Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers : The Ultimate Workshop

 
 

Dodge tool

Dodging and burning should be familiar photographic concepts (for those who can remember darkrooms, that is). The dodge and burn tools in Photoshop offer you a limited amount of dodge and burn control, although these tools are not really suitable for working with large areas of an image. Having said that, the dodge and burn tools have been improved since Photoshop CS4 such that you can now use them to more effectively dodge and burn the pixels direct without producing the rather ugly effect that can be seen below in Figure 3, where the colors can end up looking rather washed out. You will note in Figure 1 that there is a 'Protect Tones' box in the tool Options bar. When this is selected, it can help prevent pixel clipping in the highlights or shadows.

Figure 1 The dodge tool Options bar.

Figure 2 This shows a before version of an image (photograph: © Jeff Schewe).

Figure 3 In this example you can see the results achieved using the dodge tool in 'Photoshop CS3 mode' with the Protect Tones option deselected.

Figure 4 In this example you can see the results achieved using the dodge tool in Photoshop CS4 or later with the Protect Tones options selected.

If you are going to use the dodge or burn tools, I would maintain that they are probably more appropriate for localized retouching of small areas of a picture on a copied layer.

One of the things that is also useful about the dodge and burn tools is that you can choose to apply the toning effect selectively to either the highlights, midtones or shadows. Therefore if you want to lighten or burn some midtone detail in an image without affecting the shadow or highlight areas, you can choose to use the dodge tool in the Midtones mode (See Figure 1).

Tool switch shortcut

When the dodge or burn tool is selected, you can temporarily switch between one tool and the other, by holding down the Option/Alt modifier key. This keyboard tool switch will also work with the blur or sharpen tool is selected. Holding down the Option/Alt modifier key will enable you to swap between the two.

Alternative approach to dodging and burning

If your goal is to dodge or burn a large area of a picture such as a sky or someone’s face, then the best way to go about doing this is to add a Levels or Curves adjustment layer to lighten or darken the entire image, fill the layer using black to hide the layer contents and then paint with white on the adjustment layer mask using a soft edged brush. Filling with black will hide the adjustment layer effect and painting with white will allow you to selectively reveal the adjustment layer effect and as with all other layers, you have a layer opacity slider that will allow you to fade the overall layer opacity. The other option you have is to use the adjustment brush and gradient filter tools in Camera Raw 5 or later. This too offers a truly non-destructive approach to localized dodging and burning.