dodging and burning in wet darkroom

[sfoto100]

Hi

i finally make my monstser enlarger stand up .. it is much easier to work this way comapre to projection on wall (due to space constraint, heard Ansel Adam use wall projection, but he don't live in HDB pigeon hole either)..

tried some prints yday.. my first print is 5s at f8.

i tried some dodging and burning.. but it is a failure.. my subsequent prints look worse than the first!

just curious how you guys make tool to dodge and burn? if you wan to burn a door, do you cut out a door shape from cardboard? or you stil use the same board with a small hole?


but say you decide to add one stop for the door, and you use a board with small hole, how can you be sure the door got one stop more light since you don't expose the whole door all at once for one more stop of light? Or i just adjust the timer to give 2 or more stops more instead.. just try and error?

next question is more important, for dodge and burn, do you switch to much smaller aperture so that you can have more time to dodge and burn? i tried 5s dodge and burn yday, and it is a mess!

by the way i don't have a timer also.. need to get one

 

[catchlights]

I make many dodge and burn tools many years ago..

this is how the dodge tools look like.

for burn tools, you can get a large black card and make a hole something like this.

I have many burn in tools (black card boards with hole in difference sizes), and dodging tools, some time I just use my hands to do burning and dodging if I only want a quick print.



when you make your exposure for printing, best keep your exposure time between 15s to 60s,
so let say you make a print with 60s exposure time, some areas you want to dodge with one stop less exposure,
some areas you want to burning one stop more exposure.
first you exposure the whole print for 30s, than you start use the dodge tool to dodge the areas with reminder 30s till total 60s is up.
and than you start the timer again, but this time you use the burn tool to give the area you want to burn in for one stop, till the 60s up.

get it?

and during burning and dodging, you need to keep moving the tools, and also very the height of the tools, so the edges of burning and dodging areas will be softer and not too noticeable on the final print.

this need a lot of practising, and you need to do some dry run before you start the actual printing.


FYI, usually I "wasted" 10 to 20 prints just to get one print with satisfactory results.



hope this help.

 

[keechoon]

For burning, I use a cardboard with a small hole in the center and dodging is using a small round cardboard attached to a wire. It looks like a lollipop.

I use a test strip to get a rough timing for the first print and then proceed to make the first working copy. Actually it's not really plus 1 stop or minus 1 stop but more of 2x or 3x or more of exposure time. Say you select an aperture of F8 to print and you get a base exposure time of 16sec. To burn an area means to use the burn tool and expose an extra 16sec on a particular area (2x in this case). To dodge means to reduce exposure time so you block the light at the specific area using the dodge tool during the exposure.

I normally use an aperture that gives me an base exposure if 15-30 sec for easier burn or dodge control. The tools can be trim to suit that particular image's needs. Sometimes just use hand to block out the light when dodging.

 

[keechoon]

Lol catchlight is faster in his reply. Alot of info from his side.

By the way how does your setup looks like?

 

[sfoto100]

I make many dodge and burn tools many years ago..

this is how the dodge tools look like.

for burn tools, you can get a large black card and make a hole something like this.

I have many burn in tools (black card boards with hole in difference sizes), and dodging tools, some time I just use my hands to do burning and dodging if I only want a quick print.



when you make your exposure for printing, best keep your exposure time between 15s to 60s,
so let say you make a print with 60s exposure time, some areas you want to dodge with one stop less exposure,
some areas you want to burning one stop more exposure.
first you exposure the whole print for 30s, than you start use the dodge tool to dodge the areas with reminder 30s till total 60s is up.
and than you start the timer again, but this time you use the burn tool to give the area you want to burn in for one stop, till the 60s up.

get it?

and during burning and dodging, you need to keep moving the tools, and also very the height of the tools, so the edges of burning and dodging areas will be softer and not too noticeable on the final print.

this need a lot of practising, and you need to do some dry run before you start the actual printing.


FYI, usually I "wasted" 10 to 20 prints just to get one print with satisfactory results.



hope this help.

tks benjamin

your explanation really helps..

what aperture do you recommend ? I ask lualua, he used f8..

yesterday i use f/11 and it use only 5 seconds for the base aperture.. so i have to dim the lamp so that i can have longer exposure time to better control dodge and burn right (sorry for asking the obvious, but i just want to know how you guys did it as i got no traininng at all as i start with digital)?

as for changing the height when dodgin and burning, may i know what is the purpose? bcos if i raise the burn board, the area of paper being exposed to light will be bigger..

another question is the shape of the hole of your burning board, it looks like a sun, this is better than using a circle ?

