"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships"

Ansel Adams, revered for his iconic black-and-white photographs of the American West, offers a wry perspective on photographic manipulation in his famous remark about dodging and burning. These darkroom techniques, lightening or darkening specific areas of a photograph, are essential tools for photographers seeking to shape and refine the tonal relationships within their images. Adams’ words playfully attribute the imperfections of a photograph not to the photographer’s skill but to “mistakes God made,” humorously acknowledging both the natural world's complexity and the artist’s creative role.

His statement reflects an understanding that nature, in all its grandeur, does not always present itself in perfect visual harmony when rendered through the mechanical and chemical process of photography. The camera records scenes with literal fidelity, but its translation of light and shadow can result in areas that are too dark or too light, losing important detail or emotional resonance. Dodging and burning allow photographers to recover or emphasize aspects of the scene that might otherwise be lost in the translation from reality to the printed image.

Adams’ approach underscores the photographer’s ownership of the final image. He sees the negative as a kind of musical score, full of potential but requiring interpretation and execution to fully realize its power. The intervention of dodging and burning is not a correction of God’s creation but an embrace of artistic responsibility. By carefully adjusting the photograph’s tonal relationships, artists can guide the viewer’s attention, shape emotional impact, and clarify narrative meaning.

Through this clever phrasing, Adams elevates post-processing from mere technical correction to an act of creative partnership with nature. Far from diminishing the photographer’s art, such manipulation reveals the interplay between the world as it is and as it might be experienced, crafted not only by what is in front of the lens, but by what is within the mind and hands of the artist.