Dodging and Burning Natural HDR in Camera Raw and Photoshop

Colin Smith

Enjoy these two methods of Dodging and burning.

Dodge and burn are techniques that come from the darkroom. When projecting a negative onto photopaper through an enlarger, photographers used to either block light, or cup the hand to direct light into certain areas. This allows underexposing or overexposing of different parts of a photograph. This is the kind of technique that Andsel Adams employed.

Today, we can perform the same function very easily in Photoshop. There are two main reasons to dodge (brighten) and burn (darken).

The first is to fix photos. For example, you may want to open up shadows in a portion of a photo or tone down the highlights to reveal the detail better.

The second is purely creative. As the eye is usually drawn to brighter parts of a photograph, the creative use of dodging and burning can be used to guide the viewers eye to the areas of the photograph that you consider important. Toning down less important areas and enhnacing other areas can simplify the composition and create a very eye catching composition.

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HDR, Panorama and Timelapse.
MULTI SHOT MAYHEM

Colin Smith

If you want to learn exactly how to make HDR, Panorama and Timelapse images, this is the training for you. Even if you have never created these amazing (but complex) images before, you will learn exactly what you need to do, start to finish in this new course by Colin Smith. The crazy thing is, he breaks it down and makes it so easy, that you will wonder how you didn’t do this before. You will very quickly learn how to shoot these images, and more importantly, get in-depth, step by step instructions on how to process and make your masterpieces in Photoshop. Get ready for the next chapter of your photography.

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