DEAR ELIAS, The boarders would be covered during both the main exposure and the burn hence no fog. Suggestions: 1) Use black paper cut or curved in various shapes for your burns. Yes, I also like to use my hands but black paper bounces less light around. 2) If you have any light leaks from the enlarger, they can veil any print. 3) I have the area around my enlarger painted black though I have taken precautions to minimize light leaks from the enlarger. 4) My favorite trick: whenever I screw up a piece of paper, I put it in the developer, turn on the lights, let it turn deep black and then finish processing and washing it along with the good prints. This way I have a piece of paper with one side black and one white. I keep the black side down but can still see the area of the print (albeit out of focus) on the white side. This works particularly well when burning a very small area through a hole cut in the paper. Well, free advice, by definition of no value! CHEERS! BOB -----Original Message----- From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ERoustom Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:27 AM To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [pure-silver] burning in & overall exposure Hello all, Was working on a print last night. I really liked my first take, but wanted to burn in an area, which I did only to find that I darkened the overall image too. I notice a lot of stray light during the burn, because I can see it in contrast to my mask. Could that be the source of the overall increase in exposure? I'm guessing yes, and I will try to address it with light absorbent panels around the enlarger. But my question is, wouldn't I see in the borders as fog? Or is the paper more prone to fogging in the already sensitized area? Is it normal to adjust for this, but cutting back the initial exposure? Should I be laying down masks over the image not to be burned? I'm using Ilford MG IV RC Pearl, 8x10 sheet in easel masking 1/4" border, image area is 7x7 centered. Exposure 26 seconds, burn in 27.5 seconds. Thanks, Elias ============================================================================ ================================= To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there. __________ NOD32 3332 (20080806) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com ============================================================================================================= To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.