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Dodging and Burning The Non-Destructive Way
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Mar 30, 2019 07:00:42   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop

2. Duplicate Locked background layer. Why? You don't want to work on your original background image.
My favorite way is using the Keyboard HotKey: CTRL J.

3. Create a new TRANSPARENT layer. Here are some basic ways of doing this. 1. Go up to the top menu bar and choose LAYER> NEW> Layer. 2. Click on the icon to the left of the Trashcan in the bottom of your layers palette. 3. Keyboard shortcut> SHIFT CTRL N. Note: Using 1 or 3 will allow you the chance to Name your layer and apply a color theme to the layer: In this excerise, we want to name the LAYER " BURN" and change the color to RED.

4. Now we want to fill the New Transparent Burn Layer with 50% Gray. Step 1. Click on the Burn layer to make it active. Step 2. Go up to the top menu bar and choose EDIT> Fill> a small window will open up. If 50% Gray is not showing in the Contents box, click on the drop down arrow and choose 50% GRAY and click OK.

5. Now we want to change the BLEND mode on the Burn Layer to either Overlay, or Softlight. Note: Overlay gives more contrast. I usually use Soft Light for this. To change the Blend Mode. On the Layer's Palette: Look for the wording "Normal" in the box above the layers. Click on the drop down arrow and choose Soft Light.

6. Now, the this step is very important. On your toolbar window you will notice 2 little colored squares one on top of each other. The top layer is your FOREGROUND Color and the bottom layer is your BACKGROUND layer. They should be showing BLACK/WHITE, if they are not, then hit the letter D on your keyboard to set them to default. You can also switch them by clicking on the two little arrows to the right of the squares. Personally, hitting the D key is much faster. TIP: Hitting the X key will allow you to switch colors, changing whatever is the background color to Foreground and Foreground color to background.
** NOTE** Remember the X key tip, we will be using it a lot in this exercise.

Now we are going to do the setup for creating a NON-DESTRUCTIVE BURN LAYER in Photoshop. * Anytime you can do non-destructive editing in Photoshop you SHOULD because it affords you the ability to correct mistakes, tweak, etc. Also, doing edits on a transparent layer doesn't increase your document size as much.

1. Step 1. Follow Steps 1 thru 6 above.
2. Step 2. We want to change the BACKGROUND square on the tool bar to 50% Gray
3. Step 3. Click on the BACKGROUND color square on your tool bar. A window will pop up showing the color spectrum. The top of the window should read Color Picker Background Color.
4. Step 4. At the bottom of the window next to the # sign. Type in 808080. Why? Because this is the color number for 50% gray. You will notice now that the R G B boxes are showing 128, 128,128. Why? Because on the luminance scale, Black would be all zeroes and Pure White would be 255, 255,255. 50% gray is right in between those numbers at 127.5 rounded to 128. So now with the window still open, click on " ADD to Swatches"and make sure "Add to my current library" if you have that option. This will add a 50% Gray swatch to your color swatches panel. It will be the last one listed in the panel. It will also be listed in your Library if you are using Photoshop CC.
5. Open your Color Swatches or Libraies panel if you have PS CC. For Elements: Go up to the top menu bar and select Window>Swatches. For PSCC just select Libraries. Leave these panels open while you work, or you can collapse the panel and open it when needed.

5. Now the fun begins.
Step 1. Hit the D key to set your two color squares back to the default of Black on Top and White on Bottom. We are Burning so we want the top Foreground color to be Black but we need to make the Background layer 50% Gray. 1. Hit your X key to switch the colors. 2. Now with your color Swatches panel or Library panel open, Use your mouse to click on the 50% Gray swatch. Your foreground color is now 50%
Gray. Hit your X key to switch so that your colors are Black/Gray.
Step 2. Now hit your B keyboard key to switch to the Brush tool. To change the size and hardness of your brush you can up to the top panel and click on the drop down arrow, a box will open and you can resize the circle and the hardness. I usually paint with a soft brush with hardness set to 0. This helps transition the effect out with smoother lines. You can also change the size of your brush on the fly by using your right
and left Bracket keys.


FINALLY, we are ready to Burn.
1. click on the Burn layer in your layer's palette to make it active. Then making sure your foreground color is black, Burn the areas in the image that I want to darken. I generally, but not always, Burn at 100% and then tweak it how I like it using the opacity slider on the layer's palette.

