How to · 6 min
Dodge and Burn by hand
Build tonal emphasis with small, controlled strokes.
Dodging lightens; burning darkens. Used with restraint, hand-painted adjustments guide attention along a fender, a path, or a patch of light without advertising the brushwork.
The method
Step by step.
- In Masks, click + and add Dodge & Burn. Select that layer before painting.
- Choose Dodge, Burn, or Erase. Set a tonal Range—Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights—to suit the area you are working on.
- Choose a low brush exposure, a size appropriate to the feature, and a soft hardness. Make short strokes instead of trying to finish everything in one pass.
- Use Show Paint Overlay to check where you have painted. Protect Tones can help preserve highlight and shadow detail while working.
- Switch off the overlay and compare at Fit. Use Erase to remove unwanted coverage or Undo to step back; lower Layer Opacity when the entire intervention is too strong.
Keep this close
Control reference.
- Dodge / Burn
- Lighten / darken locally.
- Erase
- Remove painted coverage.
- Range
- Choose the tonal region to emphasize.
- Size / Hardness
- Brush footprint and edge softness.
Closer to the controls
See the settings, not a reconstruction.
This detail is cropped from the real application capture above. Click to enlarge, then choose actual pixels to inspect the labels and sliders.
At your own pace
Try it.
Lightly dodge one long reflection on the car. Burn a distracting patch of road rather than darkening the entire foreground.
Watch for
Do not paint at a high exposure and then try to hide the damage with global contrast. Build the change gradually.
Monochrome Lab Pro workflow guide. Interface details may evolve. Example settings are creative starting points, not automatic corrections.