Today’s Question: Following up on your answer about dodging and burning in Photoshop, is there a technique that provides similar results you would recommend for those of us only using Lightroom Classic and not Photoshop?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can apply dodging and burning adjustments in Lightroom Classic (or Camera Raw or Lightroom) using the Brush feature of the Masking adjustments, with separate masks for dodging and burning.
More Detail: Today’s question is a follow-up to my answer yesterday about my preferred technique for dodging and burning in Photoshop. You can perform much the same task in Lightroom Classic (or Camera Raw or Lightroom) by using individual masks for dodging and burning, in conjunction with the Brush feature.
To get started, add a new mask with the Brush option, and make sure the Feature setting is not at zero (you may even want it all the way at 100). You can also reduce the Density setting to about 20 if you want to be able to build up an effect with varying degrees of adjustment. Paint an initial area of the image you want to apply the adjustment to in order to create an actual mask. Then apply an adjustment, such as to increase the value for Exposure slightly, perhaps up to a value of 0.50 for a half-stop of brightening.
To avoid confusion, right-click on the mask you just created and choose Rename from the popup menu. In the Rename dialog enter a meaningful name for the mask, such as “Dodging (Brighten)”, since the Exposure value was increased for this mask.
Repeat the same steps above but with a negative value for the Exposure slider, renaming that mask to something like “Burning (Darken)”. You can then click on the applicable mask and paint in additional areas. The overall Exposure adjustment (and any other adjustments you want to apply to the applicable areas) will affect the image based on the mask, which means there can be a variable effect if you used a relatively low setting for Density and painted over some areas multiple times, or if you used a different Density setting for various brush strokes.
It can seem a little cumbersome to apply dodging and burning in this way using two masks, with one for lightening and one for darkening. However, with a little practice it can be a very effective technique for lightening and darkening specific areas of a photo to determine how much detail will be visible in different areas and how much overall contrast there will be.