WAIT! OH MY GOD BECKY I've made a mistake and burned over something I didn't want to do and now I've ruined the edit! RELAX, I told you this was a Non-destructive edit. Now, take a deep breath and hit the X key, your foreground color should now be 50% Gray. Paint over the area where you made the mistake and it will correct it. Now to continue your Burn, hit the X key again to make the foreground color Black and continue the edit.
I use a Wacom tablet and Pen so when I am doing this type of Burn, I leave my finger on the X key on the Key board so that I can switch back and forth very quickly.
NOTE: When I'm dodging and Burning I create two of these adjustment layers, 1 for Burn and 1 for Dodge. For the Dodge you just follow the steps and use White for a Foreground Color instead of Black. The Background layer should always be 50% Gray so you can correct any mistakes. Finally, this seems to be a rather long process but if you know how to make an ACTION, these steps can be recorded and with a click of the mouse, can be built for you instantly.

Reply
Mar 30, 2019 08:07:09   #
Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington
 
I had the opportunity to attend the preview of this tutorial. I hadn't known about saving newly created color swatches in PS Elements, so that was a nice "extra."

The idea of the non-destructive dodge and burn layer is really fantastic! Fstop12, thank you so much for your time on this topic. These tutorials take a lot of effort and I'm delighted to see folks be involved in the section to this degree.

Reply
Mar 30, 2019 08:19:40   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
Linda From Maine wrote:
I had the opportunity to attend the preview of this tutorial. I hadn't known about saving newly created color swatches in PS Elements, so that was a nice "extra."

The idea of the non-destructive dodge and burn layer is really fantastic! Fstop12, thank you so much for your time on this topic. These tutorials take a lot of effort and I'm delighted to see folks be involved in the section to this degree.


Linda, thanks for the assistance and for the proofread. :-)

Reply
 
 
Mar 30, 2019 11:03:49   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
Fstop12 wrote:
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop

2. Duplicate Locked background layer. Why? You don't want to work on your original background image.
My favorite way is using the Keyboard HotKey: CTRL J...


While this is important sometimes, it's not always necessary. If you are starting with an image file rather than a .PSD file, it's not necessary(*). When you open a non-PSD file, you can just immediately save it as a PSD file. Anything after that will not affect the original image file.

If you start with a PSD file, step 2 is necessary for safety, because at the end of the process, you will be saving a PSD file which will overwrite the original.

(*) If you start with an image file such as a jpg and do only simple edits, Photoshop will allow you to save it as a jpg, which could overwrite the original file unless you save it to a different folder. If you start work with a raw file Photoshop cannot save the result as a raw file so your original will be safe. (Of course it's always advisable to back up your original files).

Also, note that Photoshop has a history panel that allows you to back up to eliminate your booboos. The history list is not preserved in the PSD file, but there is a way to export it (although I don't really know how much good that will do you).

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Mar 30, 2019 11:41:06   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
Good tips for newbies. It's just a habit for me so I don't even think about what kind of file I'm using when I open it. Maybe not necessary, but old habits are hard to break.

Reply
Mar 30, 2019 12:21:47   #
Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington
 
Fstop12 wrote:
Good tips for newbies. It's just a habit for me so I don't even think about what kind of file I'm using when I open it. Maybe not necessary, but old habits are hard to break.
Probably one of the many daunting things for novice pp'ers is to discover there are a number of different ways to achieve the same result.

But, also, all of us except the most experienced teachers, probably struggle with presenting an idea at its most basic level. I see this all the time in main forum: someone states they are new to photography and the next thing you know, conversations are revolving around histograms, raw and ETTR

Reply
Mar 30, 2019 13:34:07   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
Fstop12 wrote:
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop

2. Duplicate Locked background layer. Why? You don't want to work on your original background image.
My favorite way is using the Keyboard HotKey: CTRL J.

3. Create a new TRANSPARENT layer. Here are some basic ways of doing this. 1. Go up to the top menu bar and choose LAYER> NEW> Layer. 2. Click on the icon to the left of the Trashcan in the bottom of your layers palette. 3. Keyboard shortcut> SHIFT CTRL N. Note: Using 1 or 3 will allow you the chance to Name your layer and apply a color theme to the layer: In this excerise, we want to name the LAYER " BURN" and change the color to RED.

4. Now we want to fill the New Transparent Burn Layer with 50% Gray. Step 1. Click on the Burn layer to make it active. Step 2. Go up to the top menu bar and choose EDIT> Fill> a small window will open up. If 50% Gray is not showing in the Contents box, click on the drop down arrow and choose 50% GRAY and click OK.

5. Now we want to change the BLEND mode on the Burn Layer to either Overlay, or Softlight. Note: Overlay gives more contrast. I usually use Soft Light for this. To change the Blend Mode. On the Layer's Palette: Look for the wording "Normal" in the box above the layers. Click on the drop down arrow and choose Soft Light.

