Understanding Burn & Dodge and 4 ways to do it

Burning and Dodging is the art of changing the three-dimensionality of an image by selectively lightening or darkening precise or broad areas of an image.
The technique derives from the days of film and darkroom printing, which is useful for any genre of photography. Arguably, Burn & Dodge tools are some of the most valuable functions in Photoshop and as with many Photoshop tools, there are multiple ways you can burn and dodge.
Every photographer should know at least one of these techniques. This knowledge can be used to enhance your imagery by creating three-dimensionality and guide the viewer’s eye.
Here I look at the different ways to burn and dodge in Photoshop and when to use which. You can also watch how to apply the different methods in our Burning & Dodging Photoshop class.
Useful Links
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Burn & Dodge Class: www.karltayloreducation.com/c...
Photoshop For Photographers Course: www.karltayloreducation.com/s...
Advanced Photoshop For Photographers Course: www.karltayloreducation.com/s...
Blog: www.karltayloreducation.com/4...

Пікірлер: 64

  • @celo2043
    @celo20434 жыл бұрын

    this kind of video is exactly why I absolutely love KZread! Thank you Karl!

  • @bigding8977
    @bigding89773 жыл бұрын

    This is the best explanation of dodge and burn that I've seen. So well organized and clearly explained. This is a highly technical concept and it's hard to find people who can explain concepts so clearly and succinctly. Thank you for this.

  • @thomasagabaonyango7548

    @thomasagabaonyango7548

    3 жыл бұрын

    I must agree!

  • @ArmanKhan-pu2hc
    @ArmanKhan-pu2hc3 ай бұрын

    Thank you so much for the understanding ❤

  • @martin-steiner-photography
    @martin-steiner-photography4 жыл бұрын

    One of the best retouch vids on the internet. To truly compare both images before and after is priceless. Thank you for your time Karl. D and B can be also done in a very nice and fast way in Lightroom with luminosity mask. But you still need to come to PS for the other things...

  • @mrz1342
    @mrz13424 жыл бұрын

    Perfect! Thank you.

  • @bencorwin
    @bencorwin4 жыл бұрын

    Invaluable information! Thank you!

  • @JeffStudley
    @JeffStudley3 жыл бұрын

    Inverted curves layer was genius. Much more subtle and control this way.

  • @kidheyful
    @kidheyful4 жыл бұрын

    Couldn't be happier to find out about Karl's channel last week. it's must watch for me now

  • @MrFredypalacio
    @MrFredypalacio4 жыл бұрын

    Excelente, que buenos aportes. ;)

  • @juanlujano4895
    @juanlujano48954 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the tips!

  • @powerforshootingwu3436
    @powerforshootingwu34364 жыл бұрын

    thanks karl!!!!!

  • @prakashkadam9712
    @prakashkadam97124 жыл бұрын

    SIR IT IS GREATFULL KNOWLLAGE TO ALL PHOTOGRAPHER THANK U SIR

  • @gonetoearth2588
    @gonetoearth25884 жыл бұрын

    Many thanks for the education! So well presented!

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Glad it was helpful!

  • @mak_freeman
    @mak_freeman3 жыл бұрын

    by the far the best video in youtube about burn and dodge

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    thank you

  • @josediazh3890
    @josediazh38904 жыл бұрын

    Muchas gracias!

  • @xTehAeRo
    @xTehAeRo4 жыл бұрын

    Such a great educator ! Thanks :D

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Our pleasure!

  • @liquidlace9291
    @liquidlace92914 жыл бұрын

    I've been using the curves method for over ten years and you're right Karl ... it's the most efficient way to dodge & burn. Where on the moon did you get that T-shirt ? I must have one :)

  • @williamjonesiiimd907
    @williamjonesiiimd9074 жыл бұрын

    Excellent! Thank you!

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    You are welcome!

  • @Ib3119cz
    @Ib3119cz4 жыл бұрын

    You are the boss👍

  • @secondaccount5550
    @secondaccount55503 жыл бұрын

    Thankyouu so much its video help a lot

  • @MrJohnHimself
    @MrJohnHimself Жыл бұрын

    That was enormously helpful, thank you!

