Photography Info & Reviews.

Comment from Jerry L
Time July 9, 2009 at 4:30 pm

Burning is giving extra exposure time to a part of the print under the enlarger. After making your initial exposure, you can use a piece of construction paper with a hole cut out of it, and you have to move the paper around to help smooth the edges of your burn spot.

Dodging is the opposite. While you’re making your exposure, you take an object on a thin stick and use it to reduce the exposure in an area of your print, moving it around to prevent shadows and smooth the edges around your dodge spot.

Comment from fuma74
Time July 11, 2009 at 5:33 am

burning is isolating a small area of the print and exposing it to more light either by using your hand to block out all the light except for the area you wish to darken or cut a hole in some light proof material and put it under the lens to allow light to fall only in the area where you want it

Dodging is the exact opposite where you stop light from hitting the image in a particular area often using a sort of wand. A piece of paper taped to a wire works well remember to keep the wire moving or it will make streak

Comment from DaysofSweetLight
Time July 11, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Jerry L. is correct. Burning is allowing more light to strike the silver halide that photo paper is coated with; the more light that strikes it the darker it gets when developed. Dodging is exactly the opposite.
In the “good ole’ days” we would shape our hand like we were gonna look through a peek hole made from our thumb and pointer finger and by holding that below the enlarger lens you could control the light letting it strike certain areas more than others, IE; the funny looking hand on the Photoshop toolbar. To dodge we would use our hands or pIEces of paper cut as desired and most times taped to the end of a piece of coat hanger allowing us to dodge or keep light from hitting in certain areas, ie; the paddle looking tool on the toolbar.
Hope this helps.

Comment from owner_of_a_lonely_CAR
Time July 13, 2009 at 6:04 pm

Burning is a process of making an area darker.

Dodging is a process of making an area lighter.

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You must first understand dark room (and the way photographic papers work). The more an area is exposed to light the darker that area become (and vice-versa). So by covering all other areas beside just one ares you want to darken, you can give that area “extra” light (burning).

And like so just the opposite, by covering an area, you are making that area lighter (dodging light).

The only thing to remember is that while burning or dodging, the edges of tools (or most of the time hand) used to create shadows must be moved so the edges are not sharp and defined. Otherwise you would get a weird looking silhouette .

Good Luck.

Comment from magicalpixie4u
Time July 17, 2009 at 12:55 am

Also another tip, if you are burning or dodging start with your object outside of the image, once your light is on then introduce your object. otherwise you will have a VERY harsh burn or dodge. Said another way, make sure all your paper sees that first part of light then do what you need to. Have fun!