The final step in making a photograph takes us back into the darkroom. Light that reflected off of our subject that passed through the lens and onto our film turned the film black. The whiter our object the more light that is reflected causing the film to be very dark. A negative is called a negative because it is the opposite of a positive or real life. What is black on a negative was white in real.
Printing allows the photographer to have one more chance to control what goes onto a print.
The print process allows us to extend this lattitude with additional processing as we convert from a negative to a positive. The enlarger is a projector that will take our negative, shine light through it onto a piece of light sensitive paper. The basic parts of the enlarger are shown here. In our darkroom we have 4 different types and sizes of enlargers. The lamp house holds the special 75 watt light bulb - this bulb has no label on it and is frosted.