We packed a lot of learning into my class Monday night. After we were shown how to use contrast filters, and after we tried it, we were taught how to dodge and burn. I had the perfect image to try this on. I took this photo of a statue in the Louvre and since it was lighted from behind it was silhouetted.

I love how low-tech this process is. She simply used her hand to dodge. Or if you can’t use your hand you use one of the handy “tools” which is a small piece of cardboard duck-taped to a wire hanger. That is what I had to use because of where my statue is situated in the photo and because I put the negative in the carrier upside down.

A quick wave over of the statue and, voilà, more information is revealed. Magic.

It will be fun to use this more in the future and, hopefully perfect it. I don’t understand a lot of this at the moment, logically. I feel like I am feeling around in the dark (Actually, that is exactly what I am doing. No metaphor there at all). Hopefully it will feel more natural to me in the near future with practice.

Next week we are learning about photo manipulation. I am not sure, exactly, what that means but I can’t wait to find out!