Burning with a cut-out mask

albada said:

Below is a photo of the Nubble Lighthouse submitted to Photrio a while ago by ColColt (David Fincher). ColColt has not posted to Photrio in five years, so I can't ask him the following question, so I'll ask you:
How did he create a high-contrast foreground and low contrast background? If he used a mask, he did a great job because the detail of the bush and the outline of the woman are contrasty with sharp edges, so alignment must have been perfect. Although the power-pole on the left is half low-contrast and half high-contrast. I could not have come close to this print using burn/dodge cut-out cards.
View attachment 300260Or was this a hazy day? Mark Overton

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I will hazard a guess - split grade printing or a misty day which isn't far off what we get on the North east of England.

I take making a printing mask to a further level. Because it is a bit of guess-work if you sketch a cut out complicated cut out mask so you can burn in several selected areas at once. I first raise the enlarger head to set the final image size, focus the image and mark the upper point of the enlarger arm on the column. For the purposes of argument say you are aiming for a 12x16 print This is so you can get it back to the original height.

Now drop the head back down so the image will fill about a A4 sheet of paper and accurately mark the areas slightly smaller than you need to cut out and again focus the image. Raise the head back up to the mark you made and focus again. Cut out the areas you need to burn in. Turn the main light off and make test strips of the image area you think will not need burning in and those you think will need a bit more of a 'boost'. Make your first exposure, then if needed, alter the filtration which you decided with the test strip and make the 2nd exposure with the. mask held underneath at a pre-determined height and constantly move it around during the 2nd exposure.

If it is a complicated mask you may need several attempts to get it perfect and I have been known to use up to 3-4 sheets of A4 paper just to test if the exposure and cut out is accurate. When it all come together it is really worth it. The most complicated one have made this way was a picture looking at a coastal medieval castle through a 5 bar gate at the side of a field with the gate almost black against a much lighter background, but the effort was worth it.

I'm not sure about mist, as that flag hints at it being a windy day.

We can get that at any time of the day near where I live. In the summer when there is an off shore breeze and mist at the same time, but the 'mist' is not actually mist. It is what we call it a sea ' Fret'. I think that word stems from a Nordic (Possibly a Norwegian or Danish origin) and what it actually is are droplets of sea water whipped up off the sea from incoming tidal waves and will blow up the coat for miles. It very rarely comes far inland.

Just checked and 'Fret' is a Danish Word an also a similar Dutch word too and means roughly the same as the word we use i UK. Another word which may be Norwegian is 'harr'

Here we have what is called the marine layer, low-level clouds that either are blown off or burn off by mid-morning or midday. Not really mist or fog, not that close to the ground.

MattKing and Vaughn were correct: That grayish background in the Nubble Castle photo is haze. I looked at that castle on the internet, and it's far away from the artist in that photo. So both of you were correct: The photo was shot with a long lens on a hazy day with "fret" or "harr" or "marine layer" or whatever in the air. And that was the best use of background haze I've ever seen, as it really draws your attention to the artist, while contributing a crucial component to the message of the photo. It sounds like Pieter12 lives in southern coastal California; around here, that cloud layer from the ocean usually burns off after a few hours of sun.

Mark Overton