Applying a vignette to a photo in Photoshop. Lighten and darken areas of an image Adobe Photoshop CS5

Non-destructive darkening and dodging is usually done using a 50% gray fill layer. Although this method has worked for me in the past, I find it difficult to predict the results I will achieve in the end. Later, I started using adjustment layers with masks to do the darkening and dodging, and found that I had more control over the tone and contrast of the image.

The advantage of using this method is that after applying the layer mask, you can easily reopen the dialog box and change the amount of brightness or darkening applied to specific areas.

From development before digital technologies

Dodging and burning is a traditional darkroom printing technique that is used to give certain areas of a printed image more or less exposure. The goal of the method is to restore lost information, usually caused by high-contrast exposure.

This technique can be easily applied in Photoshop and will help you restore your images. Have you ever taken photos with overexposed highlights? Or landscapes with lost detail in the shadows? This technique is a lifesaver for such situations and can be used in all tonal corrections of certain areas of images.

In the image above that I took as an example, the lentils and chicken underneath the fried egg were too dark and I was losing some important details. Also notice how the white areas of the egg and the edge of the white napkin are overexposed. Dodging and burning will help correct these two problems.

First I'll lighten the dark areas.

Step №1 – Add corrective layer Levels

Open your image and use the Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a Levels layer.

Step №2 – Do tone settings

Since I'll be working mostly on the area under the egg, I'll use the midtone slider in the center of the histogram to make tonal adjustments. Drag the slider to the left to lighten the area. Notice that the entire image becomes lighter. Do not panic. We'll use a mask later to fix this. On this moment concentrate on the area you want to lighten. Once you are satisfied with the tonal level, click OK.

Step #3 – Add a Layer Mask


Creating an adjustment layer will automatically add a mask to that layer. You'll see that your adjustment layer has two small windows. The box on the right is your layer mask. Make sure the box on the right is selected, click on the Primary Color Tool and set it to black. Place the cursor within the image and click on it. Adding black will hide the adjustment layer. Now you need to use White color to manifest it in those places where it is needed.

Step №4 – Manifestation corrective layer


Select the appropriate brush size for the specific area and reduce the opacity to 15%. Set the color to white and start carefully painting the area you want to lighten, in my case the food under the fried egg. Continue painting until you are happy with the lightness level.

If the lightening is too strong, double-click on the adjustment layer and move the slider to the right to make the effect less intense. Not light enough? Move the slider to the left.

You've probably seen photographs of flowers or animals on a black background more than once. They always look spectacular, look great as desktop wallpaper (especially on AMOLED screens) and cause a storm of delight among subscribers in social networks. What’s nice is that learning how to take such pictures is not at all difficult. You will need the actual photo source, a little patience and the Snapseed editor. A stylus would be useful, but you can do it without it. As for the editor, we generally consider him a mandatory attribute of a self-respecting mobile photographer and have sung his praises more than once. The described processes will not differ on the two most popular mobile phones. operating systems- Android and iOS.

As a source, let’s take this picture of a blooming oleander:

The photo is pretty passable and in itself is not interesting, will it be possible to save it?

  1. We go to the application and make a small adjustment, for this we use the tools-correction tab. We save the result. At this stage, our goal is to separate the background from the flower itself as much as possible.
  2. Using spot adjustments, we lighten the shadows. To do this, use the “Selective” tool. At the same stage, we will crop the image.
  3. Select Tools - Brush - Exposure Brush. At the bottom you will see up and down arrows. Select the left one (down) and click on it until the value -1.0 appears. We use it to process the entire background.
  4. Where we accidentally caught our flower, we process the edges with an eraser; to do this, press the up arrow several times. Did you process it and are happy with the result? Great. Click on the checkmark on the right, this is our intermediate result.

Next, we repeat the manipulations described above several more times, gradually darkening the background and leaving the flower untouched. Depending on your shot, 2-7 approaches may be needed. If the outline of the main object is simple, this will not take much time. Our branch turned out to have a rather complex shape, so we did not paint it completely, but only completely cut off the background and darkened the distant flowers. Here's the output:

In conclusion, a few tips on how to choose a source photo:

  • flowers should be clearly defined and not multi-petaled, and animals should not be too fluffy;
  • the photo should be contrasty and the background, if possible, darkened;
  • avoid color spots on the background, they greatly complicate processing;
  • There should be no obvious highlights or shadows on the main subject. Otherwise, it is better to get rid of them at the correction stage.