 

[oceanpriest]

if u lazy to make your own wand, some guy from apug selling it

Dodging Wands

 

[sfoto100]

Lol catchlight is faster in his reply. Alot of info from his side.

By the way how does your setup looks like?

yes, catchlight got a monster enlarger last time.. so he is both a photographer and a printer.. last time most photographers do not print.. printing is so damn difficult..

mine is Durst 1200.. it is very old..

 

[sfoto100]

if u lazy to make your own wand, some guy from apug selling it

Dodging Wands

wow!!! tks.. think i will spend the $ on a timer.. already spend alot on photography hobby.. haiz..

 

[keechoon]

If I can do a small setup at home means no need to go all the way from sengkang to mt faber Safra for printing haha.

Let me go through the way beyond monochrome book. There are some interesting diagrams on dodging n burning tools

 

[sfoto100]

If I can do a small setup at home means no need to go all the way from sengkang to mt faber Safra for printing haha.

Let me go through the way beyond monochrome book. There are some interesting diagrams on dodging n burning tools

hi

why not, you should do it at home.. since safra only offer 645 at most.. just get a enlarger that support 67 and u r done.. my darkroom is just makeshift.. i use cardboard to cover the window.. not 100% light proof..

brand new mf enlarger is abt $600+, i think should be much cheaper in ebay for used ones..

 

[edge-t]

hi

why not, you should do it at home.. since safra only offer 645 at most.. just get a enlarger that support 67 and u r done.. my darkroom is just makeshift.. i use cardboard to cover the window.. not 100% light proof..

brand new mf enlarger is abt $600+, i think should be much cheaper in ebay for used ones..

Safra enlargers can print up to 6x6 ah.

 

[sfoto100]

Safra enlargers can print up to 6x6 ah.

oh.. pai say.. bcos in those LF meetings one safr trainer says 645 biggest... hmm.. 6x6 is good ..

how many 6x6 enlargers do they have?

 

[keechoon]

I think 6x7 is possible too coz the mask and glass holder from Safra I used for 6x6 are 6x7.

All their enlarger can do 6x6. Juz limited by no. of the negative holders (2 or 3 I recall) and no. of working enlargers.

Burn card example from Way Beyond Monochrome.

 

[catchlights]

The darkroom set up was actual belong to my late brother, was long gone after he pass on. not sure what is monster enlarger? the enlarger we have that time was a Dust 4x5 b&w enlarger.

anyway, aperture setting is just like what we use for photography, using the sweet spot of the lenses, around f8-f11.

the when burning and dodge tools are further away from the print (closer to the lens), the edges of the burning in and dodging will be much softer, moving the tools while burning in and dodging will also softer the edges too.

so you will also need this tools in different sizes, as the sizes of areas you need to burn in or dodge will not be always the same.

 

[Riotbmx]

Thought I'd share a tip I learnt somewhere.


Use black coloured material on the underside of the dodging wand to prevent light from bouncing back and white colour on top so you can see the image that you're dodging.

 

[sfoto100]

The darkroom set up was actual belong to my late brother, was long gone after he pass on. not sure what is monster enlarger? the enlarger we have that time was a Dust 4x5 b&w enlarger.

anyway, aperture setting is just like what we use for photography, using the sweet spot of the lenses, around f8-f11.

the when burning and dodge tools are further away from the print (closer to the lens), the edges of the burning in and dodging will be much softer, moving the tools while burning in and dodging will also softer the edges too.

so you will also need this tools in different sizes, as the sizes of areas you need to burn in or dodge will not be always the same.

haha. no lah.. i recalled you post sometime ago about how you give up your darkroom setup and go fully digital.. remember you say your enlarger support up to 4x5, so that's why i think it must be big and heavy, like a monster..

ebay got lot of cheap 4x5 enlarger, but price of shipping here is really too much.. just saw one quite new enlarger costing usd1300+ just to ship here.. so many times more expensive than the enlarger itself..

 

[paapoopa]

Thought I'd share a tip I learnt somewhere.


Use black coloured material on the underside of the dodging wand to prevent light from bouncing back and white colour on top so you can see the image that you're dodging.

good tip :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
i usually use a mounting board and cut a hole in the center
and do my burning with the black side facing down and the white side facing up
so i can also see where i am burning from the white side of my board that is facing the projector