• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Offers
  • How tos
  • Listicles
  • Explainers
  • A-Z
  • Downloads
    • Adobe
    • DxO software
    • Capture One
    • Exposure X
    • ON1 software
    • Skylum
  • About

Life after Photoshop

  • Lightroom
  • Capture One
  • DxO PhotoLab
  • Nik Collection
  • Exposure X
  • ON1 Photo RAW
  • Aurora HDR

Dodging and burning and why it's still needed

Dodging and burning is an old black and white technique for darkening or lightening different areas of a print while it's being developed. For many photographers this was and is an essential part of the black and white process Capturing the image in the camera is the mechanical stage of the operation, and manipulation in the darkroom is the creative stage.

Dodging and burning is a creative process that's just as relevant now that we process images digitally as it was when it was done with chemicals. It's all about enhancing the tones, the composition and the balance of a picture to create a visually satisfying image.

Dodging and burning isn't restricted to black and white, and many colour images benefit from selective lightening and darkening too – though black and white seems to withstand heavy manipulation much better.

There are many different ways to apply dodging and burning. In Photoshop you might use selections and adjustment layers or the Dodge and Burn tools. In Lightroom you might use the Adjustment Brush, while Viveza (Nik Collection) uses intuitive control points.

Local adjustments explained

March 10, 2022 by Life after Photoshop

Local adjustments

‘Local adjustments’ is a bit of a catch-all term. It means picking out an area of an image for adjustment while leaving the rest unchanged. So how do local adjustments work and which software does them best?

Filed Under: Editing A-Z, Featured, GeneralTagged With: Adjustment brush, Adjustment layer, Brush, Burning in, Control point, Dodging and burning, Feathering, Gradient mask, Local adjustments, Luminance mask, Masks, Non-destructive editing, Radial mask, Selection brush, Sensei (Adobe), Subject recognition

How to get started with Silver Efex Pro

June 10, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

Silver Efex Pro is one of the best-known plug ins in the Nik Collection and widely regarded as the premier tools for fans of black and white photography. There are lots of really good ways to create black and white images in all sorts of software, but even now Silver Efex Pro has a magic […]

Filed Under: Featured, Nik Collection, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Black and white filters, Dodging and burning, Film simulation, Grain, Silver Efex Pro, Toning

Moody mono with a Leica M10 Monochrom and Capture One

March 29, 2020 by Life after Photoshop

I met my donkey friend while I was out testing a Leica M10 Monochrom and 28mm f/2 Summicron lens. For those who don’t know, this is a rangefinder camera with manual focusing, so getting my friend’s eye sharp was a special challenge as he was getting restless because I didn’t have any carrots. The Leica […]

Filed Under: Capture One, Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Curves, Dodging and burning, Vignette

Montacute House in moody monochrome with split toning

August 2, 2019 by Life after Photoshop

What is the mood you’re trying to capture? For his image of an Elizabethan country house, I wanted and sombre and forbidding look, and this required black and white, some dodging and burning and subtle toning.

Filed Under: Capture One, Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Dodging and burning, LUTs, Split toning

Rediscover dodging and burning in black and white

August 8, 2017 by Life after Photoshop

Dodging and burning

Back in the days of film, a ‘straight’ black and white print was only a stepping stone. A properly finished print was almost always enhanced with some skilled ‘dodging and burning’. Dodging and burning is a classic technique in black and white, where certain areas of a print are held back (dodged) under the enlarger […]

Filed Under: UncategorizedTagged With: Adjustment brush, Black and white, Burning in, Dodging and burning

Black and white in Capture One Pro

November 20, 2016 by Life after Photoshop

Maybe you wouldn’t normally think of Capture One Pro as an image-editor. It’s a superb RAW converter and general image enhancement tool, but most of the time you’d probably swap to a plug-in or an external editor for really detailed effects work – especially any that required localised adjustments. But I’ve been spending some time with Capture One […]

Filed Under: Capture One, Featured, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Dodging and burning, Graduated filters

Who needs HDR when you’ve got Viveza 2 control points?

November 30, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Viveza 2 control points

Viveza 2 is part of the DxO Nik Collection, and I think it’s in danger of being overlooked in favour of the newer, flashier or more versatile plug-ins in the collection. Viveza 2 is designed to offer localised adjustments for your digital image using the ‘control point’ technology now found throughout the Nik Collection. Viveza […]

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Filed Under: Nik Collection, TutorialsTagged With: Dodging and burning, HDR

How to use the Lightroom adjustment brush tool to dodge and burn your colour shots

September 24, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Lightroom adjustment brush

Dodging and burning was a standard darkroom technique for black and white photographers, but it works just as well on colour shots. ‘Dodging’ is where you lighten selected areas of the image and ‘burning’ is where you darken them. With the Lightroom adjustment brush tool this is really easy to do, and you can control […]

Filed Under: Lightroom, TutorialsTagged With: Adjustment brush, Burning in, Dodging and burning, Lightroom (Adobe), Masks

Discover the power of Silver Efex Pro Soft Contrast

September 8, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2 Soft Contrast

The Soft Contrast slider is one of the new features introduced in Silver Efex Pro 2, and its effects are quite different to the regular Contrast control. At first it can seem quite difficult to work out a use for it, but you’ll soon discover when you start digging around in the presets that it […]

Filed Under: Nik Collection, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Contrast, Dodging and burning, Silver Efex Pro, Structure

How to use control points in Silver Efex Pro 2

September 1, 2013 by Life after Photoshop

Nik Software Silver Efex Pro control points

Black and white photography relies heavily on dodging and burning to add emphasis to certain parts of the image, to balance or contrast areas of tone, and improve the overall composition – and Silver Efex Pro’s control points let you do this in moments, without masks or selections. You don’t always need them. Silver Efex […]

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Filed Under: Nik Collection, TutorialsTagged With: Black and white, Dodging and burning, Silver Efex Pro

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site

Enter your email address to subscribe to Life after Photoshop and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could … [Read More...] about Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. … [Read More...] about The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Layers explained

Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

Layers are a central part of many photo editing processes, … [Read More...] about Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

Photo editing software does two quite different jobs. It can … [Read More...] about BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

More Posts from this Category

Mission statement

Life after Photoshop is not anti-Photoshop or anti-subscriptions. It exists to showcase the many Photoshop alternatives that do more, go further, or offer more creative inspiration to photographers.

Affiliate links

Life after Photoshop is funded by affiliate links and may be paid a commission for downloads. This does not affect the price you pay, the ratings in reviews or the software selected for review.

Contact

Email lifeafterphotoshop@gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 Life after Photoshop · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in