Help with Dodge and Burn techniques

[TMR Design]

When I'm using Curves adjustment layers to Dodge and Burn skin the dodging worked really well but I'm having some trouble with burning and I suspect there must be a better or different technique needed.

Some skin has highlights that are near white and using a brush to burn them is either in effective or makes them slightly gray since there is no way for it to know you're dealing with skin tones.

So, when the areas want to burn down are near white, how I do burn? I've tried to paint in those ares but sampling a nearby skin tone but it doesn't look natural and appears to love texture.

Is there a trick, technique or tutorial that demonstrates a method for doing this kind of burning?

[robertmccadden]

I usually clone the white areas with some darker skin and then D&B the darker skin to get it where I want it.

[Der_W]

First of all if you start off with RAW files, you should be able to recover these highlights with the "Recovery" slider in Camera RAW.
Shooting in JPG won't let you have this option, so my approach would be to use a curves adjustment layer just for these blown out highlights, where you lower the whites to a light gray (lower the lightest parts of the image) and add a little red or whatever is needed to it afterwards (this time, make the lightest part lighter).

BTW.: Could you post an example? I guess it's easier to explain with an image to start with :-)

[TMR Design]

I always shoot RAW and the highlight recovery slider is not the answer. It affects the image and skin tone beyond just bringing down the highlights. Also, why are you assumiming there are blown or clipping highlights? They are brighter areas and when skin is not perfectly smooth you get a highlight and shadow on the pores or raised areas.

Maybe your solution works for some images but I don't like the way it works on the images I'm shooting.

I'll post a sample in a while.

[TMR Design]

This is a sample at 800%. The light and near white pixels will turn gray when burned down and it doesn't look good. They should burn down and deepen in color closer to the neighboring skin tones.

[Arjay]

I'm not sure if I'm interpretting your problem properly, but it sounds like you are trying to deal effectively with hotspots in the skin. I came across a tutorial using channels and calculations to isolate the hot spots into a layer mask, and then using pattern maker (of all things!) to create a good skin texture that you can place on a separate layer. After that, all that is needed is a little blending. I'll see if I can track down the actual link to the tutorial, in the mean time maybe the above info is enough to get you started. Good Luck

[Arjay]

I believe the tutorial was created by the people at ETNT. It was part of their retouching workflow DVD.

[TMR Design]

Originally Posted by Arjay

I'm not sure if I'm interpretting your problem properly, but it sounds like you are trying to deal effectively with hotspots in the skin. I came across a tutorial using channels and calculations to isolate the hot spots into a layer mask, and then using pattern maker (of all things!) to create a good skin texture that you can place on a separate layer. After that, all that is needed is a little blending. I'll see if I can track down the actual link to the tutorial, in the mean time maybe the above info is enough to get you started. Good Luck

I guess you could say it's hot spots. I just see it as highlights in the contour of skin that need to be toned down a bit. We probably mean the same thing.

What you're suggesting sounds like it makes sense but I don't know how to implement it so if you could find the link to the tutorial I'd really appreciate it.

[0lBaldy]

It may not be the Pro way, but I'm not a Pro sooo,... I use the Patch tool, feather it, move to good skin, reduce to about 50% to 60% or enough to get rid of the shine..

That said, I do not work at the Pixel level so it may be noticeable at those extremes and not applicable.. just my 2 cents

[csuebele]

With the sample you provided, I just made a curves adjustment layer and pulled down the midtones. Then I applied the blue channel as a mask and adjusted it to mainly hit the very bright areas. You can then adjust the opacity of the adj layer to taste and put it into a group and apply a layer mask to that group to feather into the surrounding area.

[robertmccadden]

Ok, after seeing the example I would tackle this by using the clone stamp set to darken. Just sample the not so bright skin next to the white skin and brush away the white using small strokes and a small brush.

Curves may be able to make the spots darker; however, it may be noticable as those spots will have little to no texture or color. You could do an additional move to add the color back in after you darkend them up, you would still have no texture.

[mistermonday]

Instead of a 50% soft light gray layer, and instead of light and dark curves layers to dodge and burn, I prefer to use two solid light adjustment layers - one filled with black and the other with white - both set to soft light blend mode and each with a "hide all" layer mask. You have wide lattitude and the control is fully linear. Moreover if you work in LAB color modeyou can dodge and burn all you want without affecting the color - only the luminosity changes. If you work in RGB you will have color shifting and you will usually need to correct the D&B final with a new layer set to color and paint over the areas whose color has shifted. Part of the right side done quickly in the attachment.
Regards, Murray

[TMR Design]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm going to give some of these ideas a try and I'll let you know how I do.

I appreciate the help.