What Is a Photographic Enlarger?

Series Summary

Photography is an art of making pictures by exposing film or another medium to a timed flash of light. The basic equipment used for photography includes a digital or mechanical camera equipped with a flash and film or a memory card. Mastering the art of photography is a technical and challenging experience. One has to learn how to focus the lens, control the aperture of the lens, filter the light, the importance of the focal length and the duration of the exposure among other things. In this free video series a professional photographer, Anthony Maddaloni, will show you how to use a photographic enlarger as well as how to set up your own darkroom. Anthony will begin by showing explaining how to set up and use a photographic enlarger. You'll learn about the light source, filters, lenses, chassis, timers, negative carriers, easels and even safelights that are associated with using photographic enlargers. All of these components will help you tweak and enhance your photos in order to produce high quality prints. Later, Anthony will teach you to set up your own darkroom. You'll learn about trays, tongs, ventilation, chemical storage, light proofing and washing. The process of setting up a darkroom can be tricky and tedious, but Anthony will ensure that you not only know how, but that you also understand why these various aspects are important. Watch these videos and start creating your own unique photographic prints today.

Video Transcript

"So, this piece of equipment in front of me is a photographic enlarger. And, this one is a pretty big one. There are ones out there that are much smaller and easily usable. This one is a very professional enlarger. The first part of this enlarger that somebody is going to need to know in order to use it, is opening up the enlarger itself and where you would put your negative carrier to actually project the image. And, there is a handle on the side that opens it up and closes it. And, this is one of, of the actual first things you need to know how to do to use this enlarger. There are so many different enlargers out there that work in different ways, but this is really probably the most common thing that you are going to do. The other thing that is very important when you are doing this is to always close it when you are done. If you do not close it, it will actually warp the enlarger so that it does not project light straight, which is a vital part of making photographic enlargements."