Dodging and burning can dramatically shape how an image looks, guiding the viewer's eye exactly where you want it. Understanding this skill will elevate your editing, making your subjects pop without relying on overly complex edits.
Coming to you from Aaron Nace with Phlearn, this practical video breaks down dodging and burning using curves adjustment layers in Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop’s built-in Dodge and Burn tools, curves adjustment layers offer you greater control. Instead of directly changing your original image layer—which can be risky—you use separate layers, ensuring your edits remain reversible and adjustable. Nace clearly explains how painting white on a black layer mask makes the adjustment visible exactly where you need it, preserving your original image. He also emphasizes the importance of using a soft brush at low flow settings, allowing subtle and gradual edits that blend naturally.
Nace takes the method further by showing a nuanced technique to enhance highlights and shadows selectively, creating impressive depth and dimension. He explains the "Blend if" feature, demonstrating how easily you can isolate your adjustments to specific tonal ranges. This approach lets you brighten highlights without affecting shadows, ensuring your edits remain subtle and realistic. You’ll learn to use just a single curves layer to precisely control brightness, creating effects that are impactful but still believable. By revealing the layer mask view, Nace helps you visualize exactly where adjustments apply, reinforcing your understanding of how Photoshop manages these edits.
What stands out about Nace’s method is how flexible it remains even after editing. You're never locked into your adjustments; instead, you have the freedom to tweak brightness levels or erase edits entirely, even long after you've moved on to other parts of your editing process. Nace emphasizes that dodging is more than just making something brighter—it's about intentionally sculpting light to define shapes, enhance dimensionality, and smooth out uneven exposure. Burning, the opposite of dodging, helps you subtly deepen shadows, providing depth that makes your subjects stand out more distinctly against their backgrounds.
Whether you're looking to refine portraits, enhance landscapes, or create artistic interpretations, mastering this dodging and burning technique equips you with powerful, nuanced editing tools. The method shown doesn't rely on complicated Photoshop tricks or extensive layer stacking, meaning even if you're relatively new to Photoshop, you can still confidently incorporate this technique into your workflow. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Nace.