6. Now, the this step is very important. On your toolbar window you will notice 2 little colored squares one on top of each other. The top layer is your FOREGROUND Color and the bottom layer is your BACKGROUND layer. They should be showing BLACK/WHITE, if they are not, then hit the letter D on your keyboard to set them to default. You can also switch them by clicking on the two little arrows to the right of the squares. Personally, hitting the D key is much faster. TIP: Hitting the X key will allow you to switch colors, changing whatever is the background color to Foreground and Foreground color to background.
** NOTE** Remember the X key tip, we will be using it a lot in this exercise.

Now we are going to do the setup for creating a NON-DESTRUCTIVE BURN LAYER in Photoshop. * Anytime you can do non-destructive editing in Photoshop you SHOULD because it affords you the ability to correct mistakes, tweak, etc. Also, doing edits on a transparent layer doesn't increase your document size as much.

1. Step 1. Follow Steps 1 thru 6 above.
2. Step 2. We want to change the BACKGROUND square on the tool bar to 50% Gray
3. Step 3. Click on the BACKGROUND color square on your tool bar. A window will pop up showing the color spectrum. The top of the window should read Color Picker Background Color.
4. Step 4. At the bottom of the window next to the # sign. Type in 808080. Why? Because this is the color number for 50% gray. You will notice now that the R G B boxes are showing 128, 128,128. Why? Because on the luminance scale, Black would be all zeroes and Pure White would be 255, 255,255. 50% gray is right in between those numbers at 127.5 rounded to 128. So now with the window still open, click on " ADD to Swatches"and make sure "Add to my current library" if you have that option. This will add a 50% Gray swatch to your color swatches panel. It will be the last one listed in the panel. It will also be listed in your Library if you are using Photoshop CC.
5. Open your Color Swatches or Libraies panel if you have PS CC. For Elements: Go up to the top menu bar and select Window>Swatches. For PSCC just select Libraries. Leave these panels open while you work, or you can collapse the panel and open it when needed.

5. Now the fun begins.
Step 1. Hit the D key to set your two color squares back to the default of Black on Top and White on Bottom. We are Burning so we want the top Foreground color to be Black but we need to make the Background layer 50% Gray. 1. Hit your X key to switch the colors. 2. Now with your color Swatches panel or Library panel open, Use your mouse to click on the 50% Gray swatch. Your foreground color is now 50%
Gray. Hit your X key to switch so that your colors are Black/Gray.
Step 2. Now hit your B keyboard key to switch to the Brush tool. To change the size and hardness of your brush you can up to the top panel and click on the drop down arrow, a box will open and you can resize the circle and the hardness. I usually paint with a soft brush with hardness set to 0. This helps transition the effect out with smoother lines. You can also change the size of your brush on the fly by using your right
and left Bracket keys.


FINALLY, we are ready to Burn.
1. click on the Burn layer in your layer's palette to make it active. Then making sure your foreground color is black, Burn the areas in the image that I want to darken. I generally, but not always, Burn at 100% and then tweak it how I like it using the opacity slider on the layer's palette.

WAIT! OH MY GOD BECKY I've made a mistake and burned over something I didn't want to do and now I've ruined the edit! RELAX, I told you this was a Non-destructive edit. Now, take a deep breath and hit the X key, your foreground color should now be 50% Gray. Paint over the area where you made the mistake and it will correct it. Now to continue your Burn, hit the X key again to make the foreground color Black and continue the edit.
I use a Wacom tablet and Pen so when I am doing this type of Burn, I leave my finger on the X key on the Key board so that I can switch back and forth very quickly.
NOTE: When I'm dodging and Burning I create two of these adjustment layers, 1 for Burn and 1 for Dodge. For the Dodge you just follow the steps and use White for a Foreground Color instead of Black. The Background layer should always be 50% Gray so you can correct any mistakes. Finally, this seems to be a rather long process but if you know how to make an ACTION, these steps can be recorded and with a click of the mouse, can be built for you instantly.
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop br ... (show quote)


Okay now that you know the steps. I have created an ACTION for you that will do this for you. You can get the Dodge/Burn Action at my

Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d2j2bqn2kdnbnut/AACWKlUh38-YubrovW_4kzAYa?dl=0

Just download the Action to your Desktop. It should have an ATN extension on it. Just click on the Action and it should install into your Elements Actions or Photoshop Actions panel. It it doesn't, just open up your Elements or Photoshop Program and then open your Action Panel, On the Top Right side of the panel, click on the the icon and a fly out window will open. Choose LOAD ACTIONS, then find where your action is and click on it. It will put the action in your panel. When ready, just click the Play button.

