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HOME » Dodge and Burn Your Way to Perfect Cat Photos

Dodge and Burn Your Way to Perfect Cat Photos

29/01/2020 by Marjorie Dawson 22 Comments

Do you ever take a photograph that you really like, but it leaves you with a sneaky feeling that your image could be better? Maybe the photograph of your cat’s fur is a little dark in places, or a corner is a little too overexposed?

You got so close to a great picture it’s frustrating. What can you do to improve your image?

Two Words to Enhance Your Cat Photos

Dodge and Burn.

Let me explain how you can use these simple techniques to instantly rescue, enhance and improve your cat photographs.

What Are Dodge and Burn?

Dodge and what? It sounds like your cat’s crazy antics at 3 a.m. doesn’t it? How will this help your digital images?

Let me start with a quick non-technical look at photography in the past to help you understand the two names and what they do

Before affordable digital cameras arrived on the market in the late 1990s, a photographer had two options:

  • Photographs could be developed at a shop or by post.
  • More skilled amateurs could develop their film in a dark room.

With no photo editing software, photographers had to manipulate their images to create effects or improve them within a photographer’s darkroom. The technique that lightened parts of an image was called ‘dodging‘ and darkening an image was called ‘burning‘.

Photo Editing Software Does This For Us?

Yes. Most photo editing applications have this as a standard tool. The dodge looks like a magnifying glass (referring to the enlarger used in a photographer’s darkroom) and the burn is a stylised flame.

This image of cafe cat Betty shows the two tools in the left sidebar of Affinity Photo. (I do not cover the sponge tool in this post). Your tools will be in a similar place but if you are in any doubt, check your manual or an online pdf for instructions.

How dodge and burn can transform a photograph by removing shadows and evening out texture

How Do You Use The Two Tools?

If you open your own photo editing software and locate your dodge and burn tools, you will see that the familiar cursor turns into an adjustable circle. This circle has two options:

  • It can be resized from very small dot to a circle over 4000 pixels wide.
  • The strength or ‘pressure’ of the stroke can be regulated from soft to strong.

The power of the two tools lies in their ability to adjust an image in subtle ways. A light touch is recommended as you build your skills and confidence.

The dodge and burn tools in Photoshop look similar.

How to use dodge and burn to improve your cat photos

Give yourself permission to play, learn and fail!

Work on a duplicate copy of your photograph and push the tools to their limit. Burn your way across a photograph, dodge to the limits then laugh at the extreme results you create when you push the boundaries of each tool.

When Would I use Dodge and Burn?

There are three great opportunities for practising and using the two tools for cat lovers.

Cat Portraits

If your digital cat portrait looks good, apart from a stubborn shadow, or small area of overexposed fur, you can see if dodging or burning will help. Make a duplicate and play around with the two tools.

Here is an example of how gentle adjustment was make a difference to a photograph. You may not see much of a difference at first but the smallest shit to lighten a shadow draws attention across your photograph.

Dodging lightens a cat photograph very gently so it can be appreciated more
Cat Portrait before gentle ‘dodging’.

Work gently and use your keyboard to zoom in for close work:

  • Ctrl/Cmd + (plus sign) zooms in and,
  • Ctrl/Cmd – (minus) zooms out again.

Remember too that your changes are not permanent. You can use your photo editing software’s ‘undo’ options to step back from the decisions you make. Check under ‘Edit’ in your menu bar or use Ctrl/Cmd Z.

Gentle lightening of the fur and a reduced brightness of the window allows the cat to be the centre of the picture.

TIP: When you lighten very dark shadows that contain little detail, you end up with grayish shadows. Darkening very light areas that are completely washed out doesn’t make your image look very good, either. You will end up with white patches.

Photoshop Elements for Dummies

Cat Product Photos

You definitely want to ensure that your photos look good for a sponsored post for a cat toy, furniture or food product.

Checking your images after a photoshoot on your camera’s LCD screen, they seem good and you feel happy. But when reviewing the photographs on your computer or tablet you feel there are some distracting overbright areas in the best pictures. That shot of your cat enjoying the sponsor’s product is so close to perfect, what do you do?.

