Lightening and darkening (often referred to as dodging and burning) in selective areas of an image to enhance existing light and shadow, to guide the eye or to increase depth and contour is a technique I commonly use. Both in Lightroom and Photoshop there are many ways to make localized lightening and darkening adjustments.

Image before local dodging and burning.

Image before local dodging and burning.

Image after local dodging and burning.

Image after local dodging and burning.

One of the most popular and effective dodging and burning techniques photographers use is the 50% blended gray layer method. This is a technique I have demonstrated in several of my tutorials, including THIS ONE and THIS ONE as part of previous video blogs I have published here on PhotoCascadia. The 50% gray layer technique works great, but it does have a limitation.  Often, after using the 50% gray layer method to lighten or darken, I wish that I could easily make further adjustments to the lightened or darkened areas…for example, I might want to adjust the contrast, saturation or color balance of just the the areas I had lightened or darkened. There isn’t an easy way to do this with a 50% gray layer, but using an empty or transparent layer instead of a 50% gray layer solves the problem. In this video I deomstrate how it works:

I hope you find this technique a useful addition to your Photoshop skill set. Give it a try and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

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