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Mar 30, 2019 13:40:03   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
With the Dodge Burn Action that I created, it will put the Dodge/Burn layers in a Group Folder. Just click on the > next to the Folder icon and it will open the two layers. When you are finished dodging or burning, you can close the folder. This just creates a non messy layer's palette. As you get more and more skilled at editing, your layers will build, Grouping like edits in a Folder just helps keep things organized and easy to find.

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Mar 30, 2019 13:41:10   #
JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco
 
When I want to lighten or darken areas of an image nondestructively, I just make a selection of the area, feathered appropriately, and make a Curves adjustment layer, and uses that to lighten or darken it. That automatically makes a mask for the layer, which can be edited to fine tune it if necessary.

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Mar 30, 2019 19:05:18   #
DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA
 
JohnSwanda wrote:
When I want to lighten or darken areas of an image nondestructively, I just make a selection of the area, feathered appropriately, and make a Curves adjustment layer, and uses that to lighten or darken it. That automatically makes a mask for the layer, which can be edited to fine tune it if necessary.


If you make a selection of an image you can use "Select and Mask". That is convenient because it gives you a panel on which you can adjust the feathering and shift the edges and it gives you an adjustable transparency for the area outside the mask so you can see if it's really placed properly. When you click on "OK" on that panel you get a new layer with a mask which you can play with by other methods. You can modify the mask with brushes and you can use your curves to adjust the masked image.

"Select and Mask" only allows you to increase the feathering, so I generally start with no feathering on the selection.

Reply
Mar 31, 2019 05:55:41   #
nanaval Loc: Cornwall
 
I never use dodge and burn as I find it never looks right so I will have a go doing what you have done...

Reply
 
 
Mar 31, 2019 08:28:23   #
abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois
 
Thanks for posting. A lot of thought and time went into this. One very minor point about the 50% gray values. 0 to 255 is actually 256 steps so 128 is exactly half way.

Reply
Mar 31, 2019 09:08:07   #
Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky
 
Yep, you are correct. O is pure Black and 255 is pure White. I just never to remember to count the 0 as 1 integer.

For the sake of my Tutorial, I couldn't tell someone to put 256,256,256 in the RGB channels because it wouldn't allow that. Also, it's a lot easier to just type 808080

Some interesting tidbits about 808080

In a RGB color space, hex #808080 (also known as Gray, Trolley Grey) is composed of 50.2% red, 50.2% green and 50.2% blue. Whereas in a CMYK color space, it is composed of 0% cyan, 0% magenta, 0% yellow and 49.8% black. It has a hue angle of 0 degrees, a saturation of 0% and a lightness of 50.2%. #808080 color hex could be obtained by blending #ffffff with #010101. Closest websafe color is: #999999.

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Mar 31, 2019 13:29:20   #
minniev Loc: MIssissippi
 
Fstop12 wrote:
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop

2. Duplicate Locked background layer. Why? You don't want to work on your original background image.
My favorite way is using the Keyboard HotKey: CTRL J.

3. Create a new TRANSPARENT layer. Here are some basic ways of doing this. 1. Go up to the top menu bar and choose LAYER> NEW> Layer. 2. Click on the icon to the left of the Trashcan in the bottom of your layers palette. 3. Keyboard shortcut> SHIFT CTRL N. Note: Using 1 or 3 will allow you the chance to Name your layer and apply a color theme to the layer: In this excerise, we want to name the LAYER " BURN" and change the color to RED.

4. Now we want to fill the New Transparent Burn Layer with 50% Gray. Step 1. Click on the Burn layer to make it active. Step 2. Go up to the top menu bar and choose EDIT> Fill> a small window will open up. If 50% Gray is not showing in the Contents box, click on the drop down arrow and choose 50% GRAY and click OK.

5. Now we want to change the BLEND mode on the Burn Layer to either Overlay, or Softlight. Note: Overlay gives more contrast. I usually use Soft Light for this. To change the Blend Mode. On the Layer's Palette: Look for the wording "Normal" in the box above the layers. Click on the drop down arrow and choose Soft Light.

6. Now, the this step is very important. On your toolbar window you will notice 2 little colored squares one on top of each other. The top layer is your FOREGROUND Color and the bottom layer is your BACKGROUND layer. They should be showing BLACK/WHITE, if they are not, then hit the letter D on your keyboard to set them to default. You can also switch them by clicking on the two little arrows to the right of the squares. Personally, hitting the D key is much faster. TIP: Hitting the X key will allow you to switch colors, changing whatever is the background color to Foreground and Foreground color to background.
** NOTE** Remember the X key tip, we will be using it a lot in this exercise.

