I have come to appreciate the way the digital darkroom emulates traditional printing techniques from the film era. Last spring I began an exploration of how to photograph a scene in flat gray lighting and bring it alive using digital dodging and burning techniques using a radial masking technique. A drab scene completely comes alive when I take a radial mask and brighten tones in a way that I used to do with oval pieces of mat board attached to a rod in the darkroom.
On Thursday I got to campus a half hour before class and made this photograph of the music building. It was early morning and a dark gray morning. For the class demo I edited this image and made a print to show my students how dynamic the tone range could become with selective dodging and burning techniques. This work is inspiring me to get back into the darkroom and see if I can get results as precise as this. Alas, that will have to wait until my home darkroom is back up and running which will be another six months due to construction projects at the house.
