B&D: screen/multiply VS. curves?

[E Maguyon]

Hi,

This is my very first post, being recommended to this site from fredmiranda.com. I gotta say that im diggin all the stuff on here and been stuck reading past posts and searches all day,lol.

Anyways, I have a quick questions about B&Ding. I have been using 2 types of techniques for a little over a year and would like to hear which is better and less destructive:

1. B&D using screen layer (dodge) & multiply layer (burn)

2. B&D using a separate (hi & lo) curve layer for each dodge & burn

I tend to notice that using curves for b&d adds a little more noise than screen & multiply. Any opinions or insight?


Also, I read in a past post that luminosity is bad at times. What I do though, is if I burn with a higher curve adjustment, I change the blend mode to luminosity to deter from the saturation changes done when hiking up the curves; is this bad? Is there a better way to defer from sat changes when curve burning? Maybe lower the sat levels down all the way in this layer; will that be better?

..when I burn in multiply, of course the same sat happens since it gets darker. So, I bump the sat levels all the way down on this multiply burn layer so color doesnt change. Is this advisable?

any insight welcome


Edgar

[Markzebra]

Its not ALWAYS bad to use Luminosity, just limited, depends what it looks like doesn't it? Know where you are headed, then not so important what method you use to get there. "Maybe lower the sat levels down all the way in this layer; will that be better?" probably yes, more controllable

Your two methods are basically the same: You'll find that any adjustment layer set to screen or multiply will do the same as duplicating the pixels, and setting them to these modes. Multiply and screen can also be simulated precisely with a very precisely shaped dip or raise curve. So there is really no difference in the EFFECT of these three methods to the addition of noise

[ray12]

The new Photoshop CS4 has added a new switch on their dodge and burn tools. Its called Keep Tones.

The CS4 version of D+B does a much better job at retaining the original tone of the pixelds and doesnt add in as many artifacts..

You might be able to upgrade for about $200USD possibly

Ray

[Markzebra]

…Possibly, if your fortunate enough not to live in Europe. if you do live in Europe, double that figure and then add some. This may very well be the first serious attempt to tackle US national debt.

[Cuervo79]

Is there a reason to use those modes instead of soft light? I've been using soft light on my work and haven't found any drawbacks yet. Normally I use 2 color layers one in black and another in white both set to soft light.

[Dave.Cox]

The reason to use these modes instead of soft light would be if you want additional control of the lightening or darkening, or to lighten or darken beyond the 50% adjustment point of soft light.

What soft light does, is it lightens and darkens based on the blend color. If the pixel that it is blending with is lighter than 50% gray, then it will lighten the color, much like the lighten mode. If the pixel is darker than 50% gray, then it will darken the pixel like the darken mode. If the pixel if 50% gray, then it will not change it.

Overlay works very much in the same way as soft light, except it uses screen and multiply instead of lighten and darken and compares to the base color.

[Cuervo79]

Thanx for the answer, so in simple terms using multiply or lighten gets you "farther" than using softlight

[gmitchel]

I just added a 44 minute video tutorial on dodge and burn to my site. It covers dodge and burn by overlay layer, multiply/screen blend layers, and curves adjuustment layers.

You'll wanmt high speed internet access. This is a 142MB video because it is 800x600 with high quality audio.

Enjoy!

http://www.thelightsright.com/DodgingAndBurning

Cheers,

Mitch