Master Dodging and Burning in 32 Minutes | Photoshop In-Depth Tutorial

today we gonna learn how to dodge and burn in Photoshop to really transform your portraits drastically and add depth and dimension to it right from what is dodging and burning to where it exactly fits in your workflow we're gonna discuss various techniques to do it all so I don't want to leave you hanging so I'm gonna be giving you links of the tutorials of the things that you need to do before dodging and burning and also the things that you need to do after dodging and burning so without any further ado let's get started this video is divided into sections if you wanna go ahead and skip to any section you can use these timestamps so here we on Photoshop and if you are go ahead and download this photo check the links in the description so this is the original photo I went ahead and removed the blemishes links to all of the tutorials are in the description below so there's a tutorial about removing blemishes there's also a tip on beauty retouching when it comes to removing blemishes again then I applied a little bit of frequency separation and did some advanced skin retouching and have a look this is what we did if you want to go ahead and check that out there are two or three tutorials on that links are already there in the description then as you can see there was a green color cast right over there and on top of her Ani I don't know whether you can see it or not but I did a little bit of color correction and removed those and I added some blues so you'll see so this is removing the green color cast I'll just go ahead and turn that on have a look it removes the green and turns that a little bit magenta and I removed the overall yellow by increasing the Blues and then little bit small Corrections if I turn that on have a look this one this area is corrected hairs are removed you can do that beforehand too but I forgot to do it so I did it later okay now it's time for us to dodging but now after dodging and burning you can apply global effects like effects or filters or Kyle lookup tables or whatever you like but that's after dodging and burning okay so let's apply dodging and burning after you have corrected the face by using by removing the blemishes frequency separation color correction of just the skin and then the small Corrections and after we do all of this it's time for us to do dodging and burning now you can go ahead and download this complete PSD as a starting point I'm making it available for you to download with all of this steps done so that so that you can open up and see what's going on inside it that will help you understand these processes apart from the tutorials as well okay now first of all let us discuss what is dodging and burning simply dodging and burning is brightening and darkening particular areas of the image in this case the face to add depth and dimension to it in other words I've explained it earlier let's think of it in terms of a circle suppose we have a circle full of gray now it's a 2d flat circle right over there just like that now if I brighten one area and darken the other what does it become it becomes a sphere it has a dimension to it so that is what dodging and burning is and that is the objective of dodging and burning to add dimension now the process is this any area which is protruding in the direction of light has to be brightened any area which is facing away from the direction of light has to be darkened so in the case of this sphere this area was facing in the direction of light so this area was brightened and the opposite area is facing away so that was darken remember dodging is frightening burning is darkening if you cannot remember just remember it this way burning makes things darker sometimes if you burn wood it makes it a little darker right so planning is dunking and dodging is bright now there are several techniques to do dodging and burning you can simply go ahead and create a new layer take the brush make sure the foreground and the background colors are black and white you can press D to reset the swatches to black and white and then just simply zoom in change the blend mode of this one from normal to overlay or soft light whichever is your favorite soft light is simply the milder version of overlay so it's go ahead and select soft light and take the brush decrease the flow to 2% and simply paint black on the areas that you want to darken and white on the areas that you want to brighten just like this suppose you want to bring out the nose so you will just paint like this probably like that now this is too much I'm just showing you what can be done and then if you want to brighten this particular area paint that in white like that and that's how you bring out the nose and decrease the overall opacity just like this have a look before after before after so that's something you can do another way is adding a gray layer let's go ahead and delete that it's just the same thing press control shift and command shift N and then change the blend mode of this one from normal to overlay or soft light whichever you like let's choose soft light and make sure you check fill with soft light neutral color and hit OK now as you can see this layer is painted completely totally in grey but you cannot see gray why because soft light and overlay are the blend modes which delete everything which is 50% gray okay now you can go ahead and plain paint black and white it's just the same thing we are painting white right now you can paint black it's just the same thing all right so I prefer if you're using this method I