post-production editing
Step 6 - Dodge and Burn
Although there are the ‘Dodge’ and ‘Burn’ tools in the Tools palette (traditional darkroom terms for
lightening and darkening localized areas of an image) it would be a destructive approach to start
working directly on the background layer of the image. The same effects can be achieved in a
non-destructive way by working on a Dodge and Burn layer and using the Paintbrush Tool instead.
To create a Dodge and Burn layer hold down the Alt key and click on the Create a New Layer icon
in the Layers palette. Set the mode to Overlay or Soft Light and check the Fill with neutral color
(50% Gray) box. 50% Gray is invisible when the layer mode is in Overlay of Soft Light but when
the pixels on this layer are made darker or lighter the underlying pixels are in turn made darker
or lighter. In the tutorial image the little girl is made lighter by choosing white as the foreground
color and painting into this layer using a soft-edged paintbrush set to 20% opacity. The road she
is running along is also lightened to further separate it from the immediate foreground. Switching
to Black as the foreground color will allow you to darken various parts of the image. With the local
adjustments complete all that remains is to optimize the image for the intended output device.
Note > It is worth working with the Information palette open to help guide you as to how
much lightening or darkening is appropriate.