How to Dodge and Burn in Photoshop – Day 19

Dodge and Burn With Curves, Not the Dodge Tool

Dodging and burning is the oldest idea in photographic printing: hold light back from part of the print and it comes out lighter, give another part extra exposure and it comes out darker. Done well it adds shape and depth that no global adjustment can.

The version Photoshop names after it is the version you should not use. Here is why, and what to do instead.

The Dodge and Burn Tools Are Not the Answer

They work: pick the Dodge tool, set Range to Midtones and Exposure to about 10%, paint over your subject, and they get brighter. Burn does the reverse. The problem is what happens next.

They Only Work on Pixels

Make a new empty layer and try to dodge on it and nothing happens at all. These tools have to be used on the background layer or another layer with real pixels in it.

The Change Is Baked In Immediately

There is no opacity slider, no settings to revisit, no way to make it more subtle in twenty minutes when you look at the whole picture and realize you overdid it.

Your Only Undo Is History

Which means stepping backwards through everything you have done since. On any edit longer than a few minutes, that is not a real option.

Build a Dodge Layer Instead

1. Add a Brightness/Contrast Layer

   Raise brightness, ease contrast down slightly. Curves, levels and exposure all work here — brightness/contrast is the simplest and does the job.

2. Invert Its Mask

   Click the mask and press Ctrl/Cmd + I, or use Invert Mask in the contextual task bar. The mask goes black and the adjustment disappears completely. You are now going to paint it back in only where you want it.

3. Paint With White at Low Flow

   Press B, then D for default colors — on a mask that gives you white in the foreground. Set the brush flow to around 20% and paint over the areas that should catch light.

4. Rename It “Dodge”

   You are about to have two identical-looking layers. Double-click the name and label it now.

Build a Burn Layer the Same Way

A second Brightness/Contrast layer with brightness pulled down, mask inverted, painted with white where the image should recede. Name it “Burn”.

Both layers can be re-opened at any point — double-click the adjustment thumbnail and change the amount. This is the entire advantage over the tools, and it is a large one.

Why Dodge and Burn Needs Low Flow

Flow controls how quickly paint accumulates. At 100% one stroke applies the full effect and every overlap shows as a hard patch. At around 20% each pass adds a little, so you build the effect gradually and it stays smooth.

Opacity and flow are not the same thing. Opacity caps the total strength of a stroke; flow controls the rate of build-up within it. For dodging and burning, flow is the one to lower.

Group Them and Mask the Group to Your Subject

Painting freehand on the masks will inevitably spill onto the background. Rather than cleaning that up stroke by stroke, fix it once at the group level.

1. Select Both Layers and Press Ctrl/Cmd + G

   Name the group “Dodge & Burn”.

2. Run Select Subject on the Background Layer

   Click the background, then Select Subject from the contextual task bar.

3. Click the Mask Icon With the Group Selected

   The group now carries a mask shaped to your subject, and nothing inside it can affect the background — however loosely you paint.

A group mask and a layer mask work together: the group decides the overall boundary, the individual layers decide where inside it the effect lands.

Blend If Is What Makes It Look Real

Here is the step that separates this from a competent edit. Light does not brighten a surface evenly — it lands on the parts already facing it. So dodging should mostly affect areas that are already bright, and burning areas that are already dark.

Double-click the empty part of a layer to open Blending Options, and use the Underlying Layer sliders from Day 17.

Dodge Into the Highlights

Alt/Option-split the left handle and drag it right. The brightening fades out of the shadows and concentrates in the highlights. Toggle Preview and the difference is immediate — it stops looking like paint and starts looking like light.

Burn Into the Shadows

On the burn layer, Alt/Option-split the right handle and drag it left, so the darkening disappears from the highlights and deepens only what was already dark.

Always split the handles. An unsplit Blend If gives you a hard cutoff, and on skin that is very visible.

What Finished Dodge and Burn Looks Like

A group masked to the subject, containing two adjustment layers, each with a hand-painted mask and its own Blend If range. Four independent controls, and every one of them is still live:

Change the brightness values. Repaint either mask. Re-tune the Blend If sliders. Drop the group opacity to fade the whole thing. Switch the group off to compare. Save the PSD, come back in a year, and change your mind about any of it.

Practice on the Sample File

Download the image and PSD and take the layer masks apart to see where the strokes went. Then build it yourself from scratch on a portrait of your own — the Blend If step is the one worth repeating until it is automatic, because it is the difference between an edit that reads as retouching and one that reads as lighting.

Day 18 covered blending modes. Tomorrow, Day 20 continues the series. For a fuller treatment of building light this way, our PRO Advanced Lighting Effects in Photoshop goes considerably deeper.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Dodge tool, for comparisonRange: Midtones, Exposure 10%; pixel layers only
• Dodge layerBrightness/Contrast adjustment layer: brightness up, contrast slightly down
• Hide it to startCmd/Ctrl + I on the mask, or Invert Mask in the contextual task bar
• Paint it inB, D for white on the mask, Flow about 20%
• Keep it on the subjectCmd/Ctrl + G to group; Select Subject on the background; layer mask icon on the group
• Light where light fallsDouble-click the layer, Underlying Layer: Alt/Option-split the left handle right to dodge, the right handle left to burn