Dodge and Burn Tools

Dodge and Burn Tools

Welcome to the Dodge and Burn Tools tutorial, this tutorial was designed to teach you to the basics of the
two toning tools in Photoshop. There are no steps to this tutorial because you are not seeking a specific
result, this is merely a brief explanation of the two tools people tend to forget or neglect to use. If you have
any questions just contact me, the information is below.

Photoshop has a set toning tools used to lighten and darken certain
areas of an image, you can lighten areas with the dodge tool, and
darken them with the burn tool. These tools when used correctly can
pull of some nice effects. I use them a lot because they are precise,
and it is easier for me to get in there with more precision because I
use a graphics tablet, if you have a graphics tablet, you should really
start using these tools. The Dodge and Burn tools are showed to the
left, the black circle with a stick represents the dodge tool, and the
white hand represents the burn tool.

Notice any changes from the before and after shot. Click on the
images and get a closer look at them to find out what has changed. If
you haven't noticed a difference then the dodge and burn tools aren't
meant for you. Notice how the After image has more contrast to it,
the blue stripes on the chair are darker, as well as the white stripes,
they are lighter. The girl's shirt is darker, and so is the towel. the
Metal poking out of the corners of the chair is darker, as well as the
hair of the girl. All of this may seem un-needed but, without you
noticing, it makes the image look better, doesn't it? This was made
possible by the Darkening the blue stripes, shirt, hair, and towel with
the Burn tool, and lightening the white stripes with the Dodge tool.
There are tons of different methods for toning and touching up
images in Photoshop, this is just one, research and see how many you
can come up with to broaden your Photoshop knowledge, OR wait a
while for them to appear in my tutorials section. Experiment with
different photos. You can pull off nice effects with your interfaces as
well. Good luck!

Note: Don't assume that the Dodge and Burn tools are only used for
image enhancement, some of the bets Photoshop artists that I know
use only these tools along with the airbrush tool for their art.

Quick Tip!
If you're getting tired of waiting for the extended menu items in
Photoshop's toolbar to fly-out so you can pick a different tool, just
hold down the Alt key, then click on the button to scroll through
quickly, this method is more efficient, and will speed up production.
 Dodge and Burn Tools

Discussion
If there is any other steps you think I could add or elaborate on a bit more, make sure you tell me. You can
e-mail me using the information below. Due to the amount of e-mail I get, you'll get a quicker response if
you use the discussion forum. Post your question in the tutorials forum. Click here to go to the discussion
forum.

Dan Caylor
http://www.thinkdan.com
E-mail: dan@thinkdan.com
Copyright 2000 © Dan Caylor