Setting up darkroom... New problem... Light Corners

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So far I've pulled the yellow filter out of the cold head enlarger and let her rip in terms of contrast, but now I have a new problem. All 4 corners are light... actually the bottom of the print seems a bit light as well. There are no filters below the lens, which is a bogen 60mm wide angle.

The enlarger is a Durst M-601 modified to take a cold head. Now it was suggested to me that I place the cold head directly on the diffusion material... as close to the neg as possible... could that be the problem? Should I raise the cold head a couple of inches?

What could be causing the corners?

christian

-- Christian Behr (info@christianbehr.com), May 06, 2002

Answers

Light corners = uneven illumination due to light falloff in the corners. Might be a lens problem, but most probably is due to incorrect adjustment of your enlarger and more specifically your enlarger lamp. The user's manual of cold light heads suggest that you place them as close to the negative as possible. Try that and see what happens.

-- George Papantoniou (papanton@hol.gr), May 07, 2002.

I did have the cold head directly on the diffusion plate when I made the prints that had light corners. I'll try it again with the cold head slighly above the plate and hope that works. Anyone else with a Durst M601 with a cold head? I'm printing with 645 negs.

christian

-- Christian Behr (info@christianbehr.com), May 07, 2002.


Your problem is using the wide angle lens! I will work fine for printing the center of the negative but it's seeing past the light source at the corners of the negative. Borrow a 75 or 80mm from soebody and see if that makes a differance. Moving the head CLOSER to the neg also helps. Good luck.

-- Al Kaplan (Preacherpop@aol.com), May 12, 2002.

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