Enlargements.

Choose one of the pictures from your contact sheet that you would like to see enlarged. Looking at the contact sheet, decide which amount of time gave the best exposure for those particular negatives. Remember your 3 second exposures across the contact sheet? Choose the ones that look best, and set the enlarger timer to that amount of time. In other words, if the best looking pictures on the sheet are the ones that were exposed for 12 seconds, then set your timer to 12 seconds.

Next, take the negative you want to enlarge and load it into the enlargers negative carrier. Negative carriers are usually flat round, or square devices that have a small square hole in the middle to center your negative in. Check you owners manual as these differ between machines. Center the negative emulsion, or dull side down in the carrier, and load the carrier into the machine.

Turn off all lighting except the safe light. All the steps from here are done under the safe light, so give your eyes a moment to adjust.

After loading the negative, turn on the enlarger light, and place the paper easel under the light so that you can enlarge and center the picture.(Do not take out any photographic paper yet.) You need to have an easel for whichever size paper you use. Most folks keep both a 8x10, and a 5x7 handy. Move the enlarger head (top part), up and down until the picture is the same size as the easel. You may also have to move the easel around a bit. Once this is done, you will need to whip out that grain focusing magnifier, place it on the easel, and focus the picture until the grains you see are sharp. You won't be able to see the whole picture in the focuser, just the grain. If you don't have a focusing magnifier, just do the best you can.

Once the picture is enlarged to the size of the easel, and in focus, turn off the enlarger light and load your photographic paper in the easel. Take care not to move the easel when loading the paper, otherwise the photo will print crooked. Now that the paper is loaded, push the timer button, or turn the enlarger on manually to expose the paper for three seconds.

Remove the photo, and put it in the developer. Then, follow all the same steps for making a contact sheet.

You won't be able to see the photo very well until after you wash it, and it's safe to turn the lights back on. If the photo seems too dark, or too light, simply reprint; adding, or subtracting exposure time. It may take you a few tries to get it right.

Cropping Dodging, and Burning in.

If you have gone through a whole box of photographic paper, and still can't seem to get it right, there is still hope. There are ways, to lighten and darken areas of a photo that won't act right. There are even ways to remove distracting things from the picture. (Worst enemies who sneak in, mother-in-laws, crazy people in clown suits, etc.) Here's a rundown of all those tricks.

Cropping

If all you want is a particular area of a picture, then you will need to enlarge it until just that area is on the photographic paper. That means that the other areas of the picture will overlap the edges of the easel when you print. All that will show up on the photo will be the area you choose. Be extra careful with focusing, and exposure when cropping. You may need to adjust the time you expose.

Dodging.

This will take out areas within the photo. You can make a dodging tool by cutting a small piece of paper the same size as the area of the picture you want to remove, and attach it to a fine wire. This will enable you to hold the paper over the area, and prevent light from exposing it. Usually, this technique is used in combination with burning in. You can take out the face of, say....your brother, and then burn in the face of your sister from a negative with her picture on it. For serious dodging accuracy, print one picture, and cut out the area you want to dodge. Use this cutout  as a template to dodge the corresponding area in a new print. It will be almost exact, but you must place it directly on the area during the exposure.

Burning in.

This is a helpful technique when a photo looks fine, but there is one spot that doesn't show up too well. Some areas in a photo may need a little more exposure than the rest of the picture. The best burning-in tools you own are your own hands. Once you determine which area needs help, and are ready to expose, simply hold your hands over the photo after you expose it, leaving the affected area uncovered and exposed to the light a few extra seconds. This should make the area brighten up and improve the whole photo. If you have doubts about using your hands, then use a piece of paper that covers the whole photo with a hole cut in it that corresponds with the area that needs correction. This also works after you have dodged something out of a photo, and want to put something else in its place. Take care to be precise when taking things out of photos and putting other things in. It will make your photo nicer.

When I burn in, I hold my fist up to the enlarger lens, and let a small area of light shine through. This allows me to move the light around in case I have more than one area that needs correction. I sort of shine it around like a little pen light. Practice before you try it this way.