Close F Stop After Refocusing Enlarger

Video Transcript

"And again, back to this print. This horrible print that I had made. One way that you may have made the overexposure mistake in doing this print is your F-stop. Now, just like a camera, this enlarging lens has F-stops. And when I focus or when I re-focus, which I do frequently with these enlargers, I have to remember to close my F-stop down to the point where I made my test print at. And again, I had said I like to make my prints between F-8 and F-11 if I can but when I'm re-focusing, I open it up all the way. And again, if my head ain't in the game that day, I forget to close my F-stop back down. Incredibly common mistake for darkroom technicians to make. But one, if you're just paying attention, you will not make at all. So very easy way to overexpose your image. And again, back to initially why I forgot or why I wanted to open it up was to re-focus. There is nothing worse than printing an image that you actually took in focus when you shot it but when you're printing it, you print it out of focus; two pretty common mistakes right there."