This concludes our simple lesson. We hope it was clear, and if you still have questions, you can ask them in the comments.

Traditionally, enhancing and weakening the brightness of areas of the image in photoprocesses is used to correct the tonal imbalance of the image,

caused by insufficient (“underexposure”) or excessive (“overexposure”) exposure of the negative area. This allows you to achieve good detail reproduction in both highlights and shadows. IN Adobe Photoshop tool Dodge(Dodge) allows you to lighten an area of ​​the image. It is represented in the tool palette as a pictram with the image of a special screen (mask), with which the photographer interrupts the flow of light, thereby reducing the exposure and reducing the darkness of the fragment. Tool Burn(Dimmer) - darkens the image by changing the brightness of the pixels that make up the image. On the tool palette of his pictram there is an image of a clenched hand.

By default, both tools lighten (darken) the image by 50% and affect the midtones, but you can specify the amount of lightening (darkening) you need using the slider Exposure(Exposure) and the desired tonal exposure interval in the drop-down list Shadows/Midtones/Highlights(Shadows/Midtones/Highlights) options palette for the corresponding tool.

Lightening a fragment

Open the document FLAMINGO.jpg located on the attached disk (Fig. 10.7, A), let's lighten the surrounding background, although it is already quite light. Of course, it would be possible to select this area and apply various komas to it. But we will do this with the help of tools.

1. Select a tool Dodge(Dodge) from the Tools palette. In the properties pane, set the exposure value to 20% and set it to Range(Range) tone interval Highlights(Bright hues). In field Range(Range) In addition, possible values: Midtones(Mid tones) and Shadows(Shadows).

2. Zoom in on the fragment using the tool Zoom(Scale).

Brush(Brush) with which the tool will work Dodge(Clarifier). Try a 35 pixel brush with blurred edges (Fig. 10.7, b).

4. Parameter Exposure(Exposure) adjusts the exposure. With small percentages the effect is weak, with large percentages it is strong.

5. Each touch of the tool to an area of ​​the image will now brighten it by 20% in the highlights (midtones and shadows do not change). Using short brush strokes, lighten the background that surrounds the flamingo. It’s nice that the background brightens, but all the details remain. Save the document.

Of course, you can use this tool on other parts of the invention where you think there is not enough light. Also experiment with using different pitch intervals for the instrument. Dodge(Clarifier).

Rice. 10.7. Lightening the background with the tool Dodge

Darkening a fragment

Open the file OSTRICH.jpg (Fig. 10.8, A), located on the supplied disc. Using a tool Burn(Dimmer) enhance the shadows on the parts of the image that you like.

1. Select a tool Burn(Dimmer) from the Tools palette. The properties palette of this tool is absolutely similar to the tool palette Dodge(Clarifier). Set Exposure to 20% and Tone Spacing Shadows(Shadows).

2. Enlarge the correction area using the tool Zoom(Scale).

3. Select the appropriate brush size from the field Brush(Brush) - for example, 35 pixels with blurred edges.

4. Make a series of “strokes” in the neck and body of the ostrich. The shadows became deeper and more saturated, the ostrich’s body became more expressive (Fig. 10.8, b).

You've probably already noticed that a couple of tools Dodge/Burn(Dodge/Fade) is essentially equivalent to the tone correction command Levels(Levels) with the only difference that it works not for the entire image, but for a selected area.

Rice. 10.8.A- original image; b- after darkening

Source: Komolova, N.V., Adobe Photoshop CS5 for everyone / N.V. Komolova, E.S. Yakovleva. - St. Petersburg: BHV-Petersburg, 2011. - 624 p.: ill. + CD-ROM - (In original)

Fast and effective way lightening or blackouts image areas at photo processing as a replacement for tools Lightening And Blackout.

WITH this way I met him in the book by S. Kelby “Handbook for processing in Photoshop,” pp. 196-197. Here the method is presented as a replacement for Photoshop tools Dodge (Lighten) And Burn. I liked the method so much that I wrote it in the form Action, and I use it all the time. And the other day I came across a description of the same method in the magazine “Practical Photoshop” (No. 9 for 2011, p. 55), but in a slightly different vein, and - which is absolutely wonderful! — it uses exactly Dodge And Burn! To replace imperfect tools, we use these very tools!

But enough confusion, I’ll describe the method.

For darkening/lightening problem areas of the image (sky, sea, deep shadows, areas of the face - yes, what am I listing - everyone knows about them very well) - the most various ways. Levels with masks, Curves with masks, blending modes (with masks), Shadows/Lights. For the local local change this is exactly what the above mentioned ones are intended for Lighten And Dim.

