Dodge and burn tip



Dodging and burning

The process of selectively lightening or darkening specific parts of an image is called “Dodging and Burning“. While Photoshop has built-in tools for accomplishing this task, I find this technique to be faster and give better results.

The first step(after opening an image in Photoshop), is to create a new layer. Now before you click on “OK” to close the dialog box and create the layer, do the following:

  1. 1)Name the layer (especially important once you get several layers created)

  2. 2)Under the “Mode” setting, open the drop down menu, and select “Overlay”

  3. 3)Once you have selected “overlay”, a checkbox becomes visible for “Fill with Overlay-neutral colour”. Select the checkbox.

  4. 4)Now click on “OK” to create the layer


The second part is to setup a brush for dodging and burning. To do this, select the brush tool on the tool palette. Next, look at the tool bar on the top and select it. This will give a drop down menu that allows you to select the brush diameter(keyboard shortcut, use “[“ reduce and “]” to enlarge the brush), and whether or not the brush is “hard-edged” or “soft-edged”. Select a brush type that is soft-edged so that there is a gradual transition around the brush.

Make sure “hardness” is set to zero percent. Now change the opacity of the brush to about 15%.


Now you’re ready to dodge and burn! Press “D” so that the the default values for the foreground and background are set. The default is for painting with “black” which will darken where you paint(who would have guessed!). Pressing “X” will switch to paint with “white” or brightening an area.

Since the opacity is low, the effect will be small, but it is wise to gradually buildup the effect versus applying too much. Now you can selectively darken and lighten areas of the image by brushing or “painting” on the image.

I find it best to press and hold the mouse button, brush over an area, then release.  If you just press, hold and paint, it doesn’t matter if you go over the same area more than once, as it only applies the effect to a given area once. So if you want a greater effect, release the mouse button, press and hold,  and paint over again.

In this example, I wanted to lighten the Short-eared Owl’s face and underwing area. The top photo is before dodging, and the second after applying this technique.