Wet darkroom dodge and burn

[crispy12]

More questions from a wet printing newbie hehe

I need some help with doing this in a more organised way. So far using my own self taught technique.

I recently did a more complex print for me which I'll try to upload later, 4 different areas of exposure. At the end of 45 mins my head was going to explode with all the exposure calculations and memorising the dodging pattern. I also exposed the entire image in one go, with my hands dancing around from area to area dodging. I didn't burn at all. I tried making a diagram so you guys can understand. Pardon my lousy phone pic!



So..

1) About exposing the entire image in one go? Dodging the shadows was quite hard to do accurately in terms of positioning and timing. Do you place your hand in position then turn on enlarger? My enlarger has a red light filter built in, so I move it out of the way and quickly put my hands in position but very messy!

2) I imagine something like a foot switch to control the light will make it much easier, is there such a thing? Or a better way?

3) Any tips on writing this down in a neat way so that I can replicate in future by following my instructions? I saw this thread on RFF but it's too chim!

4) If burning in something like sky, should I cut a piece of card in the shape of the sky? Or should I make a cut a round hole instead and 'colour' in the sky?

Also if anyone can elaborate on their personal technique that they've found to give good consistent results. Or better still a link to some good resources!

Thanks in advance

 

[paapoopa]

nice print you got there. I am no expert, but I will try to answer some of your question from my experiences so that we can learn from each other.


1) About exposing the entire image in one go? Dodging the shadows was quite hard to do accurately in terms of positioning and timing. Do you place your hand in position then turn on enlarger? My enlarger has a red light filter built in, so I move it out of the way and quickly put my hands in position but very messy!
- for your kind of image, you can also cut a piece of cardboard close to the shape you want to dodge if you have trouble using your hands. and what i always do is move the card board up and down when projecting, so the edges will be softer.

2) I imagine something like a foot switch to control the light will make it much easier, is there such a thing? Or a better way?
- i do remember using a foot switch to on/off the lights on one of the darkroom I have used before last time.

3) Any tips on writing this down in a neat way so that I can replicate in future by following my instructions?
- i think everyone have their own way of recording down the steps as long as you can read it yourself, but you will not be able to get back the same print even if you follow the same steps next time. thats why they say every darkroom print is a piece of art as you will never be able to achieve the same result.

4) If burning in something like sky, should I cut a piece of card in the shape of the sky? Or should I make a cut a round hole instead and 'colour' in the sky?
- in most cases, i will be using the round hole to burn, but in this case if you cut a cardboard to dodge the buildings, i recon you can use the same cardboard to burn the sky if if using hand doesnt works for you. although i always try to either expose the sky and dodge the buildings or expose the building and burn the sky and not both dodge and burn on the same image if possible.

 

[crispy12]

Thanks! That's really helpful, it's great to see how other people work as well. Luckily I'm using smaller papers. A good print on 8x10 paper will be quite an expensive experience for me!

I figured out the foot switch and timing problem, the answer is to get a good timer. I'm still reading, but a timer acts as the switch between the power point and the enlarger and is accurate up to 0.1s. The better timers come with a foot switch, and also help to calculate f stops. I suppose it makes more sense for photographer to think in terms of stops than seconds of exposure, maybe that's why my head felt like it was going to explode haha!

This is the brand which sells top quality timers and their guide on printing. http://www.rhdesigns.co.uk/darkroom/html/f-stop_printing.html

If anyone else has tips to share, please more than welcome!