prefer painting on a blank layer but you can use the gray layer as well depends upon your choice now one another method which we're going to be using in this example is using curves this is my personal favorite you can use those methods also but I don't know I just like those methods because of the flexibility and the non-destructive qualities of it so let's do curves so how do we do curse create an adjustment layer called curves as simple as that now take it down we are burning right now take it down just like this not too much just like this and invert the mask make sure the mask is selected inverted press ctrl or command I now make three or four copies of it make three press ctrl or command j j again okay so we made the copies by holding the ctrl and pressing J twice or thrice depending upon the number of copies that you want to me if you're using a Mac that would be command J why did we make two or three copies beforehand we made those because you want to target different areas separately okay so you you might think okay if we work on one and then make a copy of it you will be extending the process because you'll be already creating a mask and then copying it then removing the mask it's better to make two or three layers beforehand okay you'll understand why let's select the first one make sure you select the mask take the brush make sure the foreground color is white remember black hides white shows up black conceals white reveals darken the areas which are facing away from the light or are already darker okay so take the brush make sure the foreground color is white so that very paint white this will be visible and we paint slowly and gradually decrease the flow to one percent now let me give you a tip sometimes when you don't and burn for example they are bringing out the nose we are dodging and burning it's looking pretty good okay it's looking pretty good right over there but let's decrease the opacity it's pretty good amazing but if you zoom out as you see it's looking pretty bad it's looking very bad she's looking like a joker we don't want that to happen so let me give you a tip let's go back by holding ctrl alt Z command option said if you're using a Mac or Z however you pronounce it depends upon the country that you live in okay now go to Windows okay arrange new window for dodging and burning PSD it will make a copy even though it's the same thing it's the same document just another copy appearance now go to window arrange to up vertical just like this now this is zoomed out this one is completely zoomed out like this let's zoom in a little bit and this one is completely zoomed in now when you paint on this one you will see a zoomed out version on this side which is very important when it comes to dodging and burning let's zoom out just a little more okay now if you come back to this document and paint on this one for example if you want to make it a little darker just like this have a look this is gonna be visible on that one so it helps really helps to keep a check alright let's start painting now at any point if you think the curse is too much you can open up the properties and take it a little up like that okay let's can get back to the curves I think we have done too much press X to toggle between black and white and paint out the extra areas you similarly on the other side remember don't do too much you can always see the zoomed out version right over there then off and on to see the effect okay so let's zoom this in a little bit so that you have a look at the better view so similarly just go ahead and paint this area of the nose I'm not gonna bore you with a complete process I'm gonna show you the final result I just want to show you a couple of questions right now as you can see in the zoomed in version it's looking perfect it's looking marvelous but in the zoomed out version this is looking pretty bad very bad have a look it's looking very bad so we need to correct that let's work on it a little bit and then what we gonna do we're gonna turn the brush color to black and remove the extra I have a look before after it's pretty good not that before after it's good I like it before after pretty good now let's do the lower bottom of the nose now in this area I like the shaded effect zoomed out area it looks completely strange so it's very essential that you do this step this one is zoomed out that one is zoomed in we're gonna correct that don't worry about it so much okay that's pretty good take the brush and change the color to black and let's erase those extras okay the nose is looking pretty good have a look before after before after amazing isn't it now let's decrease the overall opacity because we always go a little overboard let's decrease it to zero and slowly and gradually let's increase it this is that's 89 or 90 is fine because we kept a watch over here we did it very accurately we didn't have to decrease the opacity so much so that's a great advantage of keeping a watch by zooming it out on one window and zooming it in on the other one now let's work on the second see that's the advantage if you just worked on this one you even have to make a copy delete the mask and then work on it so it was a mess so that's why I asked you to make two or three copies in the beginning so select this mask let's take it a little up like that as we saw in the previous one this is a light skin just okay and you're gonna paint on the cheek this time with white let's move this one as well to the cheek if you have a bigger screen better you can see more make sure you bring up the cheek the cheek bones and stuff you can