I am one of those people who have never used dodging and burning tool..or alot of the other tools for that matter. But this was great pedro, I can't wait to have a go myself.
thankyou
debbie
I just posted my first submissions to this site a couple of days ago. I am a brand newbie. I used dodge and burn on one of my submissions, but I had not read this yet. I mean I had not even heard of dodge and burn til I started touling around this site. I got photoshop elements with a scanner I bought and just found the tools and monkeyed with them some. Somehow I missed the "percent thing". I needed much more subtlety than I got, lol. I mean it didn't suck, but you could see edges to my effects. I just read your tutorial and I am thinking, well now, I could have done much better. Too late now, though. ;) Plenty of other challenges to come though. Thanks for the info. We newbies who are just now stepping out of point and shoot land need all the help we can get.
(went to an extreme just to see how far I go with it)
Thanks P!
Damnit Pedro! What'd you go do that for. You! Outta DPC. Yer off to the remote location with no internet service to hang out with Brad and Zoomdak. Shoo!
Well..... I had been wondering why everyone was mentioning "Dodge and Burn" all of a sudden. The discussion about Pedro's Tutorial cleared that one up.
His description of D&B is, in part: "Simply put, the dodge tool lightens the pixels you paint, and the burn tool darkens the pixels you paint."
Soooooooooo. Guess I have to learn what "Paint" means, huh?
Hehe. the dodge and burn tools are applied with a thingy Adobe calls a 'brush' (really just a circle and not a brush - it's a well orchestrated conspiracy to make us think it's a brush). In my use of the term 'paint', I'm only referring to the action of moving the circle over the image. In my world brushes are for painting (bald guys don't tend to think about other uses for brushes).
In all likelihood the recent surge in D/B discussions have more to do with the fact that those tools have produced some fabulously appealing images around here lately (a la Heida/e301 etc). I wrote the tutorial in part because in an effort to emulate the work found in those photos, many people were using these tools very badly.
I really want to thank Pedro (and everyone else) for posting this tutorial. I have already learned alot in just the week I've been a member. I never knew there was so much you could do with photography! :) Now I'm learning how to make a great picture out of an OK one. Of course, I still have a LOT of ways to go, but hopefully I'll get there someday! :)
Maybe Brad can write a tutorial on "The Tiger Torch" burning method :)
Reading back I realize I sounded like an ass when I made that last comment. I didn't mean to knock the work of people trying new things. Hell, when I look back on the garbage I used to submit, I cringe. All I intended to say was that these tools are very easily misused. Given that I've now learned how to use them properly, I thought I'd share the info. It took me hours and hours of trial and error to get it right, and I had hoped to save others some time.
Sorry if I offended anybody. Well, except Brad. I don't mind offending him so much. If Jacko were here I'd try to offend him too.
A very well thought out tutorial - explained in a very straightforward manner, with good examples. I have never tried using either dodge or burn, frightened of them through lack of understanding. Now, I feel I should have a go.
Thank you very much.
Hugh
“*As a side note, I tend to also select the ‘airbrush’ option (that little thingy right beside exposure in this picture). It seems to give a little more natural result. No idea why. But really, does it matter why? I didn’t think so. If it does matter to you... you could look it up. Then you could tell me.”
Can anyone tell me if the airbrush option is available on PS Elements 3? I have found lots of brushes but not the airbrush.
