Tutorial – Dodge and Burn in Editing

I have been reading up lots on ‘dodge and burn’. This isnt some new gameshow or reality tv show. Its a photo editing process used a lot in photography, in particular in fashion and beauty. The ‘dodge’ element is for what of a better phrase to ‘lighten’ areas of the image and the ‘burn’ is to ‘darken’ areas.

Its a way to enhance the image further. There are a lot of tutorials online for you to learn the technique. It is a good process to practise as you really need to see where the light falls to ensure you arent highlighting areas that need not be. Its a way of defining features, cleaning up an image and enhancing it further.

Original image by Nils Bratby. Permission sought before altering.
1. Original Image
2. Dodge and Burn applied.
3. Final processing.

The key to good dodge & burn is to see where the light hits the subject.

In the example above you will see light visible especially on her nose, top of forehead, collar bone, chin and cheekbones. There is also some on her hair.

The shadows are visible on her chest, cheekbones, chin and temples.

By ‘burning’ the shadows you are enhancing them. Be careful not to do so too much as it will result in a very severe look. The same for ‘dodging’ areas to lighten the areas.

The process should leave a polished sheen to the images.

I use this process on most images. It can be come lengthy and quite involved so be careful not to over do it.

This is one of the better (in my opinion and that I have found) tutorials on Youtube I have found for dodge and burn.