Dodging and Burning - Technique Question

[longside1]

Hi guys,

I'm starting to use D & B in most of my photos now and am now always looking for methods to improve my technique.

When D & B I either use a neutral grey overlay layer or two curves adjustment layers, one dark one light. Although i'm improving, one of the problems I have at the moment is identifying in the shot dark and light areas to enhance.

To this extent I had an idea but am unsure how to go about it.

Would it be possible convert a colour image to monotone, thus making it easier to see the tonal shifts in an image, dodging and burning that image and then somehow applying the edits in the black and white image to the original colour version through a blending mode or something??

I hope this kinda makes sense!

Thanks, Matt....

[pixelzombie]

if you made an adjustment layer on top to convert the file to B&W and then d/b on a layer below, but this would only be possible in cs3...

[longside1]

Originally Posted by pixelzombie

if you made an adjustment layer on top to convert the file to B&W and then d/b on a layer below, but this would only be possible in cs3...

Hey why i didn't I think of that! I'll give that a try!

[KR1156]

hue sat layer on top, desat 100%....then s curve to bump contrast.

[Daviskw]

Hi there

Duplicate your background

Change the duplicates layer mode to Luminosity

Click back on the background and open a blank layer between the background and the duplicate.

Fill this blank layer with 50 percent gray.

Click back on the top layer and make luminosity changes as needed.

You check you progress by just clicking the visibility of the gray layer.

When done just flatten or delete the gray layer.

Butch

[mrkronk]

I find it even helps sometimes to create a third curves or levels layer under the hue&sat layer, but on this one you just bump up the contrast abit.... makes the light and dark spots easier to notice... and then when you're done, you just click it off along with the hue&Sat layer.

[cricket1961]

You need to be careful using a hue sat layer. When completely de-saturating it can have a tendency to even out the channels thereby "hiding" some of the skins imperfections.
However you choose to show the density differences, it needs to be able to show everything. Otherwise you will miss a lot of stuff that will be noticeable in full color viewing.

Chris

[hermes]

Have you tried dodging in LAB colour?
Dupe a layer, convert to LAB, go to channel 1lightness, dodge and burn away, you will see the image in greyscale as you edit then swap back to combined image.
The good thing about LAB colour is that you can dodge and burn without affecting the colour of the image, it just adjusts the levels and not doesn't affect the colour.

[cricket1961]

That is good about lab, but then when you convert back you don't have the ability to undo. Unless you make a dupe of the channel or layer.

Chris

[hermes]

Yes Lab is good for that, I know what you mean about stepping back, remember you always have the history and also I would always have a dupe layer just in case.

[cricket1961]

History doesn't work with conversions though hermes. And if you are making a dupe of the layer and working in just the lightness channel it can pose its own problems. But, yes, it is essentially doing the same as the other techniques.

Chris

[hermes]

Chris, duping a layer as back up then converting to lab and editing the lightness layer, toggling back to lab does keep the dodge and burn history. It's possible to view each history movement in lab and move back and forward within history.

I use the lighness channel in lab when Im trying to get more detail into a pic, we dont get fantastic quaility images on my newspaper titles so they need all the help they can get!

For me lab save my life on many occasions!

[longside1]

Thanks Hermes, that sounds like a really interesting technique. I'll keep you posted and let you know how i get on.

Many thanks for your assistance!

[cricket1961]

Heremes

So what you are saying is that you are keeping a psd in Lab mode and saving a converted
RGB or CMYK file as your final, right?

Yes if you are keeping the document in Lab mode than the history is kept. Now that I believe I am clear on what you were saying. : )

Chris

[hermes]

Hi Chris, yes thats what I meant, a psd file converted to lab edited then converted into rgb then cmyk. Thats right it does keep it's history, in fact thats the only reason I use that tecnique. Anything that loses it's history would be too risky wouldnt it!!

cheers

Paul