- Joined
- Mar 2, 2010
- Messages
- 315
In the STIDG (Straight Talk Image Discussion Group....hehehe...dontcha love acronyms??) ....a question was asked about burning as it relates to digital post-processing. My son asked the same question last year and was surprised (and probably bored) to hear my lengthy response.
So for all of you out there who have worked in B&W darkrooms before..please don't think I am being pedantic. I just figured there may be someone here who might be curious as to the origins of the terms dodging and burning.
Back in the darkroom, light from a photo enlarger passed through a B&W negative to expose photo paper....through a loupe, you would carefully focus the enlarger lens, so your print was as perfectly in focus as you could get it.
The more light falling on the photo paper, the darker the print, the less light, the lighter the print.
Just like in today's digital darkroom....there are certain areas in your photo you wish were lighter....and certain areas you wish were darker. Dodging and burning were techniques to manipulate the exposure of certain parts of your image.
Dodging means that you are decreasing the amount of light falling on a selected area: you’re making that selected area lighter. You would do this in many ways from waving you hands back and forth while the print is being exposed under the enlarger....to making cardboard cutouts and attaching them to thin wires and waving the cardboard so light is diminished to that area of the print you want to be lighter.
Burning does the opposite: you are increasing the amount of light, darkening the exposure of a selected area. You might make a hole in a large piece of cardboard and add additional light only to those areas while protecting the rest of your print from the light. (Routinely while making prints, the darkroom veterans would say "Burn the edges.".....meaning darken them...so your eye would be drawn to the middle of the print and not wander off to the sides).
You would never really know the results of this under the print came out of the developing bath.
It was wonderful....it was peaceful ....it was magic.
Today, we have all these incredible ways to digitally manipulate images...and some of the old nomenclature still exists.
Sorry if I rambled....(hey....didja know we used to "push" film....:smile
R
So for all of you out there who have worked in B&W darkrooms before..please don't think I am being pedantic. I just figured there may be someone here who might be curious as to the origins of the terms dodging and burning.
Back in the darkroom, light from a photo enlarger passed through a B&W negative to expose photo paper....through a loupe, you would carefully focus the enlarger lens, so your print was as perfectly in focus as you could get it.
The more light falling on the photo paper, the darker the print, the less light, the lighter the print.
Just like in today's digital darkroom....there are certain areas in your photo you wish were lighter....and certain areas you wish were darker. Dodging and burning were techniques to manipulate the exposure of certain parts of your image.
Dodging means that you are decreasing the amount of light falling on a selected area: you’re making that selected area lighter. You would do this in many ways from waving you hands back and forth while the print is being exposed under the enlarger....to making cardboard cutouts and attaching them to thin wires and waving the cardboard so light is diminished to that area of the print you want to be lighter.
Burning does the opposite: you are increasing the amount of light, darkening the exposure of a selected area. You might make a hole in a large piece of cardboard and add additional light only to those areas while protecting the rest of your print from the light. (Routinely while making prints, the darkroom veterans would say "Burn the edges.".....meaning darken them...so your eye would be drawn to the middle of the print and not wander off to the sides).
You would never really know the results of this under the print came out of the developing bath.
It was wonderful....it was peaceful ....it was magic.
Today, we have all these incredible ways to digitally manipulate images...and some of the old nomenclature still exists.
Sorry if I rambled....(hey....didja know we used to "push" film....:smile
R
