How to Enlarge Film

Enlarger lense

Enlarging film is a process that learned once, applies to all sizes and kinds of film with very little variation. While there are different enlargers available, once you choose one, they all work very similarly. Read on to learn more about how to enlarge film.

Things You'll Need

• Safe light
• Enlarger
• Timer
• Lens specific for film
• Film holder
• Filters (variable contrast for black and white)
• Compressed air
• Cotton gloves
• Grain focuser
• Paper easel
• RC paper (black and white)

Instructions

1. Understand that when it comes to loading the film, this can be done in regular room light. Choose the negative you want to enlarge, place it in the film holder. Use the canned air to remove lint from the lens.

2. Placing the film holder into the enlarger, close the enlarger onto the film holder. Open the enlarger lens as large as possible for focusing. This will be the smallest f-stop on the lens.

3. Turning the timer on, the enlarger will project the image. Place the paper easel in the appropriate location. Using the grain focuser to view the image, adjust the enlarger until you can see the grain of the film. It will look like small granules or similar to sand.

4. Turn off the enlarger. Stop down the lens to an f-stop in the middle of the lenses range. You may want to dust the lens with your canned air. Turn off the white light in the room and from this point forward, you will need to work under safe light, which is usually red.

5. Remove a sheet of photographic paper and place it in the easel emulsion side up. The paper will tend to curl away from the emulsion. Some black and white photo paper prints a faint pattern on the back of the paper and you can look for that to determine the back of the paper. At this point you may want to use your canned air to remove lint from the photo paper.

6. Exposing the print, turn on the enlarger to the determined amount of time from your test strip. After the exposure, the print is ready to develop. You can do that now, or place the exposed paper in a light safe box or bag and develop all your prints at once.

Tips & Warnings

• You may want to read further on the topics of using filters as well as how to create a test strip.

• This basic outline of the process will get you on your way to printing photographs. There is a lot to learn about the photographic process and a little finesse.

• Having good vision, patients and an eye for details along with a bit of the cleanliness bug will serve you well while working with photography.