do this with the tablet but you can also totally do this with a mouse I'm right now using a mouse and the reason why I use a mouse because I want to show you that it can be done the tablet shouldn't be an excuse for you to not get started or do advanced retouching right you can get started with the mouse it's not required for you to get started yes but it does save you a lot of time and it makes your process much easier I will say that but that shouldn't be an excuse in every tutorial that I've recorded I've used a mouse or even a trackpad okay so you can get started with anything have a look before after now let's change the color to black and delete the extras I would look at the before and after before after we need to paint a little bit over here with white floor after okay now it's time for us to decrease the opacity because that is very essential let's increase it little by little like that I guess 92 is fine because we did a perfect job we looked on the zoom out area zoomed out area and we did the perfect opacity but I still think there's an area right over there which needs a little bit of correction so we'll just focus on that particular area and the great part about this is that you can switch to the other document and just burn on that particular area which you can see over there but you cannot see in that area see corrected very easily corrected no problem corrected right so you can get back to this one and fine-tune it this find you in the same thing it was very easy to do so let's get back to this one this document and correct it even more by painting over there with white that was easy wasn't it that was very very easy to do have a look pretty nice and sometimes what you might want to do you might want to open the mosque and see where it's too bright there it's too dark and you can also go ahead and increase the feather of the mosque if you want to so let's I'll just go ahead and increase it to twenty-eight pixels that's fine let's go back and see whether that's looking great that is great now let's try and decrease in the opacity ninety-five I'll stay at hundred that's fine for me select all of these three by selecting the first one hold the shift and select the last curves adjustment layer it will select everything in the row press ctrl or command G and then let's have a look before after makes an amazing different makes the portrait pop alright before after other areas are remaining let's use this one for the right cheek let's make a copy of that again for other areas now let's work on it let's increase the brightness just a little bit to this one to this value and select the mask then let's work on this area I like it let's have a look before after before after amazing dimension right over there I think we need to add a little more dimension to the nose from this side let's get back to the nose one I think this one was that work on the different areas separately it really helps I think now that's fine it's looking pretty good have a look before after it's great and by the way I just wanted to add a very important thing right now let's add it let's decrease the opacity now I'm thinking it's too much let's make it 75 okay it's always essential to get back after a break and look at the image sometimes it happens as when you get back after a break you look at your image what was I doing what the heck was I doing then you just go ahead and reduce the opacity or change the color or whatever is necessary when it comes to dodging and burning the objective is not just limited to adding dimension you can also remove any depression or extrusion using dodging and burning for example there are wrinkles in your face not in your face but in your subjects face but suppose there is wrinkles right over there and it's depressed inside getting inside so you can brighten that thing up and bring it forward okay or suppose an area is protruding just like this bulging you can darken the highlight of it and put that get it inside okay you can also use dodging and burning in that way do if there is any area that we want to push in in this image we can look through it for example the smile lines are something which you want to push in and make a really smile and exaggerate her expressions so we can darken it even more right over here a little bit see how it accentuates her smile let's zoom in in this one it will show you have a look at this it really makes her smile my better can make this one right over there as well so we're depressing it inside have a look what a difference it makes before after smiling if you want to exaggerate a smile you don't have to apply liquify and make just like this it it looks fake just exaggerate the smile lines and the smile lines are something which you don't want to remove while you are removing the wrinkles now it is too much we can always go ahead and decrease the opacity like that now that's wonderful have a look at the overall before and after before after we can work on different areas but before we do I'm gonna show you dodging first and then I'm gonna show you the final result let's make a group of all of this by selecting the first one hold the shift key select the last one press ctrl or command G okay now let's Dortch what does dodging mean brightening create a curves adjustment layer and then do just the opposite take it up like that okay and then ctrl or command I simply take the brush and brighten the areas which are facing in the direction of light or the areas that you want to protrude okay so in this case we'll just paint on the nose slowly and gradually make sure to keep a check on