Dodge and burn questions...

[Carterofmars]

How often do you dodge & burn, particularly in Photo-shop, and to what degree?

I'm reading an interesting article (during work ) illustrating the use of D&B to adjust exposure in areas to increase contrast to liven up dull/flat images; dodge highlights and burn shadows.

I'm assuming the opposite is recommended to reduce contrast as well; dodge shadows and burn highlights.

I guess my question is are these tools better used to decrease contrast or increase contrast? What are your experiences.

If some can provide images as examples, all the better.

Thanks in advance for all replies/insights/recommendations.

[bob carnie]

I use curves to adjust contrast, this tool is very powerful and it is where I would set my basic Contrast.
There is many ways to dodge and burn in Photoshop , everyone will have their best methods, to enhance areas or lighten.
I use the blend modes for a lot of this, Multiply to burn, Screen to dodge, and Soft Light to increase midtone contrast.
But the tools available are so great you can do any type of function at least four ways.

I take the approach to make my digital edits look very much the same as how I would work on an enlarger, Therefore I dodge and burn every image.
How much , well thats personal and is dictated by what you want to convey in your work.

When I started in PS I was intimidated by the program and it took a couple of years to find my way around, I did a lot of workshops and edited my own work , printed it , then 6 months later redid the files from scratch to see if there was improvement.
I later found that by learning the numbers , specifically the LAB info palette things got a lot easier.

[cjbroadbent]

You are asking about dodging and burning large format negatives, of course, where the process has to start with a scan anyway.
In the case of a bad negative, you might as well do three scans (shadows, mids, and highlights) and run them through a tone-mapping program like photomatix.
With a good negative, as Bob says, 'curves' do the trick.
With a dodgy negative, 'lighten & darken' is an easier tool to work with because photoshop does highlight and shadow masking for you.
Here's an example of tone mapping a 4x5 negative with awkward reflections and detailed whites:
Attachment 73203

[Brian Ellis]

For global contrast adjustments when printing I mostly use Curves, occasionally Levels. But I don't need to make global contrast adjustments very often. More commonly I adjust local contrast and I do that by painting on a new layer (i.e. not using the Photoshop dodge and burn tools, which I understand destroy pixels). It's a very rare print to which I make no local contrast adjustments at all.

[Old-N-Feeble]

I start with a global Curves adjustment layer then make feathered selections and add additional adjustment layers on top of that. I don't use the Dodge/Burn tool.

[Frank Petronio]

The actual Dodge and Burn tools are remnants of the earliest crude version of the program. I'm surprised they haven't updated them. With color, they tend to make things muddy.

The Photoshop "paint" tools are powerful, especially if you learn to use a Wacom pressure sensitive tablet. Most people will make a second layer with the extreme adjustment, add a layer mask, and then use the erase tool in brush mode (as a painting tool) to erase parts of the mask gradually and selectively. It allows nice feather blends and is editable/non-destructive to the original.

If you work fast and confident you can also use the History Brush. Make your move, save a "snapshot", undo, then use the History Brush to paint from the snapshot in the history menu.

[Ari]

If you work fast and confident you can also use the History Brush. Make your move, save a "snapshot", undo, then use the History Brush to paint from the snapshot in the history menu.

My preferred method of dodging and burning in PS; the dodge and burn tools are indeed quite crude, and lag far behind the other PS tools in their effectiveness and quality.

[Jim Noel]

Do I use dodge and burn techniques to enhance images? Of course. I also use contrast masking, pre-flashing, bleaching and intensifying and a wide variety of other techniques.
I do none of this on the computer, but in the darkroom which it where it all started and is still produces more beautiful results.

[E. von Hoegh]

Do I use dodge and burn techniques to enhance images? Of course. I also use contrast masking, pre-flashing, bleaching and intensifying and a wide variety of other techniques.
I do none of this on the computer, but in the darkroom which it where it all started and is still produces more beautiful results.

+1

[Lenny Eiger]

Do I use dodge and burn techniques to enhance images? Of course. I also use contrast masking, pre-flashing, bleaching and intensifying and a wide variety of other techniques.
I do none of this on the computer, but in the darkroom which it where it all started and is still produces more beautiful results.

This constant "darkroom prints are better than inkjets" is childish and annoying.

The truth is that I have a platinum print that I made many years ago and I have a new inkjet print I made on Kozo with good inks, and I would challenge anyone to tell me which is which. They are indistinguishable.

I see nothing wrong with working in a darkroom. You have only a fraction of the control but why should that matter? Everyone is free to enjoy what they want. But there isn't a value judgement you can make here. Not unless you can tell the difference between my prints, which you can't. It's juvenile. Enough.

Lenny