localized test strips in contact printing

[brucemuir]

Also I encourage all printers to pay attention to the image emerging in the developer as dodge and burns become very evident and a lot of time wastage is avoided by visually SEEING the image before you even put on the room lights.

This is great advice that I hadn't always considered.
Thanks Bob.

I was always paranoid of marginally unsafe safelight so mostly inserted the print emulsion side down until fixed.

False economy rears its head once again.

[Michael A. Smith]

Not dodging or burning where it is necessary is an artificial, conceptual, limitation. Sometimes the best prints are straight prints. But if a straight print does not give the best balance of tones, then one should (must, really) dodge and/or burn to get the best print. If, you don't care about making the best print you can, then sure, just make straight prints.

I ell about printing that I have one goal: to make the best print I can. Given the negative I have, that print may be in accord with what I intended when I exposed the negative or it may not. It does not matter. The goal is simply to make the best print I can.

Michael A. Smith

[mcilroy]

I don't disagree with that. It really is (and is intended to be) a conceptual limitation in this case. When I want the best print I can get, I do enlargements to have the best and widest control.