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If you haven't already done so, go to Method for Several Small Areas - Overlay Layer / 1 - Introduction.
Using black and white-colored brushes is crude.
You're burning and dodging at full strength.
As described in the above tutorial, you can lessen the strength of black and white-colored brushes.
You can:
• Lower the opacity of the brush in the options bar.
• Lower the opacity of the overlay layer.
However, instead of painting with only white and black brushes, you can also use brushes with various shades of gray.
Scroll down, or click here.
The amount of burning and dodging varies according to the shade of gray.
| Dodging | Erase | Burning | ||||||||
| White | 10% Gray | 20% Gray | 30% Gray | 40% Gray | 50%Gray | 60% Gray | 70% Gray | 80% Gray | 90% Gray | Black |
| Most Dodging | Least Dodging |
Erase | Least Burning | Most Burning | ||||||
| -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | Erase | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 |
Here are two brush strokes on a forehead.
A 10% gray brush made the top stroke.
A 30% gray brush made the bottom stroke.
Don't use a 50% gray brush to burn and dodge.
You use a 50% gray brush to erase any burning and dodging that you've done.
You can change the color of your brush easily by using the grays in the Color Swatches palette.
Or, download the Burning & Dodging Swatches.
In the default color swatches, 5% Gray is absent, and 50% Gray isn't exactly 50% gray.
The Burning & Dodging Swatches include 5% Gray and a true 50% Gray.
The orange and rust-colored swatches isolate 50% gray, and separate the dodging colors from the burning colors.
The zip file also contains a file called _Empty in which you can put other color swatches as you work.
1) Go to Burning Dodging Swatches (Zip folder).
2) Select Save.
3) Save the folder to My Download Files (Windows) or Desktop (Mac).
1) Go to My Download Files (Windows) or Desktop (Mac) and locate the Burning_Dodging_Swatches folder.
2) Unzip (open) the Burning_Dodging_Swatches folder by double clicking on the folder.
If you have difficulty downloading or opening the zip file, go to Zip File Problems.
3) Browse to the folder in which Photoshop Elements stores swatches, which is called Color Swatches.
a) Go to My Computer.
b) Browse using this pathway:
C: > Program Files > Adobe > Photoshop Elements > Presets > Color Swatches
a) Go to Finder.
b) Browse using this pathway:
Applications > Adobe Photoshop Elements > Presets > Color Swatches
4) Open the Color Swatches folder.
5) You now have two windows open.
Zip File Window
Color Swatches Folder Window
6) Click on the two files in the left-hand window, and drag them onto the right-hand window.
The _Burning & Dodging Swatches and _Empty files will appear in the Color Swatches menu after you restart Photoshop Elements.
To open the _Burning & Dodging Swatches file immediately, do the following.
1) Open the Color Swatches palette.
2) Click More at the top of the palette.
3) Select Replace Swatches.
4) Select the _Burning & Dodging Swatches file and click Load.
You're done.
The two files have underscores at the beginning of their names.
_Burning & Dodging Swatches
_Empty
Because of the underscore, the files will appear at the top of the Color Swatches menu.
If you have difficulty downloading or opening the zip file, ask me to send you the swatches file as an e-mail attachment.
Go to Ask Jim.
Windows XP and Vista, and Mac OS X 10.3 and later, can open zip files.
If you don't have a zip file program on your computer, download WinZip, which has a free trial period.
If you're unfamiliar with zip files, go to the WinZip tutorial.