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    Жыл бұрын

    You're welcome!

  • @GajoRomario
    @GajoRomario3 жыл бұрын

    what a class. thanks, man.

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    Very welcome!

  • @cliffordsalmon322
    @cliffordsalmon322 Жыл бұрын

    This is an exceptional video of Dodge and Burn technique. I understand it the technique better. I have subxribed to your channel and will enroll in your Ps courses. I am exponetially thankful to you for illumination my PS knowledge.

  • @Kuwaitpool
    @Kuwaitpool3 жыл бұрын

    Great video, very useful 👍🏼

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    Glad it was helpful!

  • @lordr9485
    @lordr94854 жыл бұрын

    thanks sir

  • @rodzimmerman8436
    @rodzimmerman84363 жыл бұрын

    Excellent tutorial.

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    Glad you liked it!

  • @longliveclassicmusic
    @longliveclassicmusic4 жыл бұрын

    I always struggled with standard dodging techniques not getting the saturation right to my eye, particularly when making drastic changes like removing a heavy wrinkle or brightening up a particularly dark shadow. But it occurred to me that when you brighten a tone, its saturation increases as well, almost linearly. So I had the idea to brighten and then bring saturation up in a second step. The way I dodge is I actually paint white (at a super low flow of course) on a blank layer with NO BLENDING MODE SET, Normal blend mode. Obviously I do so with a 50% gray Color blend mode layer on top to do it all in black and white… What I am left with is lightened areas where they're lightened but the saturation is not altered. Then (using an action I created)-with the goal of increasing saturation of each pixel by the exact amount I've dodged it-I duplicate the layer, put a black layer underneath, merge the two, create an HSL adjustment layer, go to the mask, and use Apply Image to apply the merged layer I created to the mask, then deleting the merged layer. Then I bring the saturation to 100%. It goes a little too far though, but instead of going back and decreasing the saturation each time to what looks good, I set a blend mode of Soft Light I think (can't recall, but I'm pretty sure it's Soft Light) on the HSL layer. It gets near perfect saturation for my dodging, every single time. Then when I want to add more to it, I just delete the HSL layer, do more dodging, and when I'm done run the action again. To date I haven't tried a single technique that comes close to the color preservation of this method I came up with from understanding how color works. For burn, I just paint black on a blank layer set to soft light. You can use whatever method you want of course, but for me that gets the most predictable results… And you can always turn on a 50% gray layer below them if you want to check where the changes are being made. I used to have to fix color issues from industry dodging and burning methods in frequency separation but found that it's completely impractical when I've spent sometimes hours meticulously detailing a portrait with localized dodging and burning. When I'm just making large, broad changes, I just use curves. But for localized dodging and burning with thousands of brush strokes, this custom method gets me results that look clean as a whistle… Sometimes when you bring shadows up a ton, due to the lack of light in the original exposure, the color isn't quite as accurate as the correctly exposed areas of the image. So this sometimes requires me to make color corrections later in frequency separation. But those are always larger area corrections, not color inconsistencies created from tiny brush strokes that compound the more you do.

  • @sudipto30
    @sudipto303 жыл бұрын

    Very nicely explained

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you

  • @jordanlotus188
    @jordanlotus1883 жыл бұрын

    very nice! I will like to do the educational course.!!

  • @paristo
    @paristo4 жыл бұрын

    Layer mask is IMHO the most useful feature of anything. As it is core feature to allow these easy non-destructive adjustments using simple tools like brush. Since Photoshop gained support for layers, it has been the #1 feature ever to be used. And this is why Lightroom etc never offer capabilities for creativity when they do not support layers, even at basic level.

  • @tiinasoderholm
    @tiinasoderholm4 жыл бұрын

    I been doing this with layers and brush tool more complicated I think. I need to try curve layers!

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Definitely better with adjustment curve layers

  • @hermansurkis9229
    @hermansurkis92294 жыл бұрын

    I tend to use softlight layer. How is curves faster, since you have to set the curves, you then have to mask, and then remove the mask where need. Seems to me to be a touch slower as there is an extra step. But essentially, much of a muchness.