Here’s an example. This image of Miranda (below) uses the burn tool around the edges, and the dodge tool to highlight the treat packets. See how the packets are just a little bit brighter?

To reduce strong bright areas locate the burn tool (a stylised flame) and work in small increments to lower the bright highlights. Adjust the opacity of your tool, and the size of the brush if you don’t see any change but don’t rush.

  • Your aim is to make adjustments that will not be noticed.
How to use Dodge and Burn Product Photo

Family and Friends Portraits

Your cat portraits may be spontaneous and you might not think about camera settings until later unless you are arranging a formal photoshoot, but as long as you aim to work with good light or the best you can get, it will not be hard to adjust shadows or highlights using dodge or burn.

Remember that in a portrait, you aim to focus on sharply focused eyes. If you succeed with good eye definition your viewers will forgive you almost everything.

This sample shot of Harvey before and after shows how designer Glogirly transformed Harvey’s photograph with subtle adjustments, including brightening the eye nearest the light source.

First, take a look at the image that needed adjustment.

https://www.glogirly.com

Now take a look at the gentle use of light and how it transforms Harvey’s photograph.

The changes are understated but well placed and they transform the image. Practice and experience make a difference so don’t be discouraged if things don’t work out first try.

#RememberMeThursday 2018

Sometimes Your Photo Can’t Be Rescued

No matter how hard you try, there are times when nothing will work. When this happens you just have to swallow hard, keep calm, and carry on.

If I try to adjust a photograph and it doesn’t work, I either keep the picture in my ‘favourites’ folder (see the second photo below) or I try running it through a filter. Filters can transform your image into something completely different. Check out this grunge interpretation of Phoebe from Photo Lab.

The original smartphone photograph was cute but overexposed (too light) so I played around with a few filters. I gave myself permission to play and with no expectations. So, I managed to create a really dramatic image without stress, and an overexposed photograph I could not rescue was transformed into a steampunk extravaganza.

Grunge Filter Picture including a cat is stunning.

The second photo I could not improve comes from 2014.

This was taken with a Samsung compact camera and I managed to capture a precious moment. This is the first time Harvey played with a catnip mouse in his forever home, with encouragement from his mentor young Miranda who you can see watching. The incident took place not long after Dash passed away and was a landmark in Harvey’s progress as a late adopted senior.

I have tried to sharpen it, lighten it but nothing works to improve my precious moment. So I added a soft focus frame and left the image alone.

Finally for Dodge and Burn Newbies

Dodge and burn skills are simple to learn and can with a dash of patience raise your photographs to another level. I recommend you explore your own photo editing tools and see where they take you. The results can be subtle, or brave and fearless so I hope you will try this useful way to enhance your photographs.

Let me know if it works too, leave a link to your photo in the comments.

Dodge and Burn Resources

  • Dodge and Burn in PaintShop Pro – Corel Discovery Centre
  • Dodge and Burn in Affinity Photo – Affinity Help (plus tutorials on YouTube)
  • Dodge and Burn in Photoshop – PSD
  • Darkroom – A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and photographic paper. Various equipment is used in the darkroom, including an enlarger, baths containing chemicals, and running water. – Wikipedia
  • This post has tips on sharper fur, you might find helpful.
  • iOS and Android the best filter apps for 2020.

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Filed Under: Camera Skills

Meet Marjorie, Writer and Photographer

Portrait by a window with teddy bears Taken with a smartphone.Marjorie is a cat lover, photographer and smartphone moviemaker who loves sharing her knowledge with learners.

Marjorie is a Cat Writers’ Association Professional member, CWA Muse® Medallion and Certificate Winner, and winner of the CWA Kuykendall Image Award for her photography.

 

Comments

  1. BellaDharma an LadyMew says

    06/01/2021 at 1:25 pm

    Yore a furabuluss foto graffer Miss Marjorie!
    An out fave foto iss THE one of Harvey Buttonss~~~ hee was so adoorabell.
    Toulouse looks speck-taculur!
    **purrss** BellaDharma an ((huggiess)) LadyMew

    Reply
    • Marjorie Dawson says

      06/01/2021 at 2:34 pm

      Harvey was something special wasn’t he eh?

