Favorite Dodge & Burn Tools?

[Salmo22]

I'm very excited that my home darkroom project is nearing an end and I anticipate producing silver gelatin prints in a month. As I was putting the finishing touches on my enlarger station last night, I realize I don't have a set of dodging and burning tools. I like crafting my own tools when reasonably possible and was looking for input.

What various shapes do LFPF members find most useful for their dodging tools?

What materials do you prefer for the handle, rod, and dodging shapes?

What shapes and materials do you prefer for your burning tools?

I've noted the old Testrite dodging and vignetter kits as examples, but wondered if/how they can be improved upon?

[nolindan]

Hands, bits of cardboard, coat hanger wire, glue. Make them as you need them, if you make up a set beforehand they will all be the wrong size and shape.

[xkaes]

Other than home-made ones (as mentioned above) I like the Spiratone Vignetter -- seen here. You can shape it anyway you want:

http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/center7.htm

I often cut out a section from a piece of cardboard -- the same shape as a horizon, cliff, building, whatever --- to allow burning in a sky, window, whatever by moving the mask up & down, left & right, whatever during the exposure.

Spiratone, Luminos, and other sold burning/dodging kits with different tools and shapes that can be helpful -- and don't cost much at all.

[Michael Graves]

I purchased this set from Reinhold Schable (did I spell that correctly) a few years back and have never been happier with a product...with the possible exception of my LazyBoy recliner with the massaging and heating elements installed.

https://www.re-inventedphotoequip.com/Dodger,_Carrier.html

[Pieter]

Besides my hands and fingers, I use a number of homemade devices. I glue a sheet of white and black pastel paper together, giving me a duplex surface that I can cut into a custom shape if needed and be able to see the projected image on the white side while having the black side face the paper. That might entail holes or slits in a letter-size sheet, or circles, rectangles or other small shapes cut out of the paper and taped to an 18” length of spring wire. I will sometimes improvise a small shape with some gaffer’s tape or black fine foil on the end of the wire, too. If I have a burning board with a hole cut into it that might need some modifying, I stick some strips of gaffer’s or even painter’s blue tape to suit the need.

[Drew Wiley]

I rarely need more than just an oversize sheet of thick paper, usually a leftover scrap of print mounting board. Otherwise, I simply improvise as needed from scraps, on-hand wire, and tape, just like Pieter. I have never seen the need to purchase dodging/burning accessories, though there is nothing wrong in doing that.

[nolindan]

If you are going to buy a set you probably can't do better than Rheinhold's set https://www.re-inventedphotoequip.com/Dodger,_Carrier.html

[Richard Wasserman]

When I was doing silver printing I made a couple simple and handy tools—I never liked using my hands. I soldered a paperclip to the end of a thin wire and I then inserted various shapes and sizes of paper/posterboard to suit. I also made a 2 piece burn-in tool from posterboard that was white on one side and black on the other. One piece was a simple rectangle (about the same size as the print) with a large hole in the lower right hand quadrant which worked in conjunction with an L-shaped piece that could be slid around to adjust the shape and size of the hole. I had them in a couple different dimensions for various print sizes. I also used a rectangle of the same black/white board which can be used flat or bent to make curves or odd shapes which was useful for burning near edges.

[Doremus Scudder]

I use home-made wands and cards for dodging. Like Nicholas suggests, make them as you need them. Scissors, wire, cardboard and tape are all you need. Hands work really well too. My most-used wand is a "sun"; a circle with lots of "rays" cut into the edge to help blur the edge when burning. I have knife-shapes, squares, rectangles, tri- and etc.-angles.

For burning, my most useful tool are large cards made of mat board, one side black (the down side) and the other white. I've cut a series of different size holes near the center. These are covered with cardboard on tape hinges and normally taped shut. I open the little doors to reveal the size hole I need for burning. Some of the little doors have holes in them too, covered with other little doors.

For tricky skylines, I'll often lay down a scrap sheet of photo paper, back-up, and draw the outline. Then I'll cut the paper to shape and use that to dodge or burn with.

The possibilities are endless.

Doremus

[bob carnie]

235758. so I retired this set about a year ago, I wanted to make an art piece for my darkroom, but I still use the exact tools like this, I also cut a hole in thick card white on top so I can see the image and black on bottom to stop reflection, and I also use my hands to make the ducks ass and the ducks bill or modify to make any shape, I have found that when I started to split contrast print and flash I needed less dodge and burn.

[Pieter]

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.

235757
235759

[Vaughn]

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

[gypsydog]

235761235762

[iml]

Hands and fingers, rarely anything else. With practice you can make almost any shape with them.

[Ironage]

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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[Huub]

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.

[lab black]

+1 regarding Reinhold's excellent dodging tools.

[Tin Can]

With my last enlarger came a large white foam core board with a small hole and flap

A Burner!

[John Layton]

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 :confused:

[Tin Can]

I gotta grow up and use masks

[Corran]

Piece of foam core for large areas,
Hands/fingers for general purposes,
Then Reinhold's great set for precision,
Then note cards cut to shapes if needed for masking out a building or something. Taped to another piece of foamcore with a hole in the center sometimes.
Finally give up if none of those work and print with my digital enlarger setup ��

[HeatherLRH]

I'm very excited that my home darkroom project is nearing an end and I anticipate producing silver gelatin prints in a month. As I was putting the finishing touches on my enlarger station last night, I realize I don't have a set of dodging and burning tools. I like crafting my own tools when reasonably possible and was looking for input.

What various shapes do LFPF members find most useful for their dodging tools?

What materials do you prefer for the handle, rod, and dodging shapes?

What shapes and materials do you prefer for your burning tools?

I've noted the old Testrite dodging and vignetter kits as examples, but wondered if/how they can be improved upon?

Hi! I just happened upon this group!
Some people use ink on the negative itself to make corrections but it doesn’t sound like you learned that technique. So in this case my preference is to cut cardboard.
You would do your test print & cut out the spots that are blown out. Use your cutouts as a form for cardboard cut outs. When you try your print again let the entire paper be exposed & then use your dodging cut out. You can attach it to something if needed if the blown out spot isn’t close enough to the edge. For the remainder of the exposure you agitate the cardboard just shake it around in small movements so it moves around the edges of the area to be dodged. This prevents a noticeable hard edge to the area.
If you have the testrite dodging kit you can use it with your own cut outs. Just tape it if you have any problem attaching it to the “wand”. Cardboard keeps the cutout from flopping & being poorly controlled.
If your print paper is thick enough, you can just use that rather than cardboard. Save the cutouts with the test print along with the negative for future prints.
You would flip the process around for areas you want to burn. Test print, this time use a blade like an exacto to cut out the spots that need additional exposure to bring your image out. If your image is too big get someone else to help you hold your prepared test print/mask. You would do the same thing using small constant movements to feather the edges of your adjustment.
I love that you are doing this at home! W kids, pet birds w tiny lungs, and lack of appropriate space I haven’t been able to do that.
I’m sure you know to be sure to have enough ventilation. Adding an air purifier may be a good safeguard as well.
You may have figured out your own preferred process by now. I’d be interested to hear how it’s going!
Happy printing,
Heather

[HeatherLRH]

Alternatively, you can scan in your negative, fix it in photoshop & print a new negative w the corrections on vellum or specialty sheets. If it’s easier invert it before making your adjustments.

[Jim Noel]

I cut lightweight cardboard to the shape needed at the time.