Enlarging without dodging.

Yikes! This is just one artists interpretation and I'm all for it as a component of darkroom practice. God forbid there is a 'correct' or technical way and stifle any creative discourse...

@awty -- Paul, your stuff is excellent. You make what you want and that's great.

This thread is ridiculous.

I'm thrilled to see that some of you are such accomplished photographers that you generate masterpieces without burning or dodging. Kudos! I made my first print in 1966 and have yet to achieve that level of mastery over the materials.
I signed up for one of Ansel's workshops for the summer of 1984. Alas, he passed away between registration and the workshop. John Sexton led the darkroom portion of the workshop, using Ansel's MOONRISE OVER HERNANDEZ as an example. It had to be burned, dodged, bleached and toned to create a print that satisfied Ansel. A pity that you Masters weren't present to show him why he was overdoing it.
Russ Young, F.R.P.S.

Russ Young said:

Guess y'all needed to show him why he was overdoing it.

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He should've made one print he liked then took a photo of it for all subsequent prints. Much easier

Bill Burk said:

@Guillaume Zuili I like that quote "So no blog. Darkroom !"

I may be coming to ask you questions sometime. Had some prints that just didn't do right on Kodabromide F4 so I went to the camera store and asked if they had any Lith developer.

I was thinking they might have some traditional graphic arts concentrate. But no, I came home with a master kit suited for Tim Rudman.
View attachment 406436
Cheers,

Bill

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I sent you a pm

Speaking of Ansel, who never did seem to make a "perfect negative", there were certain classic images which suffered water damage consequent upon a fire in his Yosemite shop. "Gates of the Valley" was among those, and required intense dodge/burn manipulation. I would have generated a master corrective mask instead; but AA wasn't into that.

One never knows until they begin printing a given negative. I've gotten a number of hole-in-one prints this year, but also had cases I thought would be easy, but weren't. A person has to set their own standards; and how they get from Point A to B is up to them.

It's also really difficult to adjudicate other people's work over the web. I'm not referring to subject matter or general composition, but actual print quality.

It’s friday evening, I raise my glass of Tequila to all of you. ******* we are all here because we love the smell of the darkroom.
Yes we can be a pain in the ass sometime, me included. But we share the same passion !
Peace !
May the darkroom gods be with you !
And more drinks please.
{Moderator note - careful with the language please}

Don_ih said:

He should've made one print he liked then took a photo of it for all subsequent prints. Much easier

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Ha ha.....essentially that's what happens these days with digital prints. Much easier.

This is a recent print I did, was a flat scene, overcast, light wasn't doing anything. I used contrast filter, dodge and burn, and bleach to add light. My method was different, but the outcome is the same. Messy, was only 6x8 paper and I was in a hurry.
I usually work out my base print time and contrast, then dodge the base time, then burn, then bleach the highlights where necessary, then tone with sepia and selenium.
Anyone learning to do darkroom work should practice with these tools, they will lift your print even if it is just a nothing scene.

cliveh said:

I dodge or burn probably less than 5% of my prints. If you make the correct negative exposure and correct development of the negative for the type of enlarger you use to print, followed by the correct print exposure, without any contrast control, then it is rarely nessesary.

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That’s because your strength is your image.

Russ Young said:

I'm thrilled to see that some of you are such accomplished photographers that you generate masterpieces without burning or dodging. Kudos! I made my first print in 1966 and have yet to achieve that level of mastery over the materials.
I signed up for one of Ansel's workshops for the summer of 1984. Alas, he passed away between registration and the workshop. John Sexton led the darkroom portion of the workshop, using Ansel's MOONRISE OVER HERNANDEZ as an example. It had to be burned, dodged, bleached and toned to create a print that satisfied Ansel. A pity that you Masters weren't present to show him why he was overdoing it.
Russ Young, F.R.P.S.

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I am glad you found us! Actually, generating masterpieces without burning and dodging ended up just as easy as making masterpieces by dodging and burning...imagine that!

One of the advantages of digital negs for many people doing alt processes has been making all the edits in the file and turn printing into a no-brainer. I still like working with camera negs though..

I recently made a print that needed a 3 hour exposure under a UV lamp. Burning would have been a little tough. Dodging is possible, but hanging around that long around the UV light is a drag. I have taken a sharpie and blacked-in that bit area in the lower right partway thru the exposure as a way to burn. I made the boys pose and hold still for two minutes for this exposure, so waiting three hours for the print to be exposed must be karma at work.

Or you can do the opposite and just dodge for a different effect.
This was done with just Dodging.
Dodging is a really good tool.

But wait! I thought Sharpies are transparent to UV.

I liked Andrew Sanderson’s article and think it’s cool that he gives plain tips.

It’s easy to see how to apply his ideas.

For a long time I have admired his work without knowing it. I see his work when I reach for a box of paper knowing my prints may never grace a paper box.

Are his steps wildly different than mine? Not that I can tell. Andrew dodged in one of his examples so it can’t be a hard and fast rule not to dodge. Are his aims different? God yes. I’m too intent on making a realistic reproduction of nature. I may just have to give some dramatic burning a try. It looks like fun.

Now I always use graded paper and it’s always obvious to me which grade a negative will need. (Anything that depends on multigrade paper is outside of my constraints). From there a test strip tells me what exposure my main image needs and gives me dodge and burn choices.

I would say hard and fast rule; keep dodge and burn within 2/3 stop. But I have no rule about which exposure I use for the main. I pick the one where something important looks a little hot. Then I look left and right of the test strip for different things and pick their dodge and burn times.

The hard and fast 2/3 stop rule doesn’t include pictorial burn and flash. (Flash a-la Lootens, non-image white light striking parts of the print you want darker.) I’ve often checked for much longer exposures but haven’t used enough of them. I must defer to Andrew on this he has the effective proof in his examples.

awty said:

This was done with just Dodging.
Dodging is a really good tool.

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That's a great photo. I really like it (and I'm allergic to horses)).

All tools are good if they get you what you want.