Photoshop Elements >

Burning & Dodging >

Method for Shadows or Highlights Only

Do you need to burn only the highlights?

Or, do you need to dodge only dodge the shadows?

You can easily select either the highlight or shadow areas by using a Threshold adjustment layer.

In the above photograph of a telephone pole, let's select the dark areas with a Threshold adjustment layer.

Then, we can lighten only these areas with a Levels adjustment layer.

Be sure to check off as you go along.

Preparation

1) Preserve your original file.

If you haven't already done so, go to Preserve Your Original File.

2) Create a Background copy layer.

If you haven't already done so, go to Create a Background Copy Layer.

Threshold Adjustment Layer

1) Create a Threshold adjustment layer.

Create a Threshold adjustment layer.

The Threshold window will open.

The Threshold adjustment layer makes all of the pixels either white or black.

2) Move the white slider in the middle to select either the highlights or shadows.

In this example, no change was needed.

3) Click OK (Pre-8.0).

4) Use the Magic Wand tool to select the black areas.

Use a high enough tolerance to select the entire black area to its edges.

Deselect Contiguous in the options bar.

By deselecting Contiguous, all of the black areas are selected.

If Contiguous is selected instead, only the black area that is clicked is selected.

5) Delete the Threshold adjustment layer by dragging it onto the trash can icon.

The marching ants of the selection remain.

Go to Select > Feather to feather the selection, if needed.

6) Create a Levels adjustment layer.

Now, you can change just the areas inside the selections.

Move the white triangle to the left to brighten the areas in the selections.

Here, the white slide was moved from 255 (see above) to 150 (see below).

By using a threshold layer to select the shadow areas, dodging them was easy.

How else could one dodge a steel cable?

Original

Levels Adjustment

Overexposed Areas

If your photograph has overexposed areas, they need to be painted.

You can't darken them by burning.

Go to Painting Overexposed Areas.

Saving the Photograph

If you haven't already done so, go to Saving Files.