[Step 1]    Unfortunately, I never saved test strips and other minor materials from the preparation of this photo...so, I can only show the major steps that I've saved.

[Step 2]    This is one of two test prints made at different exposures to evaluate the density & contrast of the different parts of the image.

The image has been diffused by a sheet of dry mount tissue (adhesive used to mount photos). The paper has a texture that I find very useful in diffusion photography.

The base exposure (that amount of light that I hope would give an ideal exposure) was based on the trunk of the tree. Notice how only the center of the image is of a reasonably good density.

[Step 3]    The second test print used an area of the ground to determine the base exposure. This time was later used to print the final image along with the drawn mask (see next step).

[Step 4]    Because very small and detailed areas of the image were much less dense (in the negative) than others, it was necessary to dodge only the areas of the branches and trunk of the tree.

The image was drawn under the enlarger with charcoal and the lines smoothed by finger to eliminate some of the outlining effect caused by the charcoal on the texture of the paper. The image above, therefore, can be described as a "mask."

[Step 5]    Once the mask was completed, the light areas of the image were evaluated and tested for exposure (using small test strips). When all tests were evaluated, a final print was made that incorporated all dodging and burning. The summary of the three major burning areas are shown in the next image.

[Step 6]    The final print was made by burning a thick black border around the print. For a complete description of this process, click here. (Note: I haven't yet made the page that describes this process. If you want to know how to do it before I get a chance to prepare the webpage, e-Mail jeolin@hotmail.com.