      Reply
  2. Timmy Tomcat says

    13/04/2020 at 1:47 am

    We have a lot of photos that may benefit from these tools which we have seen (Paintshop Pro) but had no idea what they were. Thanks so much we will experiment and see what comes

    Reply
  3. Erin Sullivan says

    04/02/2020 at 5:17 am

    I love this! I often forget the power of editing programs and that I can actually make very precise changes to photos.

    Reply
    • Marjorie Dawson says

      05/02/2020 at 8:49 am

      Sometimes I think we need to realise the time is right to learn a new tool. This is how it worked for me

      Reply
  4. Beth says

    04/02/2020 at 4:56 am

    I’m so happy that you are sharing editing tips! It is great to see the before and after photos!

    Reply
  5. Emilia says

    03/02/2020 at 6:16 pm

    lighter black cats….. yeah.

    I love the kitty in the window in your picture. It was really pretty in the first shot, but the kitty stands out more in the second even though the changes were subtle. It’s beautiful.

    I’m terrible at editing – I just take a shot and love it or hate it . I’m getting better at it.

    Reply
  6. Sandy Kubillus says

    03/02/2020 at 5:32 pm

    Wow, I could have used some of these tips for the poor lighting in my post this week! I’ll have to try the dodge and burn tool. It could be really helpful. I especially like how it highlighted Harvey’s face. I also like the grunge filter image of Phoebe.

    Reply
  7. Jana Rade says

    02/02/2020 at 1:57 pm

    Ah, yes, dodge and burn technique can go a long way to bring up details with great control.

    Reply
  8. mommakatandherbearcat says

    01/02/2020 at 6:49 pm

    Hmm … so THAT’S what those terms mean. I never thought to look them up. Smart me!

    Reply
  9. Ruth Epstein says

    01/02/2020 at 6:11 pm

    I think I delete 50 percent of the photos I take and slowly I think getting there but with my lousy camera it does not help much. Love reading your posts with their tips though, thanks

    Reply
  10. Katie Isabella says

    30/01/2020 at 1:46 am

    I love reading this Marjorie.

    Reply
  11. Athena and Marie says

    29/01/2020 at 9:50 pm

    Another excellent post!

    Just a little dodging and burning can really change a photo for the better and it doesn’t take long. And using an art filter can really save a photo too 🙂

    Reply
  12. Memories of Eric and Flynn says

    29/01/2020 at 8:50 pm

    I will have to look for these tools on the editors I use. Until now I have used the highlights and shadows in Windows pictures, but that affects the whole photo, not just the area I want.

    Reply
  13. meowmeowmans says

    29/01/2020 at 5:58 pm

    Dodging and burning is really helpful sometimes, especially when we have a lack of natural light at the shelter. 🙂

    Reply
  14. raven says

    29/01/2020 at 5:51 pm

    Excellent explanation & examples. I’ll have to see if my free photo software has these tools. I’ve been adjusting lighting on the entire image.

    Reply
  15. Meezer'sMews&TerrieristicalWoofs says

    29/01/2020 at 5:34 pm

    So THAT is what those little tools I didn’t know about do. Wow!]\I use PSE2018, I wonder if they work the same way there?

    Love how your pics got fixed.

    Reply
    • Meezer'sMews&TerrieristicalWoofs says

      29/01/2020 at 5:36 pm

      Though more recently I have been using Gimp, a Linux photo editing program.

      Reply
  16. Summer says

    29/01/2020 at 3:28 pm

    My human has been doing photography for so long that she actually had to dodge and burn in the darkroom!

    Reply
  17. Ellen Pilch says

    29/01/2020 at 2:28 pm

    Great tips. and photos.Thank you for hosting the parade. XO

    Reply
  18. Charles Huss says

    29/01/2020 at 2:10 pm

    I used to do that when I made my own prints but I rarely do that in the digital age because I mostly just forget about it. Thank you for reminding me. I should try to do that more often in the future.

    Reply
  19. Brian Frum says

    29/01/2020 at 12:49 pm

    That is pretty darn cool, we had no idea how to dodge or burn, thanks!!!

    Reply

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