Sometimes I make a bit of dodging or burning board specifically for a print and file it with the negative. In this case, I burned the background about 4 stops with a 5 filter because it was blotchy and uneven.
Sometimes I make a bit of dodging or burning board specifically for a print and file it with the negative. In this case, I burned the background about 4 stops with a 5 filter because it was blotchy and uneven.
I rarely dodged. Instead, for my own weird reasons based on how I saw the imaged-light interacting with the photopaper, I started with a slightly light base exposure that I would burn down to what I wanted...creating forms with the light from the landscape, encouraging the eye to travel this way and that.
The only tool I used was two 12x15 pieces of cardboard covered with the flat black inner bags from Portrigal Rapid paper packages, one with a ~1 inch hole cut in it. Worked together, I could get any size hole I needed. I was printing 16x20, so had plenty of space to work in. I burned in units of the base time (this area gets the timer hit three times with the hole this high up and moved in this pattern, and so forth). Working this closely with big prints was a lot of fun and I could easily spend 12 hours in the darkroom working with one negative and one pack of Portriga Rapid (10 sheets).
This one was way too fun!
Prairie Creek
16x20 print from 4x5
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Hands and fingers, rarely anything else. With practice you can make almost any shape with them.
As a young cub photographer I used lots dodging and burning so that the image would read better on news print. Hands, cards, and a disk on a wire were used.
Recently my goal has been to get the exposure and contrast set well enough that no darkroom manipulation is used. When necessary I use my hands.
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...Dilettante! Who you calling a Dilettante?
Except for my hands and fingers, some cut cardboard on a piece of metal and cardboard cut in various shapes, mine is definitily some round pieces cut out of an old grade 5 filter and attached to a metal rod. I often feel dat when the shadows need more detail, increasing local contrast with a grade 5 filter does a better job than making making it only lighter by dodging.
+1 regarding Reinhold's excellent dodging tools.
"We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have."
Henry James
With my last enlarger came a large white foam core board with a small hole and flap
A Burner!
Tin Can
I buy separate pieces of black and white card stock at the copy store and use a glue-stick to glue them together - and keep a supply of these glued sheets around to cut into shapes. I'll cut some of them into "generic" shapes/sizes (taped to coat-hangar wire) to have on hand, but keep the larger supply for specialized shapes/sizes for specific negatives, which I will (assuming I actually like the print!) label and file away for those negatives.
I'll also create a large(ish) piece with several holes of different locations/shapes/sizes to use generically...and make tape-hinged black card covers to affix next to these holes - so I can flip these covers over all but the hole I need for a particular image. Sometimes I'll use several of these holes in sequence for a particular image.
I'll also make good use of my hands as dodging tools if an image allows this - and yes, loads of shapes and shadow sizes are possible just using ones hands.
...and another thing - I'll often do one or more "practice runs" of a dodging procedure prior to actually placing photo paper in the easel. This practice is especially useful in relatively complex dodges/burns.
But what I really want to know is...if you are dodging, aren't you also burning...and if you are burning, aren't you also dodging
I gotta grow up and use masks
Tin Can
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