A targeted adjustment to lighten (Dodge) or darken (Burn) parts of an image. The term Dodge and Burn comes from a darkroom technique used with film.
You can dodge both lights and darks, and burn both lights and darks in an image. Dodging and burning is about adding depth to your image by making targeted contrast and colour adjustments.
Capture One Basics. Capture One - Color Work. Introduction to Dodge & Burn on One Layer. Dodge & Burn Training. Dodge Burn - Image Retouching. Eyes and Eyebrows. Full Capture One layer stack for dodge and burn For each of these layers, you will proceed to the layers panel and add a new adjustment layer and label it accordingly. By now you may be thinking that manually creating up to 7 layers and applying adjustments to them one by one is.
Dodge & Burn Curves. Two curves – one for Dodge and one for Burn – are the optimal solution. Masking the effect in and out with white and black is very simple. Switching between layers is pretty easy with the following shortcut Windows: Alt +, (down), or Alt +. (up) Mac: Option +, (down), or Option +. Dodging and Burning directly on a 50% gray layer is an efficient method and in many cases it’s sufficient. However, it doesn’t take the luminosity into consideration and the effect is applied globally to the areas you paint. That means that you might end up darkening already dark parts or vice versa. Do gradients, linear and circular, before moving to the brush tool. And venture beyond the standard “exposure” or “brightness” slider when dodging and burning. Two extra points apply in Capture One that aren’t true of Lightroom. First, local adjustments require the use of Capture One’s layer capabilities, which are quite valuable.
DODGE (LIGHTEN)
C1 tools that can lighten parts of an image include the:
- Exposure slider (heavy handed, but not so if constrained by a Luma range or mask), The Brightness slider helps little, because it squashes the histogram and has less impact on highlights and shadows;
- Highlights slider which impacts the top 25% of the highlight tones in the image and tapers off into the upper midtones;
- White point slider which impacts the top 5% of highlight tones and does not taper into the upper midtones (percentages are rough estimates);
- Lightness slider in HSL (C1’s Colour Balance tool);
- Levels Tool; and
- Curves Tool.
C1 tools that can lighten parts of an image include:
- Exposure slider (heavy handed, but not so if constrained by a Luma range or mask). The Brightness slider helps little, because it squashes the histogram and has less impact on highlights and shadows;
- Shadows slider which impacts the bottom 25% of the shadow tones in the image and tapers off into the lower midtones;
- Black point slider which impacts the bottom 5% of shadow tones and does not taper into the lower midtones (percentages are rough estimates);
- Lightness slider in HSL (C1’s Colour Balance tool);
- Levels Tool; and
- Curves Tool.
I would not use the Brightness slider, the Highlights or Shadows sliders or the White Point of Black Point sliders to Dodge and Burn. These tools are better suited for global adjustments rather than targeted adjustments like Dodge and Burn. Plus, I would not run the risk of hurting my global adjustments to achieve a targeted adjustment. There are better tools to use. I would not use Levels either, as Curves are more powerful. The jury is out on the Lightness slider.
That leaves Exposure and Curves. Three suggested methods are set below.
METHOD 1 (BEGINNER)
Burn layer
New Empty Adjustment Layer called Burn
Move the Exposure slider down a third or half a stop (I have seen minus one stop used). No changes occur on the image as the mask is empty.
Set your brush Opacity at 100%, Flow at 5% or 10%. Draw in the mask in the areas you want to darken (Burn). Using such a low Flow allows you to subtly apply the adjustments. Use the Opacity slider on the layer to make further refinements.
Dodge layer
Dodge And Burn Capture One Pro
New Empty Adjustment Layer called Dodge
Move the Exposure slider to the right a third or half a stop (I have seen plus one stop used). No changes occur on the image as the mask is empty.
Set your brush Opacity at 100%, Flow at 5% or 10%. Draw in the mask in the areas you want to lighten (Dodge). Using such a low Flow allows you to subtly apply the adjustments. Use the Opacity slider on the layer to make further refinements.
Note:
this method allows you to dodge lights and darks, and burn lights and darks.METHOD 2 (ADVANCED)
Burn Layer
New Fill Adjustment Layer called Burn
Apply a Luma range to the fill layer to select the lighter areas you want to adjust. You cannot apply a Luma range to an empty layer, nothing happens. Use the Curves tool to make your changes. The power of Curves and Luminosity masks allows targeted adjustments. The Curves tool is only used to Burn on this layer.
Dodge layer
New Fill Adjustment Layer called Dodge
Apply a Luma range to the fill layer to select the darker areas you want to adjust. You cannot apply a Luma range to an empty layer, nothing happens. Use the Curves tool to make your changes. The power of Curves and Luminosity masks allows targeted adjustments to the light areas. The Curves tool is only used to Dodge on this layer.
You could Dodge and Burn on single layer, but separating the layers allows more precision and makes the adjustments easier.
When making the Curves adjustment use the RGB channel to alter both colour and luminosity. Any changes in the Curves luminosity channel will only impact the luminosity values.
Note: this method only allows to dodge lights and burn darks.
METHOD 3 (INTERMEDIATE)
This method allows you to dodge or burn shadows, midtones and highlights (both colour and luminosity). It is based on a technique used by Kasia Zmokla. Shadows, midtones and highlights can all be affected because of the curve adjustment made.
Burn layer
New Empty Adjustment Layer called Burn
Go to the Curves RGB tab, click on the mid-point and move the curve downwards. No changes occur on the image as the mask is empty.
Set your brush Opacity at 100%, Flow at 5% or 10%. Draw in the mask in the areas you want to darken (Burn) including shadows, midtones and highlights. Using such a low Flow allows you to subtly apply the adjustments. Use the Opacity slider on the layer to make further refinements.
Dodge layer
New Empty Adjustment Layer called Dodge
Go to the Curves RGB tab, click on the mid-point and move the curve upwards. No changes occur on the image as the mask is empty.
Dodge And Burn In Capture One 12
Set your brush Opacity at 100%, Flow at 5% or 10%. Draw in the mask in the areas you want to lighten (Dodge). Using such a low Flow allows you to subtly apply the adjustments. Use the Opacity slider on the layer to make further refinements.Photo by Kishore Sawh.
In this post, photographer Kishore Sawh shows you how dodging and burning can improve your images, as well as how simple it is to accomplish in Capture One 20. He takes you through the process step by step in this helpful guide.
Kishore Sawh:
“A major benefit of using Capture One 20 [for dodging and burning] is that unlike Photoshop, it’s a raw processor, so with it, you’re working on a raw file. This means you’re working with the most information possible, whereas with Photoshop, you are working on a lossy file that degrades as you work it. In addition, Photoshop manipulation of those files tends to introduce strange Gamma adjustments…
“Capture One’s layer functionality is high, especially with 20, and the confluence of the layers, luminosity masking on those layers, and the flexibility of brushes makes Capture One a truly powerful platform for dodging and burning. It’s also nice that you have to do less round-tripping from raw processor to Photoshop, as you can do much more in Capture One.”
You can check out the complete article over at the Fstoppers.com website. Also be sure to view Phase One’s Dodge and Burn tutorial.
Dodge And Burn In Capture One Pro 12
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