dodge and burn

electricalperson · Nov 4, 2009

can anyone explain to me how to dodge and burn and what they mean exactly?

when you dodge an area to make it lighter, do you make the rest of the picture darker? or do you just hold something to block most of the light from getting to the photopaper when you want to dodge?

when you burn do you expose a picture like normal and just keep exposing until you make it darker?

i am having a hard time understanding.

thank you

Torus34 · Nov 5, 2009

Dodging and burning are techniques used to lighten or darken a part of an image while leaving the rest of the image unchanged.

'Burning in' darkens an area by exposing it to more light [longer time] than the rest of the image. Burning in, in it's simplest form, means exposing a sheet of paper for the normal amount of time and then using a piece of cardboard with a hole in it to selectively expose a part of the sheet to more light.

'Dodging' lightens an area by exposing it to less light [shorter time] than the rest of the image. Dodging, in it's simplest form, means exposing a sheet of paper for the normal amount of time while using a small piece of cardboard to selectively shade a part of the sheet so that it receives less light.

Both effects are controlled by the amount of light added or the amount of light withheld and the area affected.

electricalperson · Nov 5, 2009

thank you

i am looking forward to experiment with the dark room. we have a beseler 23CII enlarger and cant wait to use it. just need to shoot some film with good pictures on it

christopher walrath · Nov 5, 2009

When you get to dodging and burning, remember your Law of Reciprocity. If you wish to increase the density of a local area of the print with a 16 second exposure by one stop you need to double the exposure for the area you burn in to 32 seconds total. Dodging a local portion of the print, reduce it by half so you only give that portion of the print 8 second's exposure.

ann · Nov 6, 2009

how much time used or removed will depend on what the tone is to begin with and what tone you wish it to be. it isn't always 1 stop. It could be 1/3, or a 1/2, etc.

christopher walrath · Nov 6, 2009

christopher walrath said:
If you wish to increase the density of a local area of the print with a 16 second exposure by one stop . . .

Yup.

terri · Nov 7, 2009

christopher walrath said:
christopher walrath said:

If you wish to increase the density of a local area of the print with a 16 second exposure by one stop . . .

Click to expand...

Yup.

Well, technically your math is correct up there, so sure, that's a "yup".

But I'd refrain from telling a newbie to make a full stop adjustment a routine when learning burning/dodging. As Ann says, it could be a minor adjustment is all that's needed. This person may have been taught to think in percentages, as well.

A beginner needs first to grasp the concept that light falling onto silver gelatin paper makes it turn when slipped into the developer, and dodging/burning help control how you direct that light. Keeping it basic and advancing from there is how we learn.