# Dodging, Burning and the Expressive Print

Photography I · The Black-and-White Analogue Laboratory · https://tryals.app/learn/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print

## The Negative Is the Score

**The** negative holds the information, but the print controls what the viewer sees. Two basic operations allow this local control:

* **Dodging** holds light back *during* the base exposure. This makes an area lighter in the print.
* **Burning** adds light *after* the base exposure. This makes an area darker.

Keep tools moving constantly. A static card leaves a hard line, whilst continuous movement blends the tone smoothly into the image.

## Counting in Stops

**Local** adjustments rely on clear arithmetic.

* A **one-stop burn** doubles the total exposure. On a base of 12 seconds, add another 12 seconds.
* A **half-stop burn** multiplies the total by about 1.41.
* A **third-stop** adjustment multiplies exposure by 1.26.
* Dodging 3 seconds from a 12-second base leaves 9 seconds. 12 divided by 9 is 1.33, giving roughly **0.4 of a stop** less light (0.4).

| Change | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| A quarter stop | 1.19 (19% extra) |
| A third stop | 1.26 |
| A half stop | 1.41 |
| One stop | 2.00 |

> **Common pitfall:** thinking local exposure alters the negative. It only changes this single sheet of paper.

## Practice questions

9 of this lesson's 14 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. A print has a base exposure of 12 seconds. A sky is to be burned in by one stop. How many extra seconds of exposure does the sky receive?

**Answer:** 12

**Why:** **12 extra seconds**, giving the sky 24 seconds in total. This is the arithmetic beginners reverse: a one-stop burn is not a total of 12 seconds but an addition of 12, and reading it the wrong way round means burning a sky by nothing at all.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/a-print-has-a-base-exposure-of-12-seconds-a-sky-is-to-be-burned-in

### 2. A sky burns in beautifully but the finished print shows a hard line along the horizon where the burning stopped. How is that avoided?

A. The card is kept in constant small movement so the transition is spread over enough of the print to read as a gradient
B. The card is held completely stationary but positioned much closer to the enlarger lens so that its shadow becomes diffused
C. A softer paper grade is selected so that the stark boundary between exposures is naturally compressed into deeper shadow
D. The burning-in exposure is given before the main exposure is made rather than after, allowing overall light to soften the edge

**Answer:** A. The card is kept in constant small movement so the transition is spread over enough of the print to read as a gradient

**Why:** By keeping the card moving. A card held still casts a sharp boundary that prints as a line, and the line is far more conspicuous than the pale sky it was meant to cure. Constant small movement spreads the transition across a band wide enough for the eye to read it as tone rather than as an edge.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/a-sky-burns-in-beautifully-but-the-finished-print-shows-a-hard-line

### 3. Complete the vocabulary of local control.

**Answer:** Holding light back from an area during the base exposure is called **dodging**. Adding exposure to an area after the base exposure is called **burning**. Adams described the negative as the score and the print as the **performance**. Multiplying the total exposure of an area by 1.41 is a burn of half a **stop**.

**Why:** Counting in stops rather than seconds in the last blank is what makes a printing record portable. A note that says "burn the sky one stop" survives a change of enlarger, paper batch or base exposure; a note that names a number of seconds is true only of the session it was written in, and is useless the moment the lamp is replaced.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/complete-the-vocabulary-of-local-control

### 4. Dodging is carried out during the base exposure and burning after it.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** **True**, and the timing follows from the arithmetic. Withholding light has to happen while the light is falling, so dodging belongs inside the base exposure; adding light can happen at any point, and doing it afterwards lets the printer judge how much is needed against a print already exposed.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/dodging-is-carried-out-during-the-base-exposure-and-burning-after-it

### 5. The negative holds fixed tonal data, yet the darkroom worker retains interpretive control through local exposure. Why does dodging a shadow retain detail where simply reducing overall base exposure fails?

A. It preserves the base exposure across the rest of the composition
B. It alters the density values recorded in the original film negative
C. It adds light to deep shadow areas to lift tones into visibility
D. It guarantees that boundary edges blend without leaving visible lines

**Answer:** A. It preserves the base exposure across the rest of the composition

**Why:** Lowering base exposure lightens the entire sheet, washing out midtones and highlights. Dodging shields only selected paper areas without modifying the negative or discarding global tonal balance across the remaining image.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/the-negative-holds-fixed-tonal-data-yet-the-darkroom-worker-retains

### 6. Which are true of the limits on dodging and burning?

A. A card held still leaves a visible hard edge in the print
B. Burning can recover highlight detail that was never recorded on the negative
C. An area dodged too far prints as blank paper, because the negative holds no more detail there
D. An area burned far enough reaches maximum black, after which more exposure does nothing

**Answer:** A. A card held still leaves a visible hard edge in the print; C. An area dodged too far prints as blank paper, because the negative holds no more detail there; D. An area burned far enough reaches maximum black, after which more exposure does nothing

**Why:** The fourth is the boundary of the whole technique. Local control redistributes what the negative holds and can add nothing to it, so a blown highlight burns down to a smooth grey with no detail in it. That is why the exposure and development decisions of the previous lessons cannot be deferred to the darkroom.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/which-are-true-of-the-limits-on-dodging-and-burning

### 7. A print needs to be one third of a stop darker overall. Its base exposure is 15 seconds. What is the new base exposure, in seconds, to the nearest whole second?

**Answer:** 19 (within ±0.6)

**Why:** **19 seconds.** 15 multiplied by 1.26 is 18.9. Working in thirds of a stop rather than in arbitrary seconds is what keeps the adjustment meaningful: the same instruction applied to a 40-second base gives 50 seconds, and the visual change is identical.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/a-print-needs-to-be-one-third-of-a-stop-darker-overall-its-base

### 8. A face is dodged for 3 seconds out of a 12-second base exposure. How many stops lighter is it, to one decimal place?

**Answer:** 0.4 (within ±0.15)

**Why:** **About 0.4 of a stop.** The face receives 9 seconds instead of 12, a ratio of 1.33, and the base-two logarithm of 1.33 is 0.415. That is a small but entirely visible change, which is why dodging is usually counted in a few seconds rather than in halves of the base time.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/a-face-is-dodged-for-3-seconds-out-of-a-12-second-base-exposure-how

### 9. Sort each decision by whether it belongs to the negative or to the print.

**Answer:**

- Fixed in the negative: How much shadow detail exists at all, The overall density range the negative offers, The grain structure of the image
- Decided at the print: Which part of that range the viewer sees clearly, Whether the sky carries tone or prints blank, The relative weight of the corners against the centre

**Why:** The division is exactly Adams's score and performance. Everything in the first column was settled by exposure and development and cannot be revisited; everything in the second is chosen afresh each time a sheet goes under the enlarger, which is why two prints from one negative can be two different pictures.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/photography-i/dodging-burning-and-the-expressive-print/sort-each-decision-by-whether-it-belongs-to-the-negative-or-to-the