All language subtitles for 3. Dodge & Burn

Our next step will be the Dodge and Burn stage,

which involves smoothing out the transitions between highlights and shadows

to make them appear softer and create a smoother and more appealing

skin texture.

We will use a special layer for this, which we will create ourselves.

It's very simple.

And let me show you how

we hold the alt key and click on the Create Layer icon.

This will open a dialog box where we can name our new layer,

Let's call it D and B.

We need to select the blending mode for this layer

and it's very important to choose

soft light mode

and this will enable us to check the option

to fill the layer with a neutral color, which is 50% gray.

Click okay and we have our doesn't burn layer right over here.

That's essentially all we need to do

to set up a dodge and burn layer for our photo.

We've just created a gray layer with the soft light blending mode on this layer.

We will use a regular brush with

simple settings and I will show you in a second.

So let's choose our brush to with B

and go over here

where we can see the settings for it.

So we do have to uncheck all of the settings here.

And the only thing that that's important is the spacing.

That should have 25% setting.

Another thing that we need to check for

the brush is its flow and opacity.

And let me explain the difference

between these two right away.

These are two settings of our brush that affect how our strokes behave.

So let's enable the

view of only our gray layer

four demonstrate and purposes so we can see what I'm talking about.

Hold the alt key and click on the icon

next to the layer.

So when we have all the settings at 100%,

we have our main color black.

So when we paint,

we are painting in 100% black.

Each stroke gives us 100% black

if we want to reduce

the visibility of the brush

using opacity.

It works in such a way that when we paint

with, let's say,

10% opacity,

the area

won't darken more.

If we paint with black, it will only apply the black color

with 10% opacity

only when we release the mouse or our stylus

and start painting again in the same spot,

it will darken by another 10%

and another 10%.

Each time we paint again in the same spot,

it darkens that area

with another 10%

and flow

works slightly different.

Flow works in a way that when we paint in one spot,

the color keeps getting darker, as if

layering on top of itself.

So let's go back to 100% opacity and

and see what 10% flow does

when we draw

in one spot, one place,

as you can see, we can reach 100%

black just by painting over in one place.

It keeps darkening until it reaches 100%.

In the case of dodge and Burn, we want to use the flow

setting while leaving opacity at 100%.

It simply gives us control over how much we lighten or darken

a particular area by painting in that spot for a shorter or longer period,

setting the flow to 1% is the best option.

In this case.

Going higher in percentage would lighten or darken

the area too quickly.

Let's undo those or maybe even

delete the layer

here we have our edits and let's create

Dungeon Burn layer again,

dodging burn mode, soft light

field with soft like neutral color.

There we go.

Next thing Sometimes with color photos, especially at the beginning,

some people use various help layers to better see the differences

between shadows and highlights and their boundaries.

Sometimes the eye can be deceived by color,

and it's easier to see in black and white.

Personally, I recommend only saturating the photo

rather than using special and very elaborate hope layers

that increase micro contrast

as it often leads to excessive editing.

When we see too much, we tend to edit too much and the result can be overdone.

I think the

most helpful approach is using a simple D saturation layer

as it trains our eye to see the photo as it is

and learn to perceive the differences without relying on assistance.

So we will create a whole player using an adjustment layer.

Let's enable the solid color adjustment layer

and fill it with either black or white

and set its blending mode to saturation

and that's it.

We simply converted our image to black and white.

We can switch it off and on.

And for some people this is very helpful and doesn't burn as it makes it easier

to see the differences in shadows and highlights.

However, I still recommend practicing your eye

on the color image itself.

All right, let's get started.

Let's select our Dungeon Burn layer.

We have our brush selected.

We have opacity at 100% flow at 1%.

We can see that we have some issues here

and there are some stray hairs and there is a vein

that will be brightening and smoothening

to reduce those differences.

I also recommend learning to work at a zoomed out view.

I definitely don't encourage you to do

Doesn't burn at a close zoom level.

Firstly, you'll end up spending too much time

unnecessarily and secondly, you'll end up doing too much

because you'll see too many differences in shadows and highlights.

So learn to work out an overall view

where you can see the areas with evenness,

but avoid zooming in too close.

So I would do it like that.

The foreground and background colors

are black and

white, which you can always reset to default by pressing the D key

and switch between them using the X key.

So we use black

if we want to darken certain areas

like here, for example,

we paint over those lighter areas

on the skin.

We switch to white if we want to

brighten some dark spots,

we paint over areas that appear too bright

and stand out compared to their surroundings.

Here's our vein so we can brighten it a bit

so it blends more with the rest of the skin

like so we can use larger brush for larger

areas as well.

Let's take a look from the distance here.

We have a darker spot so we can brighten it a bit

and we are making it a bit more smooth.

And the transitions

between light and shadows

should should be smoother as well.

Let's see the before and after.

Okay, our forehead is looking a bit

better now.

Let's darken this area a bit

light and here

let's fix the makeup a bit as well.

And we continue this process

switching between black and white to darken or lighten areas that are uneven

so that the transitions between shadows and highlights are smoother.

And at this point, I highly recommend using a stylus or pen

for this work instead of a mouse.

It will be much more comfortable, precise and efficient.

Working with a stylus may require

some practice at the beginning, but I guarantee that you won't

want to go back to using a mouse once you get used to it.

Another thing to remember is

to not to focus solely on brightening or darkening.

We switch between them quite often

to achieve a more balanced result.

Let's work on on this area for a bit.

For this light in those spots

we change the brush size often

as well to match the spots that we are

editing.

