Pixel Level Dodging and Burning
- October 14th, 2009
- Posted in Reference . Retouching
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[Final Draft #1 - 14 Oct. 2009]
On Feb. 5, 2008, I posted a tutorial on “Basic Pixel Level Dodging and Burning” on a networking site for photographers and creative professionals known as ModelMayhem.com. You can read the thread here: http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=245900&page=.
I want to update and streamline for the 2009 version via additional insights and thoughts to the elusive and the most coveted retouching technique. If you master D&B, you are limited only by your imagination and the tools at your finger tips. You will find these thoughts at the end.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I have a lot to thank towards my professional growth, but these illustrious authors’ words are at the helm of my retouching heart and I hope I made all of you proud of my rapid accomplishments from internalizing and applying your teachings. I’ve read all of your books cover-to-cover multiple times and the wisdom imparted are carried over to my own photographs.
- Professor Katrin Eismann | Chair, Masters in Professional Studies in Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts.
- Mr. Dan Margulis | Applied Color Theorist
- Mr. David Biedny, Mr. Bert Monroy, Mr. Nathan Moody
- Authors: Photoshop Channel CHOPS
Beauty retouching is the most simplest and yet challenging just because all you’re doing is evening the skin at the pore level. You need patience, discipline, and trained eyes to recognize and manipulate details.
Without further ado, fire up your PHOTOSHOP
I am going to augment the “Neutral Soft Light” (NSL) technique over the “Dual Curve” (DC) just because NSL does not leave dis-colorization.
We will NOT be using Lena’s face, so instead we’ll be playing with my mug shot. I am such a great sport. I volunteer to be your Guinea Pig! I took this self-portrait around Feb. 2008 when I turned 28.
Download the 8-Bit TIFF file of the practice file: http://blog.ronaldntan.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/RNT-DB-Tutorial.tif
Darken Layer Mask
Lighten Layer Mask
1) Hide the “Retouched” group so you’re seeing the proof.
2) Add a curves adjustment layer–curved up for dodging or “Lighten” layer. Make sure your layer mask is set to “Hide all” (should appear black).
3) Add another curve adjustment layer–curved down for burning or “Darken” layer. Make sure your layer mask is set to “Hide all” (should appear black).
4) Set your brush to 100% opacity, 1-2% fill, and hardness 25-30% or 50%. I use 1% fill. Make sure you have advanced brush settings on. Press F5 to check!
5) Press F5 (PC) and check the “Other Dynamics” setting. I have only “Other Dynamics” & “Smoothing” checked.
6) For “Other Dynamics”, my settings are: 0%, Pen Pressure; 0%, Pen Pressure.
7) This is the tedious part. Zoom into like 500% until you can see the skin burrows. Do you see the darks?
With your pen, try to match the laugh lines with the size of the brush by pressing open bracket “[" to decrease brush size and close bracket "]” to increase brush size.
9) Make sure you have clicked onto the black layer mask, otherwise there won’t be any effect!
10) Press “D” to set the fore and background to default black and white. If the foreground isn’t white, press “X” to change to white. You’ll be “painting” on the black layer mask to lighten the darks.
That’s about the bulk of it! I have the “Darken” layer because I wanted to darken or have a more defined nostrils.
The “Skin Evening” group is basically done with the Lasso tool with a feathering about 30 pixels. The purpose is to even the skin. You select an area with the Lasso tool, feather generously to create a smooth transition. Add a curve adjustment layer and only move up to lighten or down to darken only a bit.
To tone down or dampen the shine (like on my forehead), I added a new layer. Set my brush mode to “Darken”. I sampled my skin near the shine and I painted on the layer with the sampled color with the eye dropped tool sampled at 3×3.
To add highlights, I lightened my cheek skin a bit. Same thing as above, the inverse–brush mode set to lighten. Sample the shine and paint on the new layer.
UPDATED: I added contrast enhancement to my portrait. If you look at my “Merged” layer, it is self-explanatory.
CONCLUSION
There are many way to D&B and there isn’t a right or wrong way. Ultimately all you are doing is lightening or darkening pixels or groups of pixels. Lately I am using more and more Neutral Soft Light (NSL) technique because it does not create any reddish dis-colorization. The NSL is basically filling an empty layer with 50% grey and using black to burn and white to dodge.
Detailed NSL for Lena looks like this:
This is a composite of all the NSL layers from my file. I tend to spread my work flow and layers. I would D&B the cheeks and move elsewhere to correct and make another NSL layer and work on the forehead, etc. If you like working on the same NSL layer and you made a mistake, set the color to 50% grey (#808080) and “erase” your mistake.
Last tip I am going to leave is this: STUDY THE DEPTH OF YOUR SUBJECT’S FACES! Know which areas of the face naturally protrude and which recedes. Foreheads protrude. Eye sockets recede. In 2D, lighter shades are closer (to make protrude–dodge) while darker shades recede (burn).
Questions? Comments? You’re more than welcome to contact me from the contact page of my website, http://www.ronaldntan.com/ If you are a member on ModelMayhem (MM), hit me up and say hi. I normally spend some time in the Photography and Digital Retouching forums.
FEEDBACK on my writing is appreciated. Let me know how I could improve. Down the line, I want to auhor a photoshop book. 
I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO PRACTICE. READING BOOKS IS LIKE SCHOOL. YOU NEED HOMEWORK! HOMEWORK IS WHEN YOU APPLY THE LESSONS LEARNT INTO YOUR OWN IMAGES, STYLE, AND WORK FLOW. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE, TEACH SOMEONE! YOU WILL SEE THAT TEACHING AND SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE NOT ONLY PROLIFERATE INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALISM, BUT FOSTERS AND CULTIVATES NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES, FRIENDSHIPS, AND GROWTH–PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY.
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