  • @haqvor
    @haqvor4 жыл бұрын

    An alternative to using curves is to create two adjustment layers with black masks and set the blending modes to screen for dodging and multiply for burning. It is common that to much dodging and burning creates difference in hues and saturations to fix that clip a hue and saturation layer to the dodge and burn layers.

  • @hermansurkis9229

    @hermansurkis9229

    4 жыл бұрын

    Or set the layer to 'luminosity'.

  • @Boxer1250RT
    @Boxer1250RT4 жыл бұрын

    If you did not have the before and after side by side, no Client would ever know that the image needs a "burn and dodge". It is more to please yourself than the Client. Great explanation. Thanks,

  • @arielc2010
    @arielc20104 жыл бұрын

    Thank you very much. From all other photographers, you are my top one to learn from. Your tutorials are simple yet very comprehensive. Although, most of your equipment is beyond the reach of an average wanna-be professional photographer ;)

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Thanks but try and see past the gear, you'll also see me shooting with 35mm gear on our education platform and using other less expensive lights. The principles are all the same regardless of gear.

  • @lonniepaulson7031
    @lonniepaulson70314 жыл бұрын

    Thanks. When I use layers and want to use the dodge and burn tools they don't work on layers. Am I doing something wrong or is that the way it is? Also: I like the message on your T-shirt. I am a space enthusiast.

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Hi Lonnie, you need curves adjustment layers with a layer mask in black. Thanks about the T shirt, Hasselblad kindly sent it to me to celebrate last years 50th anniversary.

  • @phaeb
    @phaeb2 жыл бұрын

    My favorite method is using a 50% grey layer with linear light blending mode at around 15% layer fill. Brush flow to 2% and you have a lot of room to go as intense or subtile as you want.

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    2 жыл бұрын

    But that means you paint both your burning and dodging on the same layer.

  • @phaeb

    @phaeb

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@VisualEducationStudio exactly, in order to lower the strength you paint over with 50% grey to return to normal. Or you dodge an area you have burned before, it transitions smoothly via the neutral gray. Oh, and I'm in no way trying to say this is better than any other technique, I just thought I'd mention it because no one else has and because I found it very intuitive to use :)

  • @phaeb

    @phaeb

    2 жыл бұрын

    And on another note, your tutorials are awesome! I consider myself an advanced Photoshop user and photographer, yet you always teach me something new.

  • @manolorivasfoto
    @manolorivasfoto4 жыл бұрын

    Genial

  • @tomhart7511
    @tomhart75114 жыл бұрын

    In the first image the subjects index finger moves between before and after. Was there something happening there or is it an optical illusion of the lightening of shadows on the finger.

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    Hi, yes I reshaped the finger as I didn't like the angle it was pointing.

  • @maxwood2996
    @maxwood29963 жыл бұрын

    In the soft light method Karl selected 50% grey for his base. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to do this. If you leave it transparent you can switch back and forth between normal and soft light to see exactly where you’ve painted. Having said that, I use curves... it’s way better!

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yes I'm not a fan of the soft light method as both your burn and dodge are on the same layer so prefer curves adjustments and for broader areas you just select with a very large feather and pull the curve which is much quicker.

  • @ThePanacon
    @ThePanacon4 жыл бұрын

    Every photographer and retoucher in the World: Dodge & Burn Karl Taylor: Burn & Dodge :-)

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    4 жыл бұрын

    I prefer things to already be burning before I have to dodge them 😊 . In fact come to think of it we were using the phrase Burn and Dodge back in the darkrooms 30 years ago before photoshop was even a thing, I can't ever remember anyone saying it dodge and burn, must be a digital generation thing based on the order PS put them in the tools palette.

  • @janplexy
    @janplexy3 жыл бұрын

    2:01 - now I know you are actually reading the script on that monitor, while we think you are looking at the photo :))

  • @VisualEducationStudio

    @VisualEducationStudio

    3 жыл бұрын

    kzread.info/dash/bejne/laRotNSMibSYe8o.html

  • @noyb154
    @noyb1544 жыл бұрын

    TLDR: Use curves adjustment layers if you want to do it right.