Adobe Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques

Dodge and Burn Tools

The words dodge and burn are taken from a traditional photographic darkroom. In a darkroom, an enlarger projects an image onto a sheet of photographic paper. While the image is being projected, you could put something in the way of the light source, which would obstruct the light in such a way that it would hit certain areas less than others—a technique known as dodging. Or you could add light by cupping your hands together, creating just a small hole between them, and allowing the light to concentrate on a certain area more than others—a technique known as burning. Using a combination of these two methods, you can brighten or darken an image. Photoshop reproduces these techniques with two tools: Dodge (its icon looks like ...