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.