Lloyd Godman - photographic dodging and burning in

Lloyd Godman - Resource - Index - black & white photographic enlarging - Archival processing, Toning -

Paper Exposure

Making Test prints to establish the correct exposure

Test Strips
Through making test strips we learn that there is a choice of where we place the tonal values in different areas of the print. We might have done a test strip in exposures of 5 sec's from 5 to 35 seconds.

We could expose the whole print for one time, say 20 seconds.

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Dodging
We select the appropriate density from the test strip and expose the print for this time. When we look at the negative we discover there is far more information then we are able to reproduce on the print from a single exposure.

But we can also expose various parts of the image for different times through what is called dodging and burning in to produce a more balance tonal range or revel visual information that would other wise not show in the print. Dodging is a technique where the light reaching an area of the print during the main exposure is stopped and is generally used to equalize shadow areas that contain detail with the mid tones.
Remember light darkens silver.

We can see this in the adjacent image from the Homage to Baxter work.

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In most scenes we shoot the sky is usually over exposed and prints through a single exposure as too light with no or little texture and detail in the clouds.

In this example the sky has been burnt in for a longer period of time to gain texture.

Anything that blocks the light can be used for dodging so long as it simulates the shape of the area to be dodged. Many Photographers use the shape of their hands for dodging as they can be manipulated into a wide range of shapes and even altered during the exposure so that areas within the dodge zone get slightly different exposures. Black cotton gloves work very well. For some areas it may be impossible to for the desired shape with your hands and you might need to cut a dodge mask out of card. Place a few books or another object on the easel so that it allows you to place the card about a third of the distance between the easel and the enlarger lens. When the image is projected down, it will produce a smaller image of exactly the same shape as the area that the mask needs to be cut for. Draw around the area to be dodged and cut it out. Usually these dodge masks have to be attached to a thin wire for use.

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