enlargers employ diffusion enlarger heads with a coiled Fluorescent lamp tube rather than a conventional light bulb. Their light is blue-rich, in an area of the spectrum to which silver gelatin paper is sensitive, and therefore exposure is shorter compared to other light sources, ideal for making large mural prints which require extended exposure, and heat is reduced which is beneficial in avoiding buckling or 'popping' of negatives, and also are Newton's rings' where a glass negative carrier is used. They produce a softer (less contrast) print. Color enlargers typically contain an adjustable filter mechanism – the color head – between the light source and the negative, enabling the user to adjust the amount of cyan, magenta and yellow light reaching the negative to control color balance. Other models have a drawer where cut filters can be inserted into the light path, synthesize colour by additive mixing of light from colored lamps with adjustable intensity or duty cycle, or expose the receiving medium sequentially using red, green and blue light. Such enlargers can also be used with variable-contrast monochrome papers.
Digital enlargers project an image from an LCD screen at the film plane, to produce a photographic enlargement from a digital file.
A horizontal enlarger consists of a trestle, with the head mounted on crossbars between two or more posts for extra stability. A horizontal enlarger structure is used when high quality, large format enlargements are required such as when photographs are taken from aircraft for mapping and taxation purposes.
The parts of the enlarger include baseboard, enlarger head, elevation knob, filter holder, negative carrier, glass plate, focus knob, girder scale, timer, bellows, and housing lift.
An easel is used to hold the paper perfectly flat. Some easels are designed with adjustable overlapping flat steel "blades" to crop the image on the paper to the desired size while keeping an unexposed white border about the image. Paper is sometimes placed directly on the table or enlarger base, and held down flat with metal strips.
The enlargement is made by first focusing the image with the lamp on, the lens at maximum aperture and the easel empty, usually with the aid of a focus finder. The lamp is turned off, or in some cases, shuttered by a light-tight mechanism.
The image is focused by changing the distance between the lens and the film, achieved by adjusting the length of a light-tight bellows with a geared rack and pinion mechanism.
The lens is set to its working aperture. Enlarging lenses have an optimum range of apertures which yield a sharp image from corner to corner, which is 3 f/ stops smaller than the maximum aperture of the lens. For an enlarging lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8, the optimal aperture would be f/8. The lens is normally set to this aperture and any color filtration dialed in, if making a color print or one on variable-contrast black-and-white paper.
A series of test strips, and/or a stepped series of exposures made on the one sheet of paper, are undertaken to determine ideal exposure, and then contrast or colour filtration. Alternatively a custom incident light meter (densitometer or 'colour-' or 'darkroom analyser') may be used in setting exposure once the degree of enlargement has been decided, and in colour printing may also be used to establish a base neutral filtration from the negative rebate.
The enlarger's lamp or shutter mechanism is controlled either by an electronic timer, or by the operator – who marks time with a clock, metronome or simply by counting seconds – shuttering or turning off the lamp when the exposure is complete. The exposed paper can be processed immediately or placed in a light-tight container for later processing.
Digitally controlled commercial enlargers typically adjust exposure in steps known as ; twelve printer points makes a factor of two change in exposure.
If a greater or lesser enlargement from the same negative is then required, a calculator – analogue, digital or in app format – may be used to quickly extrapolate from the original settings the exposure without the need for labour-intensive re-testing.
Rather than project directly from the film negative to the print paper, a digital image may first be captured from the negative. This allows the operator or computer to quickly determine adjustments to brightness, contrast, clipping, and other characteristics. The image is then rendered by passing light through the negative and a built-in computer-controlled enlarger optically projects this image to the paper for final exposure.
As a byproduct of the process a compact disc recording may be made of the digital images, although a subsequent print made from these may be inferior to an image made from the negative due to digitization noise and lack of dynamic range which are characteristics of the digitizing process.
For better images, the negatives may be reprinted using the same automated machine under operator selection of the print to be made.
The intended viewing distance for the final product is a consideration. For example, an enlargement from a certain negative as a 12 x 18 cm (approx. 5 by 7 inch) print may be sufficient for a Scrapbooking viewed at 50 cm (20 inches), but insufficiently detailed for an A4 print hung on a hallway wall to be viewed at the same distance, though usable at a larger 120 x 180 cm (ten times larger) on a billboard to be viewed no closer than 5 metres.
Since the inverse square law applies to illumination intensity at increasing distance, enlargement beyond a certain size becomes impractical, requiring extended exposure times and dependent on the extent to which dampening of enlarger supports may eliminate vibration causing blur in the resulting print.
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