Dodge

A racket; any shady means of livelihood.

- american underworld dictionary - 1950

While printing in a darkroom...

To dodge is to remove an amount of light from a specific part of a print. This is done in order to make a part of the print that's too dark lighter.

Goes hand in hand with burning as one of the two main printing techniques one needs to master.

---

The question has been raised about the veracity of the above statements concerning light in relation to exposure in prints. When you're working with a camera and a negative, the more light that is exposed onto the film creates a denser negative: this translates into a negative that prints "lighter" or "whiter".

The reverse is true while working with a negative and paper. The more light you add to a print, the further the image travels from its original state (stark white).

Thus, dodging a print (removing light) makes the dodged area lighter, brighter and whiter.

Dodge (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Dodged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Dodging.] [Of uncertain origin: cf. dodder, v., daddle, dade, or dog, v. t.]

1.

To start suddenly aside, as to avoid a blow or a missile; to shift place by a sudden start.

Milton.

2.

To evade a duty by low craft; to practice mean shifts; to use tricky devices; to play fast and loose; to quibble.

Some dodging casuist with more craft than sincerity. Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Dodge, v. t.

1.

To evade by a sudden shift of place; to escape by starting aside; as, to dodge a blow aimed or a ball thrown.

2.

Fig.: To evade by craft; as, to dodge a question; to dodge responsibility.

[Colloq.]

S. G. Goodrich.

3.

To follow by dodging, or suddenly shifting from place to place.

Coleridge.

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Dodge, n.

The act of evading by some skillful movement; a sudden starting aside; hence, an artful device to evade, deceive, or cheat; a cunning trick; an artifice.

[Colloq.]

Some, who have a taste for good living, have many harmless arts, by which they improve their banquet, and innocent dodges, if we may be permitted to use an excellent phrase that has become vernacular since the appearance of the last dictionaries. Thackeray.

 

© Webster 1913.