What do dodging and burning do

Burning and dodging are two darkroom techniques used when printing a picture. A negative is placed in a projector and then pointed at a piece of photo paper much like a slide projector projects an image on a screen. That photo paper is not like the paper you might be used to printing on at home now. It is light sensitive, just like film, and that is the whole reason for creating a darkroom; to control the amount of light hitting the paper which will expose it. Now then, light from the projector passes through the negative and then hits the paper.

The timing of the light exposure is controlled to certain tolerances just as the original exposure of the scene onto the negative was controlled. Light hits the negative evenly and then hits the paper evenly.

I also darkened the areas around some of the other people in the photo to make things less distracting. Dodging and burning is a technique that can be done in any editor that enables you to make local adjustments, and there are quite a few different ways you can do it. To learn more, check out our full guide to dodging and burning on any image editor.

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Best Bluetooth Headphones for Switch. Best Roku TV. Best Apple Watch. Best iPad Cases. Let us know your questions and comments below. Usnea Lebendig is a travel and landscape photographer who loves trekking in the wilderness, exploring other cultures, and using photography for social activism.

Dodging and Burning well is quite time-consuming but the results can be the difference between a mediocre photo and an excellent one. My challenge is getting myself to take the time to do it properly…. Enter your email to be sent today's Welcome Gift: 19 Photography Tools. How to Dodge and Burn Your Photos. Table of Contents. Twitter Facebook Pinterest. Usnea Lebendig. Enter your Email Please enter a valid email address. Because nothing was certain about the intensity of either effect until the print was developed, darkroom dodging and burning was a real art, and the skill was in applying the effect without leaving a hard edge or overdoing it.

These tools are grouped together with the Sponge tool, which is used to soak up any increase in saturation after they have been used on colour images. The key to using the Dodge and Burn tools is found in the Options bar at the top of the screen, as either tool can be assigned to a specific Range Highlights, Midtones or Shadows and both can be given an Exposure value.