the right hand side of the image it's too much just have a look at the before and after so this is the before this is the after okay this is too much we'll go ahead and decrease the opacity like that and I pretty much like it I was just being black in a couple of areas okay now here already before after you can also use it to bring up let's increase it okay that's great the cheekbones let's create one more now here is the disadvantage and that is why I asked you no matter what you're doing dodging and burning make several copies of it now we will have to create the curves again take it all up again and it's gonna be a hectic process and if you want to copy it you can can copy it by pressing ctrl or command J you will have to just again delete the mask by pressing ctrl or command a select all then make sure the foreground color is black and then press alt backspace option delete if you're using a Mac and then fill it with black completely then press ctrl or command D and you want to go through that complete process so it's better to make a couple of copies now that we are here make copies to three copies and then let's get back to this one it's always a good practice to name them so that is this was nose so let's name it nose and in the other one to make a good habit of naming all of those so that we can work on the colors later we're gonna discuss it later okay so nose now let's work on the cheek you can go really in depth and work on the eyes now as I told you before you can also use dodging and burning to remove depressions okay so here you can paint a little white to remove the depression under the eye let's move it it's pretty good before after it's looking great let's come back to this one I personally do this I paint a little extra and then I remove it with black okay so I just did the same thing when we were doing the burning now as you can see I can see problems here but I cannot see problems there so I'll get into this one and then just solve those problems like that okay have a look before after before after that's great now let's try increasing the opacity then decreasing it 60 because the opacity of this one was decreased we have to again increase the opacity of every one 200 again so make copies first that's how you do the cheek we'll do the other cheek and then we'll move forward and look after the color you can go really in depth let's decrease the opacity okay let's have a look at the overall before and after if I just zoom out on this one a little bit and you can always move this like that and before after before after that does make a ton of difference now as you see it's too much the cheeks are too bright let's make it a little darker over here let's make this cheek - a little darker like that now have a look at the overall before after they can make a group of all of these and name it what torching oops the caps lock is on seems and this one burning okay so there is the burning they're so daunting now there are other places that you need to dodge and burn like the head and the chin but I'm just showing you a couple of areas you can also go ahead and do pretty specific areas like eyes so that's the basic process and you can follow along with that now one essential tip to note here when you're doing dodging and burning sometimes you're gonna see something called color shifts we have dodged and burn very little but if you do it too much if you have to do it too much for example in this nose one I think this was the nose let's check yes so in this for example you had to make it more darker like that you had to select the mask and then paint it even more just like that and if you see that there's a change in color and this color is not looking great over there so here's what you can do now here's the tip create a hue/saturation adjustment layer click on this adjustment layer icon and choose hue/saturation now we need to clip it to just this area how do we clip it just click on this button it creates a clipping mask or one other way of doing this is by holding the alt or option and clicking on the line between these and then work on the hue make it see it looks better now let me get a little more yellowish decrease the saturation a bit and then we're going to lightness that's fine I think I decrease the saturation very much and that's how you can work on it so before after a little more like that and you get the idea but in this one we don't need to work on that but sometimes you do so for those times this is the way to correct color shifts for example in the cheeks as you can see it's too much of red and that's looking good if that's not looking good to you you can simply go ahead and add a hue/saturation adjustment layer clip it that clipper to that and decrease the saturation like that now it's looking much more natural but I liked the red have a look before after ok decrease saturation and it can do that with separate areas separately and that's the best part about it and that's why I asked you to create separate layers if you want to do it all at once create one but if you want to be specific and take your time to do it and come out with a really great result make it separately now let me give you a quick tip that will make your dodging and burning process faster and easier but the trade-off here is that you will lose control just a little bit now this is helpful especially if you're a beginner and also even if you are not a beginner and you're looking for quick dodging and burning this is gonna be helpful so here's how it goes let's turn off these dodging and burning the traditional ones let's create new