Corner burn not looking right - what am I doing wrong?

[polyglot]

The transition is abrupt because you're moving the card uniformly. The uniformity means that you get a greater relative change in density in the light areas than the dark:
- outside the burn, you have 12s
- in the middle of the burn, you have 24s
- at the edge, you have 36s

So the middle of the burn is twice as dense as the unburnt, while the outside corner is only 1/3 denser than the middle of the burn. The closer to the unburnt area you get, the steeper the apparent density gradient becomes.

The next thing that's making it MUCH worse is that you're burning with #00 a print made at #2.5. At #2.5, your unburnt highlight has practically zero density, but the #00 will burn the highlights in REALLY quickly. So in terms of the density achieved on the paper, you're talking more like 6s of base exposure and 24s of burning. So the inner bit of gradient is 6s -> 18s (factor of three) while the outer bit of gradient is 18s -> 30s (factor of < 2). I almost never burn at a lower grade, I generally only burn at the same or higher grades.

[Bob Carnie]

00 filter is the wrong one I agree
Also the corners are not sharp like the area closer to the head, are you using a glass carrier?
for Corner burns I never use a card. I use my hands , they can be manipulated around the heads much easier and basically I am not trying to make a gradient rather burn the whole area you are illustrating and then just add a punch to the corners.
If you are trying to get black maybe a higher contrast filter for part of the time.
When burning in I have my hands about 1/3 down from lens to easel .
Pretend you are cupping your hand and moving your fingers you can get different shapes.

I'd just burn with the base filter 2.5. In my own opinion situations where a different filter is needed for a burn are very very infrequent. Burn with the 00 filter just makes the areas that would be white, now dark gray. It won't make blacks blacker.

[tkamiya]

Bob,

No, I am not using glass carrier. The image is out-of-focus at corners as I shot this wide open (80mm 645 at f/2.8) and focus is on person. I'll have to try close to the lens and using my hands - that will probably help making the edges softer. Thank you for your advise.

[tkamiya]

When would one use #00 for burning in then? I was under the impression that when burning areas where details shouldn't be there, using 0 or 00 was sort of the standard.

[Bob Carnie]

You need to look closer at the edges, even if your DOF is soft behind the subject , you Should see sharp grain.

Look at Anton Corbjin work, its all about the sharp out of focus areas.
Stopping down the lens will not help, make the jump to glass carriers and you will be happy.

Bob,

No, I am not using glass carrier. The image is out-of-focus at corners as I shot this wide open (80mm 645 at f/2.8) and focus is on person. I'll have to try close to the lens and using my hands - that will probably help making the edges softer. Thank you for your advise.

[Bob Carnie]

I use the 00 for highlight regions only, nowhere else.
On your sample look at the grey tone , that is because of the 00 which is not helping you.

When would one use #00 for burning in then? I was under the impression that when burning areas where details shouldn't be there, using 0 or 00 was sort of the standard.