Dodge and Burn

Enhance photos and improve contrast by controlling the light and intensity of color in select areas. Dodge, burn, saturate and desaturate photos to accentuate and define shapes, magnify and fade color, and add shadows and highlights.

The Dodge and Burn tool lightens or darkens areas in a photo without affecting other areas. The tool is often used to lighten underexposed areas or darken overexposed areas.

Customized settings can be saved as a preset for future use. Presets can be selected from the Presets drop-down, or saved by clicking the adjacent Save icon.

Dodging and Burning Parts of an Image

To open the Dodge and Burn tool:

Select Filter | Exposure / Lighting | Dodge and Burn from the main menu, or press D.

To Lighten or Darken Areas of a Photo:

  1. In the Operation field set, enable the Dodge tool to lighten areas, or the Burn tool to darken areas.
  2. In the Tool settings field set, enable the area to adjust: Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights.
  3. Drag the Range slider to fine-tune targeted areas within the shadows or highlights. Increasing the range broadens the affected range of tones, while decreasing the range narrows the affected range of tones.
  4. In the Brush settings field set, select from the following preference settings:
    • Drag the Nib Width slider to select a brush size.
    • Drag the Feathering slider to soften stroke edges.
    • Drag the Strength slider to adjust the stroke intensity.
  5. Draw over the areas of the image to lighten or darken.
  6. Do one of the following:
    • Click OK to accept your changes and close the panel.
    • Click Cancel to discard your changes and close the panel.

When adjusting the Range slider, a preview of the areas of the image that will be affected by brushing will be shown as a grayscale image. The brighter the pixels are in the preview image, the more they will be affected by brush strokes. Areas that are pure white will be affected with full strength, and areas that are black will be completely unaffected. For best results, move the Range slider until the pixels to dodge or burn are white, and areas to be left unaffected are black.

Scroll with your mouse to adjust the brush size on the fly, or use Shift + mouse scroll to adjust feathering.

To saturate or desaturate areas of a photo:

  1. Enable the Saturate tool to intensify colors, or the Desaturate tool to fade colors.
  2. In the Tool settings field set, enable the Vibrance checkbox to target the less saturated colors and to prevent skin tones from becoming over-saturated.
  3. In the Brush settings field set, enable from the following preference settings:
    • Drag the Nib Width slider to select a brush size.
    • Drag the Feathering slider to soften the edges of your strokes.
    • Drag the Strength slider to adjust the intensity of your strokes.
  4. Draw over the areas of the image to lighten or darken.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Click OK to accept your changes and close the panel.
    • Click Cancel to discard your changes and close the panel.

Right-click a slider to reset to the default value.

See also: