Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:42 AM 7/19/01 -0700, Dave Hillman wrote: >Hi, > >With that for an introduction, my question has to do with cropping. The >guy >at Keeble & Shuchat who sold me the Leica showed me some nice BW prints >from >his trip to Cuba - all of which are full frame. That was Paul Wood. Nice guy. Long time personal friend of mine. >Habitually, do you crop images when printing them? > >Dave Hillman I always make a first print full bleed, that is, the entire image on a piece of 8x10 paper. My negative carrier cut out is 25x37 so I get the whole thing. Obviously blank space top & bottom from landscape perspective. Same with 6x6 (I print an 8x8) and 4x5 (which fits 8x10.) Then I use a cropping tool, which is basically two L's forming an open box in the center. I use this on the print to find the real photograph. I then draw inside the L's, on the print. It is amazing how a mediocre photograph can be turned into a dynamite photograph by cropping off superfluous distracting garbage. I use this marked print to set my easel blades for whatever size print I am making. I have a 16x20 and 20x24 Beseler four blade easels. They have white tape on top of the blades about an quarter of an inch in from the inside edge. This makes it easy to crop as you can see the image that falls outside of the cropped area. The quarter of an inch black square between the white tape and the image portion to be printed easily shows the cropping border. Very long blades like those on 16x20 & 20x24 easels have a little difficulty staying parallel after moving to a new position. This is true on all large easels. These Beseler easels have two little screws on top of each blade that allow quick and easy adjustment of the blades should they become slightly misaligned. This is a nice feature. IMHO, Jim