bleirer

I've been experimenting with an alternative way to dodge and burn that I saw in a photoshop video that preserves raw data. In this picture, I started with my usual lightroom adjustments then sent the file as a smart object to photoshop. The smart object allows one to double click to re-open and edit in adobe camera raw at any time. If you duplicate the smart object any change to one will transfer to the duplicate, but if you right click and select 'new smart object via copy' you get an unlinked copy. So the light rays were already there but I wanted to lighten and accentuate them. So I did new smart object via copy, re-opened ACR and severely lightened the whole image using the exposure slider, then alt-clicked the new layer mask button at the bottom. (Alt-clicking turns the mask into a 'hide all' mask, where regular clicking turns it into a reveal all mask). I then clicked the mask and used the brush tool at very low flow to paint the light rays, gradually revealing more of the over-exposed layer below. Finally dialing in the opacity a little.

The final image is below, your critique and recommendations for improving the method are welcome. I'd rather you used your own photos though.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Impressive!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Thanks very much for this information. Your result is quite effective!

artBob Loc: Near Chicago

Thank you--very informative.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Nicely done!!

This is is a really helpful technique that I hope all members will try to learn. It works well for bringing up shadows and equally as well for bringing down the high lights. I recently worked with a member of UHH to demonstrate what could be down to their black and white image, I think I actually had 4 layers at different exposures that were seamlessly blended in the final image. Of course there needs to be something there to work with. Blocked shadows and blown hi lights can't be rescued with this or any technique. The technique works well too for adding highlights when the original is lacking them.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

How can we make that thumb bigger?

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

sounds complicated; but non-destructive editing is surely worth the effort. Now to read your instruction over, and over and then I am going to give it a try myself. Thanks illuminating a new approach for me.
erich

bleirer

Thanks for the kind words. The downside is that it is computer intensive and makes the file size gigantic. The plus is that every step is reversible and even filters become smart filters attached to the smart object , making them adjustable too.

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

What version of Photoshop are you using?

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Beautiful, thanks for sharing your technique.

bleirer

Photoshop CC. I don't know which version started smart objects. Also there are some tools that don't work on smart objects directly, but sometimes layers are doable, or selections and masks, but at some point one might have to rasterize a duplicate, which means turn it into a regular layer without the connection to camera raw.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I've learned something new today so thank you for the education which I'll try to put to good use.

bleirer

Thank you. Of course there are several other ways to dodge and burn, including a lot simpler ways, some also non destructive, so I don't think there is any best way, just depends on what one is trying to accomplish.

bleirer

And if you had two different images rather than two copies of one image, the same method would make a composite, add select and mask for even more precision.

NikonGal Loc: Central Oregon

Interesting approach, thanks for posting. Bev