Soft Light Dodging and Burning is for the Birds!
Over the years, I have taught you many different techniques for Dodging and Burning. I have shown Curves Layers, 50% Gray Fill, even automated methods for Dodging and Burning. All the while, I had taught you these techniques while sticking to the Blend Mode that I knew when I learned them, Soft Light. However, I recently took a good hard look at WHY I was using Soft Light and began to pursue the idea that there could be something better out there.
My old Parachute Rigger Supervisor and Mentor used to say this regularly, and I mean almost every day, “I don’t do things just to do things. I do them for a reason.” For some reason, that always stuck in my head when I found myself doing tasks that I did for the sake of doing them without questioning why.
Recently as I was dodging and burning using soft light as my blend mode, I noticed a color shift in the photo I was editing. It really looked like I was baking those colors, baking them so much they were burnt (pun intended). I had also received emails from people asking me why the soft light or overlay blend mode Dodge and Burn Techniques created a color shift. I usually responded with, “that’s just the downside of dodging and burning.”
That simply is not true.
That is the downfall of using the soft light blend mode for dodging and burning. Soft Light, by its nature, is a great blend mode. But it is also the only blend mode in the whole stack that doesn’t make much sense. Even when you read Adobe’s forum on the blend mode, it basically says it mimics a diffused light effect. Not very helpful.
There is one Blend Mode in the contrast blend mode section that was meant for Dodging and Burning. That is the Linear Light Blend Mode. It actually takes its power from the Linear Dodge and Linear Burn Blend modes. It’s basically like taking both of those blend modes and slamming them together into one awesome blend mode that was made for dodging and burning.
I will show you exactly why I feel the Linear Light Blend Mode is better in today’s video. I will also demo it on a few images and leave you with these actions to try independently. Enjoy!
•Click here to learn more about MyPanel 2•
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
Hi Blake
Thank you for the excellent video and actions. Does this mean you will be bringing out a new Dodge & Burn Panel? I use mine on most of my photos and wouldn’t be without it now as it is so useful.
Steve
Thanks! No new DB panel ideas. That’s a ton of work for a blend mode change. I may incorporate this into something else in the future. But I don’t have plans to make a new DB panel. Too much other things on my plate.
Another brilliant tutorial. and action
Fantastic, Blake. Thank you very much.
Stay Safe
Vinny
I see I have a new action for MyPanel. Perfect as with the new Panel, I have an open spot.
Blake, if you keep this up (providing so much useful information week after week), you will soon exhaust the capacity of my 70-year old brain. Needless to say, thank you so much for another very helpful insight and for the action! I’ll send you the coffee money next month.
Thank you Blake, very useful.
Super, Blake. Thanks!
Love this Blake! Just got My Panel so these actions are definitely going in there! Thanks again, you’re awesome!
Good discussion, Blake! I’ve been doing this for a while now & have a suggestion. Make a new blank (empty) layer above the work layer. Use Linear Light as suggested but leave at 100% fill. I brush on the blank layer using low but variable brush opacity (starting at 3-5%). That way you can affect the image at varying amounts by your brush stroke opacity vice layer opacity. Also I often borrow existing colors with the eyedropper tool. I then modify that sample’s lightness/hue in the color picker. higher luminesce to dodge, lower to burn. Now you have dodging and burning with color. You do something like this in the Palette Effects panel, but I get much better control this way.
Love this! Love D&B Pro too. But this is so fast and the results are awesome. Thanks for always giving us the best tools and training.
Hi Blake. Great tutorial on D&B. Downloaded the action but got the not the right kind of document message in PS. I use pscc. Any suggestions?
All good now Blake, got it to install per your instructions. Thanks so much!
Absolutely brilliant, what a great new way, thanks Blake
You’re genius Blake! In less then 10′ you learn us more than what a men can find in a (thick) book! Outstanding!!!
And yes, the actions you share with this tuto, makes our artistic work so much faster and easier you must be stupid to not use them! Thanks man and have a great weekend…
Great stuff, Just installed the actions but when I try to run say the ‘Dark Favored” i get a pop up saying the command ‘set’ is not available. Any ideas
Is this any better than D&B using curves in Luminosity mode?
You SURE you don’t want to work for Space-X? It probably pays more; however, you’d probably get bored!
I’ve been a teaching pro golfer, (missed the Senior Tour, by two shots, years ago), and a semi-retired photography pro for many years (before you were hatched); however, I’m not even close to your PS knowledge base.
Love your PS genius, Blake.
Best,
David
I was just thinking the other day that I needed to research and choose the best method for dodging and burning — GOT THAT DONE! Thanks for another great tutorial.
Alright! Glad that did it 🙂
I can’t wait for the next Rabbit-Out-Of-The-Hat “f64 Blake” machination.