Photoshop Tutorial: Understanding How to Use the Burn and Dodge Tool

Adobe Photoshop is a very complex program that deals with many "tools". If you understand how to use all, or at least most, of the tools in Photoshop, it will definitely make it easier to use the program as a whole, no matter what task you are trying to complete. In this tutorial and guide, you will learn two very opposite tools: the burn tool and the dodge tool. So open up Photoshop and get ready to learn!

The dodge tool:

The dodge tool's purpose to brighten pixels, or certain areas, of an image. In addition, the dodge tool has the tendency to bring out detail as well. The dodge tool has different ranges and exposures that you can use. If you're editing a photograph, you'll most likely work in the midtones range. The exposure varies since some pixels may only need slight dodging, or extreme dodging. Of course the size of the brush only matters on how big of an area you're working with, and the brush itself depends on the same too. I prefer to use a "fuzzy" brush, as I call it. A fuzzy brush will simply blend the dodging together better. A solid brush on the other hand will show exactly where you dodged, and not in an attractive way either. So to understand how to use this tool, we're basically going to work with just some simple editing skills. As always, open up a picture, any picture. If you're unfamiliar with Photoshop, the dodge tool is located on the free-floating vertical menu bar on the right-hand column on the seventh row. To get to the dodge tool, you might need to hold down the left click to make the dodge tool appear. As you can also see, the burn tool is conviently located here as well. The dodge tool looks somewhat similar to a microphone.