Photoshop has numerous powerful tools that can be used to make all or parts of the image brighter or darker. From levels, to curves, to contrast, to brightness, it can be difficult to choose which to use. This article rounds up some of the better video tutorials that demonstrate basic and more advanced uses of Photoshop’s dodging and burning tools. But first:
What is the dodge tool? The dodge tool simply lightens the pixels you paint over. It has many uses such as to brighten a shadow on a face, to lighten the subject of the photo to bring the viewer’s eyes to it, to enhance the light streaks in a person’s hair, and more.
What is the burn tool? The burn tool is the exact opposite of dodging: it darkens the pixels in the area you paint over. Burning can be used to recover some detail from blown-out areas, to darken the edges of a photograph for a slight or extreme vignetting effect, among other things.
Most of the time, it’s recommended to use a nice soft brush with feathered edges to help make the result look more natural and subtle. It’s easy to overdo it with these tools and the results look terrible. Too much dodging blows out the area, and makes it look very white & pale, while too much burning can make it look like someone applied a lit match to your picture: literally burned black. Almost always, you should set the exposure (a.k.a. opacity) of the brush you’re using pretty low, usually around 5-20%, which allows a much more gradual buildup of the dodge & burn effects that also help make the result look more natural.
One more tidbit before showing the videos: using the dodging and burning tools make destructive edits to your image or layer, meaning they actually change the pixels on your original (just as the spot healing brush tool does). This can make it difficult to to reverse your edits if you make numerous dodges & burns (unless you make extensive use of your history and/or snapshots). Several of the following videos show you how to do non-destructive dodging and burning on a separate layer(s) to address this problem.
On to the videos:
“Dodge and Burn in Photoshop CS3″ – photoshopCAFE
This is a video from Colin Smith’s book Complete Photoshop CS3 for Digital Photographers
“Burn, Dodge, Sponge – Oh My!” – IceflowStudios
Howard, from Iceflow Studios, delivers a FANTASTIC tutorial about the basics of the burn, dodge, and sponge tools in Photoshop CS3. He clearly shows how different exposure levels affect the results, how to restrict the changes to certain parts of the image (shadows, midtones, & highlights), and how to alter the saturation with the sponge tool. Plus, how often do you see a tutorial demonstrating image edits on a tiger’s crotch? Yes, a tiger’s crotch. Watch to find out.
“Burn and Dodge Magic in Photoshop – The Seim Effect” – ventrilqstman
Gavin, from seimeffects.com gives a slightly different take on dodging and burning on a sample senior picture and a black & white photo of a city skyline. While this isn’t a very step-by-step tutorial like the previous, it really shows a couple superb examples of what some intensive dodge & burn work can accomplish in a photo. Gavin places strong emphasis on the more creative aspect of these tools: using them to control the flow of the viewer’s eyes in a photo.
“Photoshop Tutorial: Mono Part 5 – Dodge & Burn” – mattedmundson
In the fifth part of his 6 part Photoshop “Mono Conversion” tutorial series, Matt Edmundson works some dodge & burn magic on a great photo of a building. He starts off the video covering some of the extensive color curves adjustments he made to the image, and then shows how to use very minor burning and dodging to further enhance certain aspects. Mr. Edmundson really knows what he’s talking about, and his British accent is awesome. Be sure to look at his other videos too.
“Photoshop, Burn, Dodge and Heal Tutorial” – mercSR
Along with some dodging and burning, mercSR shows how to use the healing brush to remove a text watermark from an image. It’s geared for people who already have a basic sense of how to use and navigate in Photoshop, because he moves pretty quickly. He uses a gritty, urban image that some may not appreciate, but is no worse than a PG-13 rating.
Warning: There are a few minor expletives in the video, so it may not be suitable for work or some other public places.
“Photoshop Tutorials: Dodge Tool and More Color Corrections 2″ – stilldescending
In the second part of Chad M. West’s mini tutorial on dodging & color correcting, he goes into more detail about how burning and dodging affects the color of your image as well as its brightness, and how to alter the tools (along with using the sponge tool) to keep the saturation of the colors correct. His first part is also worth watching to get a basic idea of a very simple and powerful method of correcting a color cast in a photo (and that this clip is the second part of the tutorial). Fantastic video!
“Photoshop CS4 – New Dodge and Burn Tools” – charlesviper
This video demonstrates some of the changes in CS 4 to the dodge & burn tools. In Photoshop CS4, dodging and burning affect vibrance instead of saturation, which makes it less likely to negatively affect your image, and usually ends up looking smoother and more natural. Check it out in this three-minute video.
That’s all folks. In thirty to fourty minutes of video tutorials, you should be quite competant with Photoshop’s dodge & burn tools. If you have an unconventional or favorite use of these tools, please share!
Thanks for the kind comments! Never heard my accent described as awesome before.