Dodging and Burning Done Right


If you've ever used Photoshop's Dodge and Burn tools, you already know how lame they are. That's why the pros choose this method insteadit gives them a level of control that the Dodge and Burn tools just don't offer, and best of all, it doesn't "bruise the pixels." (Photoshop-speak for "it doesn't mess up your original image data while you're editing.")

Step One

In this photo the light simply didn't fall where you wish it had. Here, we're going to dodge (lighten) an area that we wish had more light (like the hanging sign, the left side of the building, and the wall on the right), and then we're going to burn (darken) the harsh light falling on the building just below the hanging sign and the tin door at the top-left corner of the photo.

Step Two

Go to the Layers palette, and from the palette's flyout menu, choose New Layer. The reason you need to do this (rather than just clicking on the Create New Layer icon) is that you need to access the New Layer dialog for this technique to work. But, if you're a flyout menu hater or shortcut freak (you know who you are), you can Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on the Create a New Layer icon instead to bring up the dialog. When the New Layer dialog appears, change the Mode to Overlay; then, right below it, choose "Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray)." This is normally grayed out, but when you switch to Overlay mode, this choice becomes available. Click OK.

Step Three

This creates a new layer (filled with 50% gray) above your Background layer. (When you fill a layer with 50% gray and change the Mode to Overlay, Photoshop ignores the color. You'll see a gray thumbnail in the Layers palette, but the layer will appear transparent in your image window.)

Step Four

Press B to switch to the Brush tool, and in the Options Bar, click on the thumbnail to the right of the word "Brush" and choose a medium soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker. Now, lower the Brush tool's Opacity to approximately 30%.

Step Five

Press the letter D then X to set your Foreground color to white. Begin painting over the areas that you want to lighten (in this example, click-and-hold the mouse button and paint over the sign). As you paint, in the Layers palette you'll see white strokes appear in the thumbnail of your gray transparent layer, and on the hanging sign you'll see soft lighting appear.

Step Six

If the dodging isn't as intense as you'd like, just release the mouse button, click, and paint right over the same area again. Because you're dodging at a low Brush Opacity setting, the light areas will "build up" as you paint multiple strokes. (I painted over the windows about three times while lightening the second story of the building on the left.) Note: If the light areas appear too intense, try lowering the Opacity in the Layers palette.

Step Seven

Now press the letter D to set your Foreground color to black, and paint over that harsh area of light directly beneath the hanging sign. Then, paint over the tin door in the top left of the photo a couple of times to darken it. Now press X to set white as your Foreground color and paint over the wall on the far right of the photo, just to bring it out of the shadows a little bit. If you look in the Layers palette, you'll see that your Overlay layer has all sorts of white, gray, and black strokes over it.

Before (with the sign too dark, and the building and windows on the left buried in shadows)

After (with the sign and left side of the building dodged, and the tin door and direct sunlight burned just a bit)



    The Photoshop CS2 Book(c) for Digital Photographers
    The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
    ISBN: B002DMJUBS
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 187
    Authors: Scott Kelby

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