Dodge & Burning – Manipulation Secrets
Dodging & Burning is a step which you should make on the final stages of your work, when you finishing up your manipulations. It’s a very easy to use tool as long as you use “low settings”.
The reason why you would want to dodge/burn your artworks it’s because you can create more volume and make the image look so much better and a lot more artistic in my opinion. See the examples below and see before and after results. It’s a really powerful effect.
I’ve mentioned this on many of my tutorials and I’m getting sick of repeating it but it’s important. You must always “dodge and burn” non destructively, which means you don’t use the tool directly on the final product or on the original image. You must always look for a method that will easily allow you to undo or modify your work later on.
You must understand that with the amount of strokes you will make while dodging % burning, it’s impossible to use the history to undo your actions, no matter how many history states you have.
The question is, obviously, how do you do that with this tool? I’ve first seen this technique on a retouching DVD class.
Dodging & Burning non-destructively
The answer to the question above is: By using a layer filled with 50% gray and Overlay blend mode. That’s right. By filling a layer with 50% gray and changing the blend mode to Overlay you will be able to dodge and burn on that layer therefore not affecting original pixels of your image but still get the effect you want.
So, when your composition is ready, create a new layer above every other layer on your palette and go to Edit>Fill and from the Contents part select Use: 50% Gray from the drop down list. You can also access this menu using shortcuts or using the right-mouse button>Fill after you select the entire canvas first.
All that’s left to do is to rename your layer to Dodge/Burn or something like that and change the Blend mode to Overlay or Softlight. Both blend modes work the same but with Softlight you get a less intense effect.
After changing the blend mode you will notice that the gray disappears entirely and you can now see your artwork as the dodge/burn layers is not even there. That’s because of the exact 50% gray value which is neutral.
The fact that the layer becomes invisible is perfect for us because our objective is to locally enhance the lights and shadows of our scene.
Dodge & Burn settings
When your dodging and burning you must use “low settings” and generally only the Midtones Range. I usually use about 9 to 12% Exposure on portraits and human body parts and 15-20% on landscape but these values are not carved in stone. Use the same settings on both tools (the dodge and the burn tools)
Using Dodge & Burn
Now that you know how to set your brush settings (because you will use a brush to dodge and burn) you can start enhancing lights and shadows. This is very straight forward, all you do is use the Burn tool and burn all the shadows on your scene or part of your scene and then you get the Dodge tool and paint over the highlights.
Make multiple passes for a stronger effect. There are multiple examples of before and after on my tutorials. I made a small compilation below.
Dodge & Burn before/after examples
(hover the mouse over the image and wait for the new image to load)
The Police Officer – Photoshop Tutorial
Solo – Photoshop Manipulation Tutorial
Dry World – Photoshop Manipulation Tutorial
Well, that’s it with the dodge and burn. Remember to take your time and always with the visibility of the layer on and off to see the before and after. For a stronger effect try duplicating the Dodge/Burn layer and play with the opacity.
If you have any questions of suggestions please post a comment. Also, feel free to request tutorials using the contact form.
About The Author
Laura
Fantastic Secret! Thanks
Christian
Very much apreciated. I read all the secrets and must say I learned a lot. I used to burn and dodge directly on images ( I made a duplicate to save the original) but this gray tecnique is awesome and will help me improve my pictures with more confidence. Thank you and keep up the great work.
Andrei
Awesome. I’m glad I could help
ira
Awesome series
when will you make the new lesson??
Andrei
Very soon. Maybe the next tutorial will be one of this series.
Steff
I really appreciate your tutorials. This was very helpful… especially finding out how to not use Dodge and Burn directly on the image layer. It’s nice to find a blog that actually does teach tutorials that help advance the knowledge of those wanting more in Photoshop. I’ve found your tutorials to be extremely helpful and I think it is a great service you are offering to people to share these techniques with everyone. Thank you.
Andrei
thanks so much for the kind words
Broski
Damn i cannot wait to finish my college assignments and exams to try these techniques >.< U rocks sir
kp53
thanks again, same I was using dodge and burn directly, really apreciate your work
Peniel
Thanks for your great and inspiring tutorials! What size should my Dodge or Burn brush be? On your Lonely tut Step 13 your Dodge & Burn layer shows like a soft brush touch, but mine is like pencil lines. Help please!
Andrei Oprinca
Hi Peniel. Actually you should adjust the size of the brush size as you go depending on the area you’re going to dodge or burn. If you’re new to this technique though, use medium size brush. The exact diameter in pixels depends on the size of the picture you’re using but try a brush that covers the entire width of an eye for example.
You can adjust the size of the brush just like you do with when you use the BRush Tool; by right clicking. If you’re using a tablet, make sure the Shape Dynamics is deactivated (press F5 to open the brush settings window).
Hope that helped
Peniel
Thank you so much, Andrei! It helped! More power to your elbow!!
alvaro
fantastico , muito bom essa técnica .Parabens pelo talento.
Carlos
Hola Andrei! Excelente tutorial! Me ha ayudado muchisimo en cuanto a tecnica y procedimiento 5*
! Seguire tus tutoriales (buenisimos por cierto) paso a paso para seguir aprendiendo! Ya tienes un nuevo fan xD. No se como llegue a tu pagina jaja pero me alegro de haberla conseguido.
Pd: Eres Rumano? (se que no tiene nada que ver con el tut pero me dio curiosidad tu acento en el video )
masume
This was the best tutorial I ever read about the manipulation! thanks a lot!
ayoubvgfx
amazing thank you for sharing that for first time of my life i finaly undestand “Dodge & Burning” thank you thank you thank you
Vee
Thank you for sharing this technique and others. Much appreciated. Not many people will teach this stuff to others, but you’re helping others advance and that is a great thing. Again, thanks.
Andrei Oprinca
Thank you so much for the kind words