Let’s Talk About Dodge and Burn
The below is an excerpt from my most recent newsletter, which goes out 2-3 times per month. If you like getting these sorts of tips and insights in your inbox, you can subscribe below. Thanks!
When I first started editing photos, I heard the term dodge and burn a lot. I still hear it a lot of course, because it’s incredibly important when editing. In fact, I would argue that it’s the MOST important aspect of editing. We all do it, all the time, on every image, even if we’re not thinking about it or realizing it.
In the beginning of my photography life, I didn’t really know what it meant. To be clear, I looked it up, read about it, and the words made sense to me, but I didn’t really UNDERSTAND it in the context of photo editing. I didn’t know when to dodge or burn, or why, really. I didn’t know what tools to use either. And I definitely didn’t think about what I was trying to achieve with it.
These days, I dodge and burn multiple times across any photo that I am editing, throughout the entire process, and I try to be strategic about it.
So what is it? Well, it’s the act of brightening (dodging) or darkening (burning) specific parts of a photo. It’s about adjusting the light, in a nutshell. And this is done in targeted areas with specific tools. Does this sound familiar? Well it should, because this is what masking is all about.
Masking allows you to control edits, such as light, in specific parts of a photo. So that’s why I am always going on about masking in my videos and here in the newsletter - it’s about controlling the viewer’s visual journey through a photo, and you do that with light. The act of doing so by making areas brighter or darker, via masks, is dodging and burning.
If something is brighter (dodged), it will draw attention, and if it is darker (burned), it will get overlooked. So you decide what you want the viewer to focus on, and you dodge and burn accordingly. You do this with masking techniques, and ideally, you do it subtly enough that it is not obvious to the viewer.
Whichever editor you use, there are several great tools for this: brush masks, linear and radial gradients, luminosity masks, and more. Even the color masks are useful for this. Heck, you could even argue that using a vignette is a form of dodging and burning. But be sure to feather the edges of your mask (a large gradient zone is what I normally say to describe this) because it will create a smoother transition and make things look more natural, and less obvious.
So even though I don’t use the words dodge and burn that much, I do talk about adjusting the light in every video and that is the same thing. Just keep the viewer’s visual journey through your image in mind when editing, adjust the light accordingly, and you will get a better looking image as a result.
