dodging/burning masks

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In the recent issue of 'Camera Arts' magazine Chip Forelli breifly describes burning/dodging technique involving dyes on a transparent piece of film or mylar. Does anybody have any experience with this technique? Chip states it is a technique described by Howard Bond in recent 'View Camera' articles. Thanks. Enrique

-- enrique (gitblisters@hotmail.com), May 17, 2002

Answers

YOu can look at Howard Bond, or Lynn Radeka. Lynn has a booklet on making all kinds of masks, and the one you mention is one of them. Mainly the idea is to put a piece of opaque material on top of the negative and on top of that a mylar sheet or something similar where you draw the shape you want to dodge with a soft pencil. It is a very useful and simple technique. My best advice would be to spend the 65 bucks and buy the Radeka mask kit.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (rossorabbit@hotmail.com), May 17, 2002.

Enrique,

Alan Ross wrote the best article I have seen on this subject. It was in View Camera Magazine a few years ago. You can find their website and give them a call. They sell old issues, and this one is worth having. Ross goes into greater detail than Bond did in his recent "Photo Techniques" articles. Bond, by the way, credits Ross for creating this idea. I have also seen a similar idea presented by Barry Thornton in his book "Edge of Darkness." Great book by the way.

-- Dave Karp (davekarp@ix.netcom.com), May 19, 2002.


This technique, which I learned as "dye dodging" consists of sandwiching a piece of clear material (a piece of cleared unexposed film is pefect) on top of the negative you are printing. Then using dyes (Veronica Cass retouching dyes work great) simply paint the dye with the desired opacity on the clear material over the area you wish to lighten in your print. You can dodge very intricate areas using this method, and can also continue to add dye for greater effect. This technique is much easier as the format size increases! Some sort light table is a must.

-- Arden Howell (Serenisea@aol.com), May 19, 2002.

I first read about the technique of "dye dodging"in an older issue of what was "Darkroom Techniques" magazine, now known as "Photo Techniques". David Kachel (I might be misspelling his last name) wrote the article. This technique is different than the one Howard Bond describes uses translucent acetate with pencil, the technique I use uses clear film with dyes for precise results. Arden Howell, who supplied the previous answer was on the money with his response.

-- chip forelli (photo@chipforelli.com), July 23, 2002.

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