I have done some minimal darkroom printing in the past, about 2 years ago, but it was really sloppy and I had no idea what I was doing. Fast forward to recently, I studied up as much as I could to prepare myself for several days of "figuring it out." With a bunch of 8x10 and some 11x14 paper I spent 5 days working in a local darkroom. I got several successful prints out of it, and after 5 days I feel pretty good as to where I am at (knowing full well I am still a beginner). Here is one of my prints
I am happy with the contrast of the image, but would liked to burn the sky a little more, but that's a different question. What I am wondering is how does a person go about masking? I have read to article here and searched the web. Unfortunately whenever I search google, I always get results related to photoshop. I get the overall concept of masking, but what I don't get is the mechanics of it. Forgive my ignorance, but in my mind here is how i see it playing out:
1. I make the mask, preferably using ortho film and a registration punch
2. Once the mask is developed and dry I place it on the carrier with it registered to the negative
3. I place my paper in its easel and the negative/mask combo in the enlarger
4. I expose the the paper with the masked negative
5. I remove the mask from the carrier
6. Using only the negative I expose the paper once more
7. Develop as normal
If I am totally wrong in that sequence I need help. What confuses me most is what I have as steps 5 and 6. Won't removing the mask cause my negative to become unaligned with the paper below? I am specifically thinking of highlight masks and unsharp masks
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