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Dodge and Burn Technique

Lesson 28 from: Fashion Photography 101

Lara Jade

Dodge and Burn Technique

Lesson 28 from: Fashion Photography 101

Lara Jade

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Lesson Info

28. Dodge and Burn Technique

Lesson Info

Dodge and Burn Technique

Now we've gone over that I would love to me von to how we would use non destructive dodging burn now this is really important because dajun bone by itself will be destructive on the tone the detail I think it's just really important as fashion photographers or any type of photographer that this technique will be good for anyone to know um so the way we do this is we make a new layer new layer here what I'm going to call this is highlights so this basically is my dodge what's different to making the lay this time is that we have a color off grey and this is what's going to naples enable us to have that gray layer so it's non destructive this kind of separates from the picture the grey layer on what we're doing on top of that so this is not going to burn the times or it's gonna you dodge the times and kind of ruin the detail it's just gonna create that layer that we can smoothly work on the mode here would be soft light we want to fill with self flight neutral color fifty percent grace I...

'm just going to leave that on a minute just to cut so people can kind of follow that so we've got highlights I've named it too that's my dodge player I've got the color of gray the modus soft light with pastis one hundred percent and filled with stuff like neutral color and this enables us to have that layer the soft light neutral gray so we can work on top of that. So once I've done that, I'm gonna click okay? And this was just placed that I'm just gonna put it on top because I want to keep it all in order so I can organize it later for a client just for myself as well. It's now the dodge tour can be found in this left hand corner at the very bottom see every school over it would say dodge so you got the dodge burn in this punishment dodging the burn of the ones we're gonna be using right now so the dodge tall at the top this is how we find what we want to effect with that tour. So again kind of like the curves thing we always have shadows, tones and highlights so what we want to do here is go into a picture enough so we can kind of see where we want to start working. So what I can see here is I can see that the skin kind of needs adding highlight in areas and bringing out the tone. So the thing is you see how the line of the the heat of the light say with a line off the light is a parent but what I wanted you smooth that out, so if cloning doesn't work with that or if their skin retouching doesn't work with that kind of effect and you've still got that line is good for that. This is also good if you wantto outside, if you've got backlighting like the shit we did yesterday, like the shots I showed you earlier like them, for example, the american indian editori with the horse, this is a great way you've got that dole flat light, and you wanna add elements of light into the face afterwards as well onto the body, so you kind of bring in depth into the picture again. The first thing they're gonna do is go over to the dodge tour here. I'm going to start working with the mid tones first. So this is this kind of tone here because I'm when I look at this picture, this is the kind of area I see that needs affected, so I'm currently on sixty five fresh size but she's a little bit small here and just to let you know these two things at the top protect home so again you're protecting the tones that you're affecting. This is important and exposure at fifty percent the's are good things to start with, you don't need to adjust these if he's what's going on is working for you. Exposure would be how much control? Like how much exposure it's given to you, but for now, I'm just gonna keep it at fifty. It's the best way to use this first experiment? Because there's a lot to do with this tool of confused from a majority of different things. So I'm gonna be showing you some of the ways that you can use it. So the size I'm gonna put up here, tio, I would say, yeah, about one hundred eighteen and I'm gonna start working on that layer by just pressing over it, and I'm just painting like that and this is where the pen comes into will awaken tablet if you do this with a mouse it's more of a static movement, this enables you to follow, really? So what I'm doing is I'm going to keep zooming into the face into the areas I want to effect and use that and what you'll start to notice is it's not destructive any times if you see before and after it's just ringing out those highlights without making this burn kind of effect, and it keeps the detail and it just complements the skin. So again, if you wanted to use thiss the things like outdoors like we backline in if you wanted to add depth to the picture, maybe you could even replicate where light would hit the face, so maybe get to know areas that light would hit the face and start painting this in areas like touching on the nose here this bit of the lip down here over the face, it's just good to get to know what this tour initially, if it's new to you, how it works and how it doesn't because overuse of this again will be obvious again. I'm just gonna go in and start using this and you start to see I'm just roughly kind of painting on the skin and bringing out a cz much highlight as they can in the mid times. So the reason I'm using mick turns up here because I want to affect just the mid tones, so when I'm looking to work, I'm not going into the shadows and I'm not working on the highlights began again on the left that's quite a nice highlight there on the chin and just gonna zoom out here and just see where things are on the neck and I don't want the neck too right here, sorry, we've gone back on, I don't want the neck too bright, I just want to kind of bring out some of those ugly times that it kind of happening. And then again on the arms as well so things like the arm you just want to kind of bring a tone so there's not just like that blob of light took there there's something kind of its flowing into the skin and it's just helping recreate that beautiful light um I used this on every shot this is perfect for things like beauty it's great for backlighting outside it's great for things like the beauty light or this one saltbox light because you've got a soft self bucks light and then you enhancing that light afterwards with the retouching so it's good to bury mind out the way that you like photographs is also the way that could affect the way that you used technique within forty shop as well again just on this arm here I'm just going in and working with it and just bringing out those mid tones okay so now I'm going to do the same thing but I'm gonna do it for the shadows because I just want the skin to not fall into shadow as much I wanted to lend so I'm going up to the range here and I'm cooking on shatters on what I'm affecting this time is I'm going into the more shallow areas of the face when already you can start to see how much better that image is starting to look on what's great about this is don't be afraid to do a lot with this straightaway the reason we have adjustment layers is because we can go here and take down I desired choice of a pass ity so whenever I'm doing this, I'll do it more harsher than intended and then I'll come back with the capacity say, around seventy to eighty or what suits my picture as well, going into the shadows again into the chief again when I shot this, I intentionally put the flats there that were black toe omit light, so there was shadow in depth to bring her off the background, so I'm not going in and changing my technique that I wanted to do in camera I'm just trying to blend the skin and then again on the arm here whether some more shadow may be a little bit of a big brush to work with you again, you start to see before and after how that's nicely starting to it's almost like I haven't done anything it's just like it could have been done with in camera says that issue intention when using this tour, that photo shop is a tall and that you should not use it as a crutch to, you know, compensate to a poor technique or the way you've shot in camera, so another way of using this tool is to maybe go into things like the I and use it to go in like this and just changing my brush size figuring out what tone I'm going to start to effect. So if I was to affect this part of the ii duce the highlights for the mid tones for the dark areas this part of the eye, I would use highlights if I wanted to bring the highlights of those white times that come out the I and this is something I do with a lot of shots. I focus on eyes and photographs because I want engagement with the audience, so when I'm retouching, I'm always trying to put something with the eyes I'm always trying to go in and handsome father with these photo shop and again, your hardness. I don't want anything hard here. I have it on north percent for that very reason. I wanted to blend into the skin. If you