Alternative Burn and Dodge Techniques

Burn and Dodge techniques are the foundation of professional retouching and actually originate from the days of the photographic darkroom and darkroom printing. The same techniques in digital form are what allow us to sculpt the light and actually retouch many of the blemishes we wish to remove from images.

But which burn or dodge technique or tool is best? In this photography class Karl guides you through a number of alternative Burn and Dodge techniques for your workflow. He also shows you how he uses them in a quick retouch on one of his own images.

In this photography class we cover the following:

• Burn and Dodging in Photoshop
• Alternative techniques to Burn and Dodge
• How to use Curves adjustment layers for Burn and Dodge
• Photoshop blend modes – How to use Overlay blend mode for burning and dodging
• How to smooth skin in Photoshop
• How to control color and tone

To learn more about burning and dodging, watch Chapter 5 of our Photoshop for Photographers course.

Please post any questions in the box below.