Dodging and Burning

 

Even if you have been taking photos for years you understand every function on your camera, you still need to edit. There are just some things you can’t do with your camera or even with your lighting gear. Maybe the sun isn’t in the desired position, so your subject isn’t lit up the way you were hoping. It could be that the picture looks too cool, and you want to add contrast in there. The dodge and burn tools are just for you.

The dodge and burn tool were both pretty intimidating to me. I had never heard of them before, so I was reluctant to try them. However, like everything else, there always comes a time when you need to use a certain tool, and then you are left up the creek without a paddle, hoping that a YouTube video will save you. The good news is that these are probably the easiest tools for Photoshop.

Let’s talk about the burn tool first. So, when would you use this tool and how do you use it? The burn tool is used when you want to make a certain area appear darker. I actually have a great example of this for when I was taking photos of my friend. He was posing in front of a brick wall and the sunlight was directly on him. I used the burn tool to darken the bricks in the foreground. This helped it stand out more as well and even added this crisp feeling to it.

Using the same example, let’s talk about the dodge tool. The dodge tool does the exact opposite of the burn tool. They both deal with exposure; however, the dodge tool makes things lighter.
In the image of my friend, I used the dodge tool to lighten up his face just a little. When creating so much contrast you really need to be careful to not overdo it so I took it pretty easy with dodging. Of course, this is always at your own discretion. Both the dodge and burn tool allows you to change the hardness of the brush as well as the exposure which is nice because then you really have ultimate control of what you want.

For practice, try an example like mine. Try and get familiar with these tools and become comfortable with them. Don’t forget to test out the hardness and the exposure of the brushes. After using these tools, what are your thoughts? Do you find them easy to use? Don’t forget to check out my other blog posts. Thank you so much!