Hands-On Selective Masking

Selective Masking is essentially a hands-free darkroom dodging and burning technique Alan developed to help him bring out the most nuanced range of tones in an image. It’s especially useful with difficult-to-print negatives or those requiring simultaneous dodging and burning in multiple areas. At its simplest, Selective Masking uses just pencil and mylar; at its more complex, it can involve multiple digital masks created in Photoshop.

Last fall, Alan introduced two workshops designed to get you started on incorporating masking into your own darkroom work. Now, he’s taking it a step further by offering a “DIY” masking workshop that will leave you with a basic file for one image, created by Alan during the workshop. Use it as the foundation for a more complex mask or simply as a reference as you learn to create and adjust your own masks.

Alan developed this technique as a way to more easily and effectively print difficult negatives and to give him consistency from print to print. It gives him absolute control over nuance and tonal range without the fuss and precision of pin registration or the limitations of traditional dodging and burning.

Limited to 5 participants. $75 per person. 90 minutes.

Current schedule:

New schedule coming June 2021