Image Borders

[jmeyers]

Hi all,
I have a question regarding the borders of an image. This would mostly apply to Black and White photos.
I am aware that we should not have the white highlights of an image set above approximately 240-240-240. Does this apply to the borders as well?
It is my impulse to set the white borders to pure white (255) because on the original print this would have been the pure white of the original paper. Also, it can provide a noticable difference between the border and perhaps a "white" sky, as in my example below.

Here is the original:


And below is my restoration with the border set to pure white:



Thanks.
John

[Mhayes]

Hi John, nice job and I agree with what you have done.  :up:

Margie

[seelcraft]

I have always left the borders at the same white point as the pic (if there is one) because, on the original negative these white points will usually be shiny, silvery black and will block as much light as the mask around the edge.

Besides, a 240 white point will look a little dingy next to a 255 border.

Doug
(former box camera kid)

[MikeG]

I've always felt that the borders should be paper white. You can always select just the image area and adjust the balance to make the sky lighter while still leaving the border alone.

Mike G

[jmeyers]

I went with the pure white borders, which was acceptable to OPR. I personally prefer it that way, so I can see just a slight difference in brightness between the white of the print and the border. But not enough difference as to make it look dirty, which can be a concern.
Thanks for the responses.

[kiska]

Soooo, pure white, 255, is going to be the standard for all whitish borders?

[PhotoBob]

Back in the day when I had brown hair...  I actually had to make prints WITH 1/4" boarders. Here's a link to a sale on ebay of the easel we used to use -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Premier-4-in-1-Enlarging-Easel-w-Magnetic-Latching-Model-ME-41-w-Original-Box-/161239447515?_trksid=p2054897.l4276

It simply makes the boarders by blocking the exposure light to the outside 1/4 inch. Having received no exposure, the paper would develop to paper white (also known as base + fog).  That relates to us in the digital world as "255" - leave it white as the paper!

Bob

[Mhayes]

Very interesting post and I always like to see the reasoning behind the decision. I'm good on the border being 255. One thing to remember is these photos are not a standard size. All of these B/W photos for this family measure 3.5 x 5.75 and when they are printed they will be on a standard 4 x 6 size. The 255 white border will now be larger and seamlessly blend in with the original. At 240 would show the original border and where the white paper of the photo begins. There is something to said for either way, but I think making the border 255 on all of these would be the easiest solution.

One thing I like is that John has thought through about how to have the sky darker than the border.

Margie