>>3514270Thanks anon. I agree about the headroom too. Without the border there is enough space, but pretty sure tonight I'll re-frame by moving down and to the left.
>>3514270>>3514273As for the black border I''m still refining this myself. Currently I use a 4" x 6" piece of photo paper which has been trimmed by about 2mm on each side. I then wrapped the paper with tinfoil to make a light tight mask, and then taped the foil down on the back.
I have some tape on my baseboard which I use to register the print in the right location for exposure. I then place the mask over the print and judge by eye the border. I then put a glass plate on top to keep everything flat and tightly against each other.
I then do a 60 second or so exposure at 2.8 with white light. I find this to give the sharpest edges, but it take a long time and the borders are not consistently max black. I have turned my room lights on in the past, and this gives a quick and deep black but the edges are slightly soft as the light makes it way slightly under the edge of the mask.
The alternative would be to remove the negative carrier with an empty spare and then blast it with white light from the enlarger for 30 seconds. I've tried this but there is too much play with both the negative in the carrier, and the carrier in the enlarger. As a result the image would need to be re-famed each time, which is way, way, way too much effort.
