Advanced Printing Methods.

(Dodging and Burning)

Dodging and burning are the ways to put right a negative that has been badly exposed or to adjust a print to be lighter or darker in some areas to make it appear as we wish. There are limits to how much we can do this.

Burning-In

If the negative you get when you process the film is very dark (over-exposed) the result of your test strip when you come to print the image will be that parts of the image will appear very white or ‘bleached out’. Do not despair this does not mean you cannot get an acceptable image from the negative. The way you could do this is by burning-in the image, to do this you will need a piece of card (as example overleaf). You can also use your hands.

When you have made a test strip you can see the areas of the print that are too light and need burning-in. You then take the piece of card or your hands, repeat your original exposure to get your black, white and greys and then re-expose the parts that are too white by using the card between the enlarger and the photo paper. The time needed for burning-in varies from print to print, so you may have to do a few test strips to find out this information. When doing the burning-in you must keep the card moving around so it does not leave a shadow of itself. What you have done is add more light (using time) to the final image.

Dodging

If you have the opposite problem and your negative is too light (under-exposed) the final image is too dark in places, you will have to dodge some of the light out, the opposite of burning-in.

To do this you will need a different piece of card, these can very in shape from a strip of card to varied pieces of card stuck onto the end of a piece of wire.

 

With dodging you are holding back some of the light from going onto the photo paper (using time). So you do a test print and the areas that are too dark you hold the card over these areas between the enlarger and the photo paper for some of the time. Again this varies from print to print, so you will need to do a few test strips to find out the times. Remember to keep the card moving.

 

 

Please let me know if anything has not been made clear to you. I’ll do my best to explain more clearly.