The joy of the darkroom
working in the darkroom is not always as fast and smooth as logging into photoshop. but the magical moment when an actual image appears, out of nowhere, on the blank paper is believed to make the other moments of aggravation worth while.
unless you feel that way, just turn on the lights and forget about it all.
true, working in the color darkroom is not as fascinating as working in the black & white one, and is often accompanied with much more technicality, color frustration and total darkness, but on the other hand you avoid the smell and the direct contact with the chemicals.
after making a contact sheet and the exposure testing [using test strips] is all done, it is time to see what needs to be done in order to get the desired perfect print.
dodging and burning - these are methods for lightening or darkening certain areas in the photograph in order to get more details [ if they exist at all ] in highlights and shadows.
warning: dodging and burning are not for people with a non-patience condition.
toning - by toning a print one can change the tone of a picture or even the color of it. a black & white negative can become a sepia [yellow-brown] print or even red, orange, blue etc.
cropping - deciding on what to leave out [ for those who forget to crop with the camera while shooting].
creating black borders - during printing to enhance a print without mounting.
contrast - no matter what they say, the level of contrast in a picture is mainly a personal preference.
adjusting the contrast can be done by using a multi contrast printing paper or by changing the filter used while making the exposure. the higher filter used the higher contrast the final print will have.
[ color printing - mainly is about balancing between exposure time and the amount of yellow, magenta and cyan filters.
it is just the perfect job for the color blind. ]
filter #00
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filter #3
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filter #5
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color frustration
the areas which need to
be dodged or burned
the result
toning
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