Using Negative Dodge & Burn For Dramatic Portrait In Photoshop

New Orleans based commercial photographer Lance Nicoll looks at “negative dodge and burn” – a technique that he sees as the biggest step and key to a successful high end beauty retouch.

So what is negative dodge and burn? well, according to Nicoll who learned about this technique from fellow retoucher Pratik Naik, it actually refers to a method for removing distractions and smoothing tonal transitions through dodge and burn.

In this video Nicoll looks at exactly what you should be altering, and how to actually go about using the techniques in Photoshop with Step 4 for a beauty portrait. Nicoll also gives quite a few tips for a faster workflow such as using shortcut keys (you will be using x to switch foreground/background colors a lot so get use to it) and more.

This is not the first time we covers this topic. In the past we published here “Quickly Learn Dodging & Burning in Photoshop CC“, a “How to Color Dodge in Photoshop” and The Fastest Way to Dodge and Burn in Photoshop which are also worth checking out if you are getting into dodging and burning in PS.

You can find many other Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section.

VIA: fstoppers.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.