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Discover the art of dodging and burning in Photoshop! On Day 19 we’ll show you the best techniques for dramatically enhancing your photos. Ditch the old, “destructive” tools and master a powerful non-destructive method using adjustment layers for ultimate control.
Follow along with all 30 episodes as we explore the the magic of Photoshop together!
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- Karsten Winegeart
Images sourced from Unsplash.
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AFTER
BEFORE
Control Your Edits
In both traditional photography and modern digital editing, dodging and burning are techniques used to selectively lighten or darken specific areas of an image. This guide will show you how to use these powerful techniques in Photoshop to enhance your photos.
The Old Way
We’ll begin by demonstrating the basic Dodge and Burn tools. To find them, locate their icons in the Photoshop toolbar. The Dodge tool lightens, while the Burn tool darkens. To use them, select the desired tool, adjust the exposure (e.g., to 10%), and paint directly onto your image layer. The major drawback is that these tools permanently “bake” the changes into your pixels, making them impossible to adjust later without using the history panel and undoing all subsequent edits.
The New Way
Aaron’s preferred method uses adjustment layers.
1. To begin, go to the Adjustments panel and add a Brightness/Contrast layer (or Curves or Levels).
2. Adjust the settings to your liking, then select the new layer’s mask and press ( Keyboard Shortcut “Ctrl/Command + I”) to invert it to black. This hides the adjustment.
3. Now, select your Brush tool (Keyboard Shortcut “B”), set your foreground color to white (Keyboard Shortcut “D”), and paint on the layer mask to selectively reveal the lightening effect.
4. For a burning effect, create a second Brightness/Contrast layer and repeat the process, lowering the brightness. You can turn these layers on or off at any time.
Advanced Techniques
1. For more refined control, use a selection. To do this, go to your background layer, click on Select, then Subject. This automatically creates a selection of your main subject.
2. Next, create a Group folder (Keyboard Shortcut “Ctrl/Command + G”) and add your dodge and burn adjustment layers inside it.
3. With the group selected, click the Layer Mask icon. This confines all the effects within that group to your selected subject.
4. An even more powerful technique is using Blend If, found by double-clicking the layer. By holding Alt/Option and dragging the sliders, you can make the dodge effect only apply to the highlights and the burn effect only apply to the shadows, creating a much more natural and realistic look.
Thank you for joining today’s tutorial on dodging and burning. We hope you’ve enjoyed mastering this non-destructive technique. Be sure to tune in tomorrow when we’ll be covering the essential skill of color correction.