I am brightening the dark spots now,

switching to black to darken them

like so

we work with areas

like consciously looking at the photo and

and looking where shadows and highlights should be.

It's very easy to get lost in cleaning up those minor imperfections,

but if we are not careful, we may end up altering the shape

of the shadows and highlights too much, making the face look natural.

Okay, our forehead

already looks quite smooth, so we move on to the nose.

There's a slightly dark area at the tip,

making it appear larger.

So we work on balancing the light

and shadow.

We can darken this area

here to make it look smaller as well.

There are some dark spots

right here, so let's

brighten them a bit

like so here should be some shadows

so we can work on it

like that.

See the before and after.

Okay.

I really recommend stepping back and looking at the photo as a whole

and practicing your eye to edit and work only on areas that really stand out

this way.

You won't overdo it and the result won't look like plastic skin

under the eye.

There is a subtle shadow

that's not too significant, so we can easily correct it from a distance

like that.

I also recommend

rotating your head and looking from a different angle

because our eyes sometimes get too accustomed to viewing from one angle.

And it's it's really good to change our perspective.

Okay.

The eye looks alright to my taste.

It's not overdone,

but it's a bit more vivid.

Let's see the color version.

Maybe.

Let's darken this spot a bit so it blends more

with the rest.

Okay,

here's some shadow as well so we can brighten it a bit.

See the before and after.

Okay,

let's move on to the cheek.

We should have a nice

shadow here

so we can work on it a bit with dark color

to blend more

and to give it a nice shape.

Darken this place as well

as it was standing out a bit too much.

So that's blended a bit more.

We have a dark spot here so we can lighten it

darken here.

So we are switching between white and black very, very often.

Work with the

with changing the brush size as well.

I will just remind you that the shortcut for that option control

and clicking the mouse changing the size.

Okay, let's see from from the distance.

Let's improve the light over here

so it's nice and pronounced.

Darken the shadows a bit more.

Okay,

let's do this side

again.

There's some shadow under the eyes so we can brighten it a bit

like so darken here so it burns more.

All right, that looks good.

I think you can see often when you zoom out, you can even see more

how the shadows look like and

if we should

work on them more or not.

Okay.

This area next to the lips,

maybe we can soften that edge a bit with white

darken this area so it blends more.

Okay, let's move to the chin.

Darken this place,

make it more soft.

And the transition between

shadow and light

is more smooth. Now.

Okay, so

just gentle strokes.

Take your time.

No rush.

And again, if you're working from a further distance like I am,

this stage won't take as much time as various tutorials may suggest.

The legends about dodging burn taking professional researchers

several hours are entirely untrue.

Once you know how to use the right tools and follow the workflow

I'm showing you, you won't spend hours staring at each photo.

Let's see the before and after.

We have a nice transition from

from the shadow on the cheek to the light.

The eye has brightened up a bit.

It looks more vibrant.

Let's go to the corner of the lips.

Lighten it a bit

as there are some dark spots that are very uneven.

So we can work on that for a while.

We often switch between

white and black.

There's a light spot here

so we can darken it a bit.

Let's see our black and white version.

If something is looking not right,

here are some dark areas that we can

smooth out a bit.

Okay.

But overall I think we are getting there

okay.

Before and after.

Yeah, it all looks much smoother now.

I think we are ready to move over to the neck.

Okay.

There are some lights here under the jawline,

so I think it will look better

if it's all a bit more even there, there.

So let's darken it a bit and smooth out

like so

this area might be a bit too bright.

It draws attention,

so maybe we can darken it a bit.

Nice. So.

And let's move down here.

We always pay attention to where the lights are

and the shadows we don't remove any shadow

or any light.

We just we are just making the transitions between them a bit smoother.

So if there's light over here,

we don't want to darken it

and alter it because it won't look natural.

We are just want to

make the transitions better

so the skin will appear a bit more smooth and clean.

Okay,

we can brighten that area a bit

and darken the light here.

Okay, let's move back a bit.

All right.

This color bone is maybe a bit

too pronounced, so we can work on the shadows.

So it's.

So it will blend more

with the rest of the body

like that.

We can work with a larger brush here

as there are larger areas to

to even out.

All right.

I think it looks much better Now.

Let's let's check the black and white layer

and work on it a bit.

Okay.

Before and after

we've lost some light over here

so we can bring it back

some shadow as well.

Okay.

Maybe that shadow on the nose is a bit too much.

So we can soft it a bit.

Mm. Let's zoom into the eye.

As I've noticed there is a vein there that we haven't removed

so we can go back to the layer,

select our healing brush

and take care of it.

We had the spot spot healing brush selected.

So let's get our Healing Brush tool

and with old

sample paint over, sample

paint over like that.

So we remove the veins a bit

so the eye will be a bit cleaner.

And that dark spot here

can be fixed with dodge and burn.

So we get back to the brush

and so select

white color and paint over it.

Okay,

Over here as well.

There's some dark vein so we can fix it

with our brush.

All right.

Let's take a look at what we have done.

The forehead is pretty smooth.

Maybe here there's some light area

that we can darken a bit more.

All right.

Let's not forget the ear.

Its main problem is the color, of course.

But we can

work on the shadows as well,

make them less contrasty and visible.

So the the ear

blends a bit more.

Right.

And I like that.

I think the skin looks really good now.

That's all I do to it.

So as you can see,

this stage doesn't take a huge amount of time

and I think we are now ready to move on to the next stage,

which is working on the color of this photo.