put this up and then started working on a shot, you start to see more of an effective line around that. So I'm gonna keep that down there. You can have it between north twenty five percent or more dependent on the contrast of the tones in the picture, too was going to show you how I would start working with this. I want to go in with their starched hall. On the range is on highlights again exposure at fifty it's gonna start to work with this part of the eye again, don't try if you were to paint this or wide and highlighted gonna look fake, so remember your tones and don't go overboard with that. And then with the eye here I'm just like softly brushstrokes with this pen with awaken hand just strikes free the eyes like that, and that's enabled me to bring out those tiny bits of highlight that might be within the I c u can start to see that and again, don't be afraid to do too much straightaway, because we can take down the pass ity afterwards, it is a good thing you could do, which I do on some of my shots is to highlight this area right here again, that's only because I love to have eyes engaging with the audience and just enhancing that bit of the I just bring the eye out a little more there. Well, again, you see before and after, how that's all coming to play there and again, just on this shot here, and I'm going to see a man and do before and after you, so just to see how that's just softening the skin, enhancing the beauty like that eye technique I put in the camera and then father working with that photo shops it's important to do that whenever you work and think about the ways in which you could use techniques to enhance later on. And now I want to talk about the opposite side of the spectrum, which is gonna be the burn, which is gonna be the shadows, so I'm gonna go into layer again. Repeat what I did last time said lay a new layer I'm gonna call this shadows I'm gonna color this gray. I'm gonna put the mod are soft light I am going to feel with soft light, mutual color and again, the reason for that is because that gray layer protects the skin in the detail on my background layer. I do not want to burn tones or affect anything. I just want to enhance what their enhanced the light in the face or enhance or add shadow into the shot again. I'm using the shadows, but this time instead of going for dodge would go right over to that tool again, holding it down and clicking on the burn tour, and I use this mainly to add shadow into enhance things like detail in the eyes so this could be used again. A majority weighs in a shot for this kind of shot I'm drawn to you, using it on eyes to bring detail and that kind of thing. So I'm just going to show you how I would start to use it on and I in a shot, so I've got the burnt all just to let you know guys know what I'm using the range is on shadows this time take my brush size again again, the hardness because we want this to blend, we don't want it to be han effect, I mean, to take that down day on, and I'm just gonna see what we're on exposure, fifty percent okay? And I just wanna paint around the iris, uh, consultancy home bringing detail and again a smaller brush, more pixel, and just be very careful when you're doing this around the eye. So it's, just making that I stand out just a little bit again if you have, if you shoot and focus on eyes it's always important when you re touching to focus on that when you come into photo shop again, you can use this to enhance eyelashes, refuses to enhance makeup with bigger brush sizes, you can use it to enhance parts of the island fists when you zoom in and out, there's more detail there, andi, even this part of the eye to make it stand out more as well. I'm gonna go on to mid tones here because I'm gonna start to effect the mid tones into the I I just want a bit more shadow under the side to make it stand out so I'm gonna go in and just start painting like this the shadow of the eye bringing out the mid tones so you see before enoughto how that's starting to give some depth to the eye so doing this between the highlights and the shadows we'll give more depth t images we'll add more detail and it's just gonna make your images um look more enhanced. So again subtle changes. Okay, you can also do this with color. For example, if I was to look at these lips here, I would do the same technique. It doesn't matter whether you use, like, dodging burn you can also use this in the sense of painting on color is makeup. So for this I would go layer new layer I wanna have myself light and my colors gray and fill with self light gray again because it's non destructive and I'm gonna call this makeup. Okay, so this is improving the color of the makeup. So for this lives here, what I'm gonna do is this time, instead of using dodging burn, I'm gonna click over to the paintbrush tour yeah, I'm gonna choose a small sized brush again hardness that north percent about here. So what's in detail my past one hundred my flow is it one hundred on what I'm gonna do is press wrote over the color for the color picker on the kohler picker will pick a color up wherever you select and give you the range. And then when you use the paintbrush tool that's gonna take it over like that again. Do not be scared that this looks harsh right now because we can always go in and take that. But always be careful of the tone. You haven't got dodging burn this time. So you gotta pick up from the tony using and going like that. Hey, you can even start playing around with the capacity because when you blend in different colors, it's good to use the flow in a passage to kind of work together, kind of see how it looks and to enhance, like, for example, if this was a red strong blip and the climb was slightly off because their makeup to make partisan having a time or it's smudged and she didn't notice during the shoot picking up the color and just enhancing that like if the color was down here. Cloning it away, and then further doing this would really enhance that so again, just with the color just adding as much as I can just to enhance the lips, because if this was a maker or like, for example, and mac or something kind of like that a mat campaign, they would want the makeup to be enhanced that's not going to show that brighton camera everything is always photoshopped, and again, you'll start c before and after justin hanson, that lip color there. So I'm just gonna go in, and I think that's pretty much it on the non destructive dodging, burning, adding color side yet separate shadow and highlight layers like if you're just doing highlights for the eyes, is that something that you typically do when you're doing a full scale at it? I would tend to stick to this because it can get really confused, and I think you can go in and start using groups, and I do that on campaigns like tonal range colors so they can go in and really understand, because only I know what's going on right now, you have loads of layers and you give that to a client is gonna come he's them so it's just really good tio. Have you highlights and shadows because it's easy to raise and go back in just use both of them for everything you do whether it's the hair, the background, the makeup, that kind of thing the only reason we have a separate one for makeup is because we're not using dodging burn we used in the paintbrush tool so it's a different technique so I'm just separating techniques into layers one more question yeah um do you find it useful to know different makeup techniques like when a makeup artist is doing contouring and highlighting with, you know, the highlighting make up and everything is that useful when you're retouching to know where she's applying that? Yeah, um often this is why it's good to have a make up artist is familiar with your technique, so for me with debra, for example, she understands that you stuff like when I do I always enhanced skin of soft skin with the hair and everything so she knows and I always tell her what I want so for example, for this look, I was like, okay, one of fifty sixties look, I wanted to find I I don't want a smoky eye, I want color and I'm going to enhance it later and she's familiar with that so anything to do with like this orange on the ice she knows I'm going to go in and later at the color or saturate that as well and bring out the best times with that. So I'm just gonna give you guys, um, quick, before and after it's gonna take away the layers and add them back on so you can start to see how this is coming together. Okay, so removal of the makeup here, shadows under the eyes, and you probably see that best into here. Shadow here again, highlight in the shadows, gone with the shadow and highlight and then with the make up, a swell seem out a little bit with the cloning and that's going on. Just how that's coming together and then with skin retouching, too. So you can start see how there's just subtle changes it's, making it more perfected image. If you start to work on this for about an hour or so, it would start to that really need composition would be your coming together. And don't be afraid to spend that long gone images as long as you're not over retouching and that's. Fine.

