Dodge and Burn

Background and release

In October 2013, announced the forthcoming release of a limited edition 7-inch vinyl record containing two newly recorded Dead Weather songs. «Open Up (That’s Enough)» and its B-side, «Rough Detective,» were released exclusively in this format through the label’s record subscription service, The Vault. These two tracks were the first pair of songs to be released in vinyl-only physical form through The Vault. «» and «It’s Just Too Bad» were released in similar fashion on November 4, 2014. These four songs and eight others would make up the band’s third studio album, Dodge and Burn. The songs were recorded from approximately July 2014 to July 2015 when members of the band had the available time or inspiration to record. The third single in advance of the album, «,» was made available for download on August 21, 2015. It was released on 7-inch vinyl, backed with «Cop and Go,» through The Vault in September 2015.

Applications

A key application of dodging and burning is to improve contrast (tonal reproduction) in film print-making; today this is better known as tone mapping in digital photography – see high dynamic range imaging. The technical issue is that natural scenes have higher dynamic range (ratio of light to dark) than can be captured by film, which in turn is greater than can be reproduced in prints. Compressing this high dynamic range into a print either requires uniformly decreasing contrast (making tones closer together) or carefully printing different parts of an image differently so that each retains the maximum contrast – in this latter dodging and burning is a key tool.

An excellent example is the photograph Schweitzer with lamp at his desk by W. Eugene Smith, from his 1954 photo essay A Man of Mercy on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa. The image took 5 days to produce, in order to reproduce the tonal range of the scene, which ranges from a bright lamp (relative to the scene) to dark shadow.

Ansel Adams elevated dodging and burning to an art form. Many of his famous prints were manipulated in the darkroom with these two techniques. Adams wrote a comprehensive book on producing prints called The Print (), which features dodging and burning prominently, in the context of his Zone System.

They can also be used in less subtle ways, as in the stenciled lettering shown at the top of this article.

Personnel

As per liner notes:

The Dead Weather

• – vocals
• – bass, backing vocals
• – drums, vocals (tracks 4, 6, 7), guitar (track 7), cowbell (track 10), percussion (track 11), production, mixing
• – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals; piano (tracks 9, 10, 12), sequencing

Additional musicians

• Joshua V. Smith – cowbell
• Katelyn Westergard – violin
• Kristin Weber – violin
• Elizabeth Lamb – viola
• Cara Fox – cello

Additional personnel

• Joshua V. Smith – , mixing
• Vance Powell – engineering
• John Hampton – engineering
• Mindy Watts – assistant recording engineer
• Lydia Gilman – assistant recording engineer
• Dusy Fairchild – assistant recording engineer, mixing engineer
• Lars Fox – additional editing
• Brooke Waggoner – string quartet arrangement (track 12)
• – mastering

Technique

By using completely opaque material as a cover over the preferred area for dodging or burning, absolutely no light will pass through and as a result, an outline of the material may be visible on the print. One way to prevent obvious cover-up lines is to slightly shake the burning material over the covered area while it is being exposed. Another way to prevent obvious cover-up lines is to use slightly less opaque material closer to the outline to produce a more subtle, faded effect.

Burning

Burning: a darkroom technique

To burn-in a print, the print is first given normal exposure. Next, extra exposure is given to the area or areas that need 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.

Dodging

Dodging: also a darkroom technique

A card or other opaque object is held between the enlarger lens and the photographic paper in such a way as to block light from the portion of the scene to be lightened. Since the technique is used with a negative-to-positive process, reducing the amount of light results in a lighter image.