Now we are going to do the setup for creating a NON-DESTRUCTIVE BURN LAYER in Photoshop. * Anytime you can do non-destructive editing in Photoshop you SHOULD because it affords you the ability to correct mistakes, tweak, etc. Also, doing edits on a transparent layer doesn't increase your document size as much.

1. Step 1. Follow Steps 1 thru 6 above.
2. Step 2. We want to change the BACKGROUND square on the tool bar to 50% Gray
3. Step 3. Click on the BACKGROUND color square on your tool bar. A window will pop up showing the color spectrum. The top of the window should read Color Picker Background Color.
4. Step 4. At the bottom of the window next to the # sign. Type in 808080. Why? Because this is the color number for 50% gray. You will notice now that the R G B boxes are showing 128, 128,128. Why? Because on the luminance scale, Black would be all zeroes and Pure White would be 255, 255,255. 50% gray is right in between those numbers at 127.5 rounded to 128. So now with the window still open, click on " ADD to Swatches"and make sure "Add to my current library" if you have that option. This will add a 50% Gray swatch to your color swatches panel. It will be the last one listed in the panel. It will also be listed in your Library if you are using Photoshop CC.
5. Open your Color Swatches or Libraies panel if you have PS CC. For Elements: Go up to the top menu bar and select Window>Swatches. For PSCC just select Libraries. Leave these panels open while you work, or you can collapse the panel and open it when needed.

5. Now the fun begins.
Step 1. Hit the D key to set your two color squares back to the default of Black on Top and White on Bottom. We are Burning so we want the top Foreground color to be Black but we need to make the Background layer 50% Gray. 1. Hit your X key to switch the colors. 2. Now with your color Swatches panel or Library panel open, Use your mouse to click on the 50% Gray swatch. Your foreground color is now 50%
Gray. Hit your X key to switch so that your colors are Black/Gray.
Step 2. Now hit your B keyboard key to switch to the Brush tool. To change the size and hardness of your brush you can up to the top panel and click on the drop down arrow, a box will open and you can resize the circle and the hardness. I usually paint with a soft brush with hardness set to 0. This helps transition the effect out with smoother lines. You can also change the size of your brush on the fly by using your right
and left Bracket keys.


FINALLY, we are ready to Burn.
1. click on the Burn layer in your layer's palette to make it active. Then making sure your foreground color is black, Burn the areas in the image that I want to darken. I generally, but not always, Burn at 100% and then tweak it how I like it using the opacity slider on the layer's palette.

WAIT! OH MY GOD BECKY I've made a mistake and burned over something I didn't want to do and now I've ruined the edit! RELAX, I told you this was a Non-destructive edit. Now, take a deep breath and hit the X key, your foreground color should now be 50% Gray. Paint over the area where you made the mistake and it will correct it. Now to continue your Burn, hit the X key again to make the foreground color Black and continue the edit.
I use a Wacom tablet and Pen so when I am doing this type of Burn, I leave my finger on the X key on the Key board so that I can switch back and forth very quickly.
NOTE: When I'm dodging and Burning I create two of these adjustment layers, 1 for Burn and 1 for Dodge. For the Dodge you just follow the steps and use White for a Foreground Color instead of Black. The Background layer should always be 50% Gray so you can correct any mistakes. Finally, this seems to be a rather long process but if you know how to make an ACTION, these steps can be recorded and with a click of the mouse, can be built for you instantly.
1. Open image you want to work on in Photoshop br ... (show quote)


Thanks for sharing your method, which is similar to mine. I almost never use the dodge and burn tools in PS but instead use black/white painted with a soft brush on a 50% gray layer blended with soft light. As you pointed out, errors are easily corrected and further changes can be made later by going back to the dodge or burn layer.

The instructions, which you've given in excellent detail, are longer than the actual process of doing it but that's how good instructions are supposed to be! I've never tried an action for this, but will experiment with that.

Those who like to tinker with composites or collages probably already realize how important altering lighting is on such creations - making new light sources, creating or altering shadows, etc. This sort of layer works well for me on those projects, too. I generally label them Light or Shadow and may use higher opacity lights or darks.

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Mar 31, 2019 20:36:51   #
Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona
 
Just some comments from a newbie.
First to Linda: Thanks for taking over this forum.

Second: If you have a different way to accomplish the same result, please start your own thread or PM the OP and let her/him decide weather he wants to include the information or not. After all it's his thread.

The real reason I posted this is that it is difficult to track two methods at the same time when you don't know what you are doing.


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