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Darkroom Techniques: Dodging and Burning

There are various techniques that can be used in the darkroom to help obtain the perfect image. The techniques known as dodging and burning are essential for film photography developers to learn and understand. Is basic terms, dodging is a process to lighten dark spots on a print and burning is a process to darken light spots on a print to achieve a consistent exposure throughout the image.

When printing in the darkroom, you may notice areas of the photograph are not consistent with the tones of the image and are too bright or too dark. Commonly, this may include bright skies that appear washed out or dark shadows that show no detail. These are prime examples of how dodging or burning can help to fix these trouble spots.

Dodging

If a spot is too dark and shows little or no detail, then dodging is the option for you. Essentially, you need to block light from that spot for a few seconds during exposure. Remember, less light will give you a lighter exposure, so you can lighten up the dark space to see some more detail. Dodging is done with any object that completely blocks light, although some darkroom experts will use objects with some opacity. The light blocking material should form a similar shape to the trouble spot. Using the tool, block the light from hitting the trouble area for a second or more depending on how much you need to lighten the area. If you simply cover the spot with the tool, an outline of the object will be present on the paper, so it is imperative that you slightly shake the tool to prevent this from happening.

Burning

If a spot on your print is too light, then burning is the correct option. Burning works exactly the same as dodging, just inversely. Burning will add more light to a trouble spot to darken it. To use the burning technique, add additional exposure time for the print. For the duration of the extra time, block everything you do not wish to change so that only the light spot is exposed. The additional exposure time will darken the spot to create a more even tone. Once again, it is imperative that you slightly shake the light blocking tool to prevent any outlines from appearing on your print.

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Zoom out on browser setting to view project easier

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Photography is such an important instrument in the education of our feelings and perception because of its duality. Photography represents the world we know, and suggests a world beyond what we can see. Creativity is the gap between perception and knowledge.

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Your photography  is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees.

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There's four sides to every story, if these walls could talk they'd probably still ignore me

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J. Riley Stewart: Thoughts on Fine Art Photography

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Color affects our emotions. Whole volumes have been written describing these effects, and how artists and advertisers use color to best induce specific emotions. Color also has profound effects on the perceived depth of any two-dimensional representation of our three-dimensional world.

To make the point, look at the three squares below. Which color, blue or red, seems 'closer' to you? This example is a good way to show how our eyes play tricks on us when it comes to color alone. If you see the red square appear to be in front of the blue squares, that is the typical response. There is a biological explanation for this effect, but the result is that "warm (e.g., red) colors project" and "cool (e.g., blue) colors recede."

How does this relate to the psychology of B&W (so called, "monochrome") prints?

I've been creating B&W prints for years, but the truth is, I don't really care for "black and white" prints. I much prefer "purple and white" or "eggplant and white," and for some subjects, "brown and white."

The 20th Century masters of landscape photography touted the physical and emotional effects of toning their B&W prints. There were dozens of techniques and materials used to impart colors selectively to silver gelatin prints. Among the most widely used was a selenium chloride solution. Depending on the paper and developer used to print the image, bathing the print in a weak solution of selenium chloride for a few minutes materially changed the color of the print to what Ansel Adams called an "eggplant" color, most noticeable in the darker shadow areas.

I loved the aesthetic effect selenium toning had on my prints, so it became a standard part of my darkroom workflow, and now continues in my hybrid workflow.

What was that effect?

Take a look at the two images below. The first is a straight "monochrome" depiction of Blackwater Falls in West Virginia. It's a beautiful image, full of light and excitement and depth. These characteristics are imparted solely by the subjects, which are entirely shades of neutral gray (you may see color, but it's because your monitor is not neutral-most are not). This depiction represents what comes out of the standard B&W developer or when you convert an image to B&W in a digital workflow.

Now look at the second image. It was given a treatment that selectively toned the shadow areas as if the print was toned in my darkroom method for selenium toning. The mid tones and shadow areas now have this deep purple (so called "eggplant") tone.

How do you feel about the two different presentations? If the second image appears to have more depth in the shadows, it's because the cooler purple color appears to recede behind the screen surface; the comparatively warmer whites appear to be in front of the shadows. This therefore tends to push the highlights in the water forward and causes the trees and other shadows to fall back into the image, much like the red and blue squares above, creating a greater sense of depth in the image. Depth in a two-dimensional picture encourages the viewer to want to engage in the picture, something all visual artists want from our audience.

There is also an emotional aspect to the image I think is important. Hues in the purple range are known to induce a sense of calm and creativity, of wonder and exploration. Purple is a very emotional color to most humans. The toned image of this enormous waterfall therefore creates an internal conflict that is very subtle, but still there. First, you stand before this potentially dangerous, powerful, noisy waterfall that most of us react to with a bit of anxiety, red flags goes up in your consciousness: beware! But surrounding the waterfall on all aspects is this calming tone that encourages exploration of the shoreline, the trees, the flowers and rocks along the river's banks. This is a conceptual contrast, and one I think adds drama and excitement in the toned print that isn't so apparent in the untoned print.

I always tone my B&W prints, varying between a cooler (more bluish) to a warmer (more reddish) selenium tone, depending on the subject of the photograph. It's always a very subtle tone, not even as much as I've shown you in the second image above, which I exaggerated for purposes of this article.

If you make B&W prints (or even web images), experiment with toning to emphasize the feelings you want to compel in viewers. There is a infinite number of possibilities. In Lightroom, use the Split Toning feature to do this. For the toned image above, I set the Highlight toning saturation to 0 and the Shadow saturation to 9, hue 354. I set Balance to +50, favoring toning to the shadows.

To my heart, monochrome images should be way more than black and white!

Do you already tone your B&W images? What are your experiences? Let me hear your thoughts.

Cheers!

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The Psychology of a Toned Monochrome Print, or "Way more than B&W"

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Color affects our emotions. Whole volumes have been written describing these effects, and how artists and advertisers use color to best induce specific emotions. Color also has profound effects on the perceived depth of any two-dimensional representation of our three-dimensional world. To make the point, look at the three squares below.

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Review of photos taken so far on the subject of family and friends

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Some definitions of fine art vocabulary (Autosaved)

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The emotion portrayed in this piece is incredible, the phrase "eyes are the window to the soul" comes to mind here. Although entirely unrelated this image has made me look for emotion in my shots more and how to exaggerate themes in photographs though technical things like high contrast.

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What I like About this piece: It has amazing composition. The textured lines flow extremely well enabling the viewer's eyes to flow though the photograph i really like the numerous different tones. I'm not sure who took this image or when but to me the time period is irrelevant because images like this are timeless. This doesn't necessarily link to my project but still appreciate

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I found this photographer through Emmet Gowins wikipeidia page and was struck by his eye for tones in photographs

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Adams was born in the Western Addition of San Francisco, California, the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams. He was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore, where his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost his wealth investing in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada.