Quote Originally Posted by Louie Powell View Post
David Vestal called it 'The Art of Darkroom Photography' for a reason - there are many techniques that can be used to fine tune the final contrast in a print. Flashing is one of them. Flashing can be applied either before or after the base exposure although the results may be slightly different.

In classic flashing, you first remove the negative from the carrier, and then close the lens aperture to reduce the light that is then flashed onto the print. This is a big hassle. An alternate trick is to use a flashing card. A flashing card is simply a sheet of cardboard with a large, rectangular hole in the middle, and a layer of thin (relatively translucent) drawing paper (which is probably hard to find these days) glued over the hole. With a flashing card, you leave the negative in the carrier and you don't change the aperture - but you do move the card during the flashing exposure just in case the drawing paper has a texture that you don't want transferred to the print. The length of the flashing exposure is the one remaining variable.

Obviously, dodging and burning are options, as well as bleaching, rubbing highlights with your finger to cause friction that raises the local temperature and increase localized developer action, water bath development, diluted developers, etc. If you go back to some of the older books, you can read about penciling (using a pencil to carefully add a thin layer of charcoal to increase negative density), or dye-dodging where a tinted dye is applied to the back of the negative to increase local density. These techniques are especially useful with sheet film.

But as David would have noted - these are all experimental techniques. Experienced darkroom workers understand them can use them effectively, but each use involves some degree of trial and error, and it is necessary to keep careful notes if you want to be able to repeat the technique and get similar results in the future.
If a printer doesn't have Vestal's book :The Art of Darkroom Photography" they are (pardon the pun) working in the dark.