Visual Reference To The Dodge/Burn Tech

[SteveB2005]

I have seen many tutorials here that include images which really help me understand how to pull off the technique. I have been experiementing with the dodge and burn retouching techniques explained throughout the forum, but still not quite grasping it. Is there any visual step by step reference available on the forum anywhere to check out and if not, would someone volunteer to post one? I like Ro's de-grunge tutorial because he shows step by step with images. Thanks steveb

[Lasse]

Yeah i would like to see more information on this techniqe too. It sounds good, but havnt found a tuturial about it yet (might just have overseen it though).

/Lasse -Risici

[extrememc]

There is a book by Scott Kelby titled The Photoshop CS2 Book. I just follow his technique and it worked. See the results. This books sells for around 25 on amazon with free shipping. It is a great book for retouching photos.

Original
http://grafxxpluz.smugmug.com/photos/65984152-L.jpg

Dodge/Burn
http://grafxxpluz.smugmug.com/photos/65984149-L.jpg

[byRo]

SteveB2005, after such nice words I just have to try and help out a little.

First a disclaimer, I do not use this technique so I am not qualified to share any experiences. However, I do know how it works - as described by heyrad here so I'll just offer some comments:.

1) The method is completely non-destructive. All of the work is done on masks, never on any original;

2) Burning and dodging are done on separate layers, doing one at a time;

3) While called Dodge / Burn, there is actually no dodging and burning going on. You will make a whole "dodged" layer and a whole "burnt" layer and just mask in their effects;

4) The "defects" that you are trying to eliminate are concentrated in the Luminosity information not the colour. Hence, it is a good idea to "turn off" the colours while working on this;

5) Skin doesn't usually ocupy the whole range of luminosity - if you consider the L channel in LAB, useful skin levels will be between 40% and 90%. Thus you can use levels / curves to open up the skin range and accentuate the "defects".

6) You don't have to recreate the layers anew everytime. You can group the layers and save the PSD file (before painting the masks). When you need the layers again just open the saved file and slide them over to the new image. Or, smarter, set up an action.

Hope someone who does use this can help you out some more.

Rô

[Frank Lopes]

I'll try to "distil" the workflow to its absolute minimum


Start the image that you want to "fix" in a layer called "Main"

Add a layer and call it "Dodge"

Add another layer and call it "Burn"

Change the blending mode of the Dodge layer to ... Color Dodge and fill it with black

Change the blending mode of the Burn layer to ... Color Burn and fill it with white


now comes the magic...


Set the the foreground color to black

Select a soft, fairly large brush (experience here is the only thing will that help you decide the size...)

Set the brush opacity to 5%

In the Burn layer, paint (with black) the areas that you would like to "burn"

Set the foreground color to white and the leave the opacity at 5%

In the Dodge layer, paint (with white) the areas that you would like to "dodge"

With experience you will want to try using other colors. Needless to say in addition to darkening or lightening the Main image, the colors will also interact with each other.

Play with it and experiment. You will very quickly see what the effect of the two layers are.

There are more sophisticated ways to accomplish this trick (sometimes called painting with light...) but start with this workflow so you get the "hang of it".

One final point: as byRo mentioned, it is totally NON destructive. All the work is done on the 2 layers above the "Main".

I also assume all of this work is done in RGB mode. Before jumping into LAB or CMYK modes, experiment in RGB. First things first...

Good luck!

Originally Posted by SteveB2005

I have seen many tutorials here that include images which really help me understand how to pull off the technique. I have been experiementing with the dodge and burn retouching techniques explained throughout the forum, but still not quite grasping it. Is there any visual step by step reference available on the forum anywhere to check out and if not, would someone volunteer to post one? I like Ro's de-grunge tutorial because he shows step by step with images. Thanks steveb

[extrememc]

Could you give me your opinion on the dodging on the photos I have done please.

Originally Posted by byRo

SteveB2005, after such nice words I just have to try and help out a little.

First a disclaimer, I do not use this technique so I am not qualified to share any experiences. However, I do know how it works - as described by heyrad here so I'll just offer some comments:.

1) The method is completely non-destructive. All of the work is done on masks, never on any original;

2) Burning and dodging are done on separate layers, doing one at a time;

3) While called Dodge / Burn, there is actually no dodging and burning going on. You will make a whole "dodged" layer and a whole "burnt" layer and just mask in their effects;

4) The "defects" that you are trying to eliminate are concentrated in the Luminosity information not the colour. Hence, it is a good idea to "turn off" the colours while working on this;

5) Skin doesn't usually ocupy the whole range of luminosity - if you consider the L channel in LAB, useful skin levels will be between 40% and 90%. Thus you can use levels / curves to open up the skin range and accentuate the "defects".

6) You don't have to recreate the layers anew everytime. You can group the layers and save the PSD file (before painting the masks). When you need the layers again just open the saved file and slide them over to the new image. Or, smarter, set up an action.

Hope someone who does use this can help you out some more.

Rô

[SteveB2005]

Hello Ro. Thanks for offering to help us out with the D&B technique. I have been going through the steps and experiementing with the effects. It is a slow and laborious pace. I'm still not getting the results I want. Perhaps you or someone can post a before and after image that demos the stages and the final result, or a link to the same. Thanks steveb

[Frank Lopes]

I'm sure others will come up with better examples, but here is one that I did on another forum

Originally Posted by SteveB2005

Hello Ro. Thanks for offering to help us out with the D&B technique. I have been going through the steps and experiementing with the effects. It is a slow and laborious pace. I'm still not getting the results I want. Perhaps you or someone can post a before and after image that demos the stages and the final result, or a link to the same. Thanks steveb

[videosean]

This has to be the most requested tutorial lately around here... I'm not sure I can do it justice (or even properly) but here's a little somethin.
http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/index.php?m=show&id=272
Hope it helps.