Dodge and Burn

From CosWiki

Contents 1 Why Dodge and Burn? 2 Dodge and Burn 2.1 Dodging 2.2 Burning 3 Example 4 CosWiki Contributors

[edit] Why Dodge and Burn?

Sometimes when you take a picture in direct sunlight or where the lighting is not ideal, you'll get some areas in which the photo has really harsh shadows. Facial features can get lose in these shadows.

However, but using the "Dodge and Burn" tool in most photo editing programs, you might be able to recover that detail and make your photo look better.

[edit] Dodge and Burn

The term "dodge and burn" originally comes from the process in which you lighten or darken parts of a negative as you are developing film. However, this article focuses on doing this digitally using an photo editing tool.

[edit] Dodging

Dodging basically makes the an area brighter. If there's a harsh shadow on the face, you'll want to "dodge" that shadow and make it lighter. In some cases it helps bring out some detail that normally would be lost in the shadow.

Other things that you can dodge or eyes. If someone has dark eyes, using the dodge tool can help bring out the color or make the eyes stand out more.

[edit] Burning

Burning basically makes an area darker. If an area in the photo is too light, us the burn tool to make things darker.

Sometimes this is used to help even out an image or if the photo is overexposed. You can darken that area and hopefully recover some of the detail that was lost to over exposure.

[edit] Example

You can see that by using the dodge and burn tool, I was able to recover some of the detail in this cosplayer's head dress.

In particular the black helmet area and the brown fuzzy ears. It was much harder to see in the original photo.

[edit] CosWiki Contributors

ZiggyB - Initial author of the article