So, here's an alternative.

Open the image whose areas require correction. In the main menu of the program, select Layers - New - Layer. Please note that this is exactly what you need to do - through the menu, so that a window appears, in which we will configure some parameters a little later. Or you can click on the button Create New Layer in the palette Layers, but holding down the key Alt.

In the window that appears, select the mode Overlap, and place the bird a little lower Fill with a neutral color in the “overlay” mode (gray 50%). As a result, a new layer appears above the original layer, filled with 50% gray, which in blend mode Overlap is ignored, so the image will not change at all.

Now, in classic version(which is from Scott Kelby), select a soft brush and reduce the opacity to 25-30 percent. Pressing the keys one by one D And X, set the front color to white. We begin to move the mouse over the places that need to be brightened. If the lightening effect is not enough, we go over the area a second or third time.

To darken light areas, press D to set the foreground color to black, and move the mouse over the desired areas.

I also read this recommendation somewhere: when doing any work in Photoshop, you need to do the next operation, then squint, lean back in the chair, perhaps in a “hands on your head” pose, and after these manipulations reduce the force of influence by 10-15 percent. Laugh laugh, but I actually do this sometimes. So we have such an opportunity in the form of a general opacity gray layer.

On this classic way ends, and there is a reason to drink to remember the second opportunity. It is proposed to use the same tools as a brush - Lighten And Dim. What are the advantages? If a regular brush works with the same force in each movement, then this pair gradually strengthens its action when crawling in one place, without releasing the mouse button. When using these tools you only need to increase Opacity- up to one hundred percent. Additionally, it is necessary to clarify the range in which changes are necessary - Shadows, Backlight or Midtones. The result is a softer, more flexible and thinner instrument.

Well, as a bonus, we’ll add the following to the collection of lightening/darkening methods:

At the very beginning, just add an empty layer (by clicking Create New Layer in the palette Layers), set the blending mode to Soft light. Take the same white or black brush with Opacity 30%, and perform the same actions as described. The result is softer and more moderate than the first.

In the end, I want to emphasize that all methods are very easy to write in Action.

So, this lesson is about how to darken photos using the power of Photoshop. The darkening effect will turn your photos into works of art. The main point is the ability to correctly use adjustment layers.

To begin with, we reduce the brightness, but monitor the contrast, the result of the robot will depend on this. Then install desired color, saturation, and apply various photo filters.


The main essence of the robot is dimming background and highlighting the necessary objects. This effect was used by photographer Brooke Shaden. Using this effect adds mystery to photographs.


This photo shows the results of the robot. Here the brightness is reduced, the contrast is increased, other color tones and saturation are increased. It should be added that the settings need to be selected for the type of photo.


The first step is to select the photo you want to redo.


We call this layer “Original Image”, then we will refer to the initial image. First we adjust the color. The photo I submitted has a lot of yellow and orange backgrounds, this is what needs to be changed.

Use the button at the bottom of the layers palette to create a new adjustment layer. The color balance settings are as follows:


You must choose the color balance settings yourself, specifically for your photo. In my photo you can see that the cyan, blue and magenta colors are increased.


In order to give the image neutral colors, you need to create a new adjustment layer (Background Color/Saturation). Your settings may be different.


In this step we will add one of the most important layers – Brightness/Contrast. By decreasing the brightness and increasing the contrast, we darken the images.


Setting this layer is very important. And we must not forget that you can always correct what is needed in previous layers.


The photo is almost ready, not much left. Getting rid of the light area in the left top corner. You can do this simply by darkening this area in the initial image with the “Darken” tool, or you can use another method that you like.

On this image I did the following:

Create a new layer on top of the original layer. Using the “Brush” tool, paint the desired area with some dark color.


You may not need the next step, but you need to know how to deal with unnecessary parts.


Create a new layer on top of all the others. Fill it with white and reduce the fill to 0%. We also add a “Gradient” overlay (radial gradient, opacity 60%), blending mode – Hard light.


To see the difference, use the Move tool to drag the gradient.


Last step!

Create a “Highlights” layer. Change the “blending” mode to “overlay”, then use the “Brush” tool to paint over the girl and the reflection in the water. To achieve realism, change the size and opacity of the brush. Your result should be something like this:


You can also add a Violet filter(20%) to make the result similar to the original.

You can experiment with colors, use other effects, everything is limited only by your imagination. That's all, you can start experimenting. I hope my lesson helped you.