Dodge & Burn

Dodging and burning are terms used in photography for a technique used during the printing process to manipulate the exposure of a selected area(s) on a photographic print, deviating from the rest of the image's exposure. Dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.
Any material with varying degrees of opacity may be used, as preferred, to cover and/or obscure the desired area for burning or dodging. One may use a transparency with text, designs, patterns, a stencil, or a completely opaque material shaped according to the desired area of burning/dodging.
Ansel Adams elevated dodging and burning to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two techniques. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on this very topic called The Print.



Dodge and Burn Project
When a photographer shoots a subject that has more contrast or a greater brightness range than the film can record the final print in the darkroom may lack detail in either the shadows or the hightlights. In the darkroom the photographer must dodge or burn a print to fix it. MOST pictures need one or the other for best results.
DODGE
This is where a portion of a print is too dark in the shadows after the main exposure is made on the enlarger. To cure this a new exposure is made in the enlarger during which time the photographer holds back or shades the problem area using their hand or a piece of cardboard on the end of a paper clip. This may only be done for a few seconds during the enlarger exposure.
 BURN
This is where a portion of a print is too white after the main exposure on the enlarger. The majority of the print looks good, so additional exposure would make it too dark. The cure, to add additional light ONLY to the white area. This will be adding additional exposure to an area that looks dark on the enlarger image as you view it in the paper. To do this you cut a hole in cardboard or use your hand in a cup shape to project a beam of light back onto the paper AFTER the main exposure.
 For this assignment you need to find a negative that prints with a dark shadow or bright highlight that needs these techniques done to it. MAKE two prints...one where no additional work was done and one where EITHER dodge or burn was done to make the print good. This is a challenge assignment for students with good darkroom skills.

The Burn in Mask is always kept in motion while making an exposure. The light is ìpaintedî on the photo to make a portion of the print darker.

The dodge tool is a piece of plastic or cardboard on the end of a metal wand. This tool is also kept in motion during exposure. It is used to hold back light from a portion of a print to make it lighter.

The print on the left was exposed using a test strip placed in the shadow area on the building. The photo needs to be either dodged or burned to allow the shadows and the highlights on the mountain to print. The print on the right was exposed for the bright mountains. This is typical of a print that needs extra work in the darkroom. For this shot we decided to dodge the building, it was easier than burning in the mountain.

The finished print To make this a piece of cardboard was placed under the enlarger about 6 inches from the lens. The outline of the building and trees was drawn on the cardboard and then cut out with a knife. Test exposures showed that to make a good print of the shadows (print on left) it would take an exposure of 8 seconds on our enlarger. To make the print on the right with the same enlarger it would take 20 seconds. That is a difference of 12 seconds. The enlarger timer was set to 20 seconds. During the first 12 seconds of the exposure the ìMASKî was held in place and moved around slightly to keep the image edge from showing. After 12 seconds the mask was removed and the rest of the print got the 8 seconds exposure it needed. It is possible to do both dodge and burn on the same print. Dodge work would be done during the main exposure and burn would be added to portions of the print AFTER the exposure.