Hi all, l lost my left eye’s vision due to COVID booster vaccination and having difficulty to locate burning and dodging point while doing black and white printing using enlarger in the darkroom. Is there any device to help enhance visibility for dodging and burning? Any suggestion is appreciated.
Welcome to Photrio!
Let me think about your problem for a while to hopefully come up with some ideas.
Printing with graded paper and white (tungsten light) may be easier to see the image? Slower paper would allow for brighter light and longer exposure.
Printing with graded paper and white (tungsten light) may be easier to see the image? Slower paper would allow for brighter light and longer exposure.
Thanks and any particular brand paper would you recommend?
Does your darkroom safelight turn off while you are exposing the paper? If not, try to make that happen, because that can really improve how easy it is to see the image at easel level.
Also, what sort of light source are you using? If it supplies mainly blue and green light, that can be a lot harder to see than a source that includes more red.
Would night vision goggles help?
I do turn off safelights while exposing
I doubt it. In fact, it'll make it much more difficult to view the projected image since it'll be flooded by the IR image.
OK, that's about the best you can do, I'm afraid.
The only other thing that comes to mind is open up the aperture and use shorter exposure times, but this of course also drastically reduces the time you have to do any manipulations. Having said that, I frequently print with times between 4 and 10 seconds, and then do additional burning (rarely any dodging though). It works, but you have to be fairly swift.
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight; I hope there's still a chance of recovery.
What I do is position my hand or dodging mask with red filter engaged and then expose by flipping (gently) the filtrer.
I doubt it. In fact, it'll make it much more difficult to view the projected image since it'll be flooded by the IR image.
But there's also goggles that amplify light in the visual spectrum I believe?
Yes, that works. I personally use a foot pedal and have come to regard it as essential - or at least enormously convenient.
I also use foot pedal too, but my main problem is to locate the point on the image need to dodging while exposing.
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