Dodging and Burning Photography

Dodging and Burning is a technique that dates back in the period of film photography. In the practice of darkroom processing, you were able to dodge or burn a film in order to selectively adjust the exposure of the image.

Dodging will brighten the exposure of the image that is being dodge, this can be done by using a mask to block out certain area of the image from light when processing the image in darkroom. The opposite apply to burning, this is when you allow the light to burn the film longer which darken the exposure. By combining the two dodge and burn, you are able to precisely edit your image, in the same way leading lines guide the attention of the viewer, dodging and burning uses light to draw attention to certain area of the image as well.

This process was done manually, now days with programs such as Lightroom and Photoshop you are able to do dodging and burning digitally with many tools on those programs such as brush tools or the masking. This is an effective part of the editing process. Gentle edits can be made to enhance the image you already have or this dodging and burning process can be use to craft a more stylistic look to your image.