curves adjustment layer take it down and just paint on the dark areas you don't have to be super accurate about this select the mask ctrl or command PI okay take the brush and simply paint don't have to be accurate just paint like that okay no accuracy required for example you paint it on the cheek that's looking pretty good right over there okay we paint it on these particular areas now when we burn okay when we burn we are burning right now we want to make sure sometimes not all the time sometimes you want to make sure you are painting on just the areas which are already dark we can achieve that we have obviously painted a little extra you can achieve that using blend if we did it very quickly right double-click on the right hand side of the layer okay now let's have a look take this slider of the underlying layer from right to left that will remove the bright areas of the underlying layer or the combined effect of the layers beneath it which is the image from this current layer so the bright areas of the layer which is beneath it from this particular layer so if you take it it removes the bright areas right as you can see very nice defined edge this is very harsh so you're gonna make it smooth by holding the alt or option key click on the slider this will separate that and separate that to make it smooth just like this this will make sure that you're painting on just the dark areas like okay so you can do this and this will really help you make amazing dodging and burning but if you are working on depressions or creating a depression or doing things like removing eye bags or taking it forward you cannot do it with this one because it does not allow you to paint on the dark or the bright areas depending upon whether you are dodging or burning for example in this case for example just for example if I want to darken a bright area I cannot do that it just will not allow me so for example if I select the mask take the brush select this and if I try to darken it if I increase the flow and try to darken it even more it just won't dark in that particular area it just won't there's a limit if you go ahead to this if you double click on this one and if you remove this effect see it's darkening now but if you apply this effect like that and if you tick it it just won't paint on the bright area similarly with dodging so suppose you are dodging let's go ahead and delete this curves adjustment layer we don't want it so if you're dodging let's create a curves take it up like that and ctrl or command I if you want to remove this dark area under the eye take the brush and paint that area with white it's too much but I'm showing you just for an example and if you want to apply that and this time you do just the opposite because it's dodging like that it just won't work it's just going away from the dark areas see it's the complete opposite of what we want so there's a limitation but you can apply this technique as well so that's how you dodge and burn in Photoshop have a look at the before and after complete before and after so this is the before this here's the after and after dodging and burning you can apply color effects probably I'll increase the vibrance a little bit so just click on this adjustment layer icon and click on Y bronze and increase the complete vibrance of the image now it adds some color to the photo let's close this document and this one that's the main document you can also apply lots and other stuff now this is not completely dodged and burned let me show you the complete result so this is the before and this is the after so that's how we dodging burn in Photoshop there are tons of ways of doing it but the concept remains one what is the concept dodging is brightening burning is darkening dodging and burning is brightening and darkening particular areas of the image to add dimension to it dodging and burning is also used to work on protrusions and depressions depressions like eye bags or there's a deep depression over there you need to work on it so you can brighten those areas if there's a protrusion like bulging out something you can just Stark in those areas in this video you primarily used curves to do it so we created a curves adjustment layer took it a little down for burning took it up for launching created a negative mask and paint it using white as a foreground color and black to tweak it you got the idea then we used hue/saturation adjustment layer do correct the color and that's pretty much it it's not always required to use the hue/saturation adjustment layer but if you want if you require it if it's increasing the saturation you can control it by using that adjustment layer I hope this video helped and if it did make sure to give us a like and also don't forget to subscribe and not scribe ring the bells that you my friend don't is the thing I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice people for supporting this channel on patreon and making this episode possible thank you so much for all your support I'll see you guys in my next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating [Music] you [Music]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 117,555

Rating: 4.9503546 out of 5

Keywords: dodging and burning, portrait retouching, curves, color shift, hue saturation, gray layer, dodge and burn photoshop, make portraits pop, skin retouching, dramatic portrait, retouch face, curves in photoshop, piximperfect, photoshop tutorials, portrait dodging and burning, adobe, unmesh dinda

Id: gmxj0X-0UvA

Length: 32min 26sec (1946 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2018