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Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

It was an amazing class. I have seen many fashion photography courses in Creative Live and I find this one was one of the best and very easy to follow. Lara was very clear about the fashion photography industry, explaining the differences between editorial, commercial and advertising fashion photography and when/why you work for free, the process, the importance about experimenting solo or with a creative team. It was very inspiring and loved her!

James
 

Having dusted off my camera after a 3 year inspiration slump I decided to head toward the fashion/editorial/Fine art/Portrait route. I discovered this course and after researching Lara Jade's work and seeing the course content I decided to buy the course. I'm completely new to the fashion world having mainly shot personal stuff. Anyway, for anyone reading this review who might be thinking 'should I, shouldn't I book this course?' I'm only up to video 6 - the vintage natural light look. I've learned so much already, even if I'd paid the same and got the first 6 videos I'd have been happy. So far it's covered so much about planning shoots, directing models. I like the fact that Jade is a working professional photographer rather than a want-to-be-but-failed or a long time passed has-been. I like that she's British (as am I). I like how she teaches and how down to earth she is and how happy she is to answer questions. I like how humble she is. The content, the teaching style is nothing short of being an assistant on set and learning first hand. Don't think about buying this course, just do it. You will not be sorry, I promise you!

a Creativelive Student
 

Lara's course was very well put together. She covered so many aspects of her shoots, including letting her creative team have the perfect amount of input; so she demonstrated how important it is to surround yourself with the right people and consistently getting their input. I'd love to be able to work with her hair stylist and wardrobe stylist for future editorial shoots. For being as young as Lara is, she is beyond her years in preparedness, experience, and aptitude to instruct. I thought she handled situations, like some "dead air" during live shoots very well by explaining in detail what was going on. Needless to say, I was super impressed.

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