Burning-in
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Burning-in is a term used in the photography industry. Burning-in is a technique used during the printing process to darken a specific portion of the print when an enlarger is used to produce the final print. For example, blue skies often appear a dull white in black and white pictures. The printer can burn-in the sky section of the photograph to darken the sky. This often helps to bring out the contrast between the sky and any clouds that may be present.
To burn-in a print, the print is first given normal exposure. Next, extra exposure is given to the area(s) that needs to be darkened. A card or other opaque object is held between the enlarger lens and the photographic paper in such a way as to allow light to fall only on the portion of the scene to be darkened. Since the technique is used with a negative-to-positive process, adding more light to specific areas of the print causes them to become darker.
Ansel Adams elevated burning and dodging to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two techniques. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on this topic called The Print.
Many modern digital imaging programs such as Adobe Photoshop have added a "burn" tool which has a similar effect on digital images.
See also
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