How do you dodge and burn in Luminar Neo?

Dodging and burning is a method nearly as previous as images itself. It refers to selectively brightening (dodging) or darkening (burning) elements of your picture to attain a specific inventive imaginative and prescient.

Although these phrases are relics from the times of darkroom processing, they’re nonetheless used to explain native changes in digital photograph enhancing.

Model 1.2.1 of Luminar Neo launched the Dodge & Burn instrument. That is the only strategy to obtain the look, utilizing a brush instrument that lets you dodge and burn your picture.

Luminar Neo affords a number of superior methods to dodge and burn your picture. Let’s dive in and learn the way every of them works.

Utilizing the Publicity slider

The only and best-known strategy to dodge and burn with Luminar Neo is to open the Develop instrument, change the Publicity slider, then use the Masking Brush instrument to dodge your picture.

Right here’s an instance of a well-exposed sky with a really darkish foreground. Underneath preferrred circumstances, a photographer would possibly attempt to paint the foreground with mild. But when that’s not doable, dodging can come to the rescue throughout post-processing.

First, modify the Publicity slider till the foreground is as uncovered as you need it to be. The entire picture will likely be affected, however don’t fear: we are going to masks the impact.

Subsequent, head to the Masking tab, then choose Brush. A brush instrument will seem on the display, permitting you to color within the areas the place you need elevated publicity. In case you make a mistake, use the Erase instrument to take away a part of the masks.

Attempt decreasing the Energy slider so you need to use overlapping strokes to steadily construct up your masks.

We now have a accomplished masks with subtly elevated foreground publicity that would not be achieved solely in-camera.

Save time with AI masks

Now that we perceive this course of, let’s use Luminar Neo’s unbelievable AI masking to finish the duty even faster.

Right here now we have one other picture with a well-exposed sky, however the foreground is as soon as once more darkish. Adjusting the publicity and utilizing a brush to masks the foreground is an possibility, however it’ll take a while.

As an alternative, let’s speed up the masking course of by getting Masks AI to do the exhausting work. Head to the Develop instrument and improve the Publicity slider till the foreground is uncovered to your style.

Subsequent, click on the Masking tab and select Masks AI. Luminar Neo’s AI algorithms will detect a number of components in your scene that may be masked in a single click on. On this case, let’s choose Sky.

Nonetheless, the sky is the one a part of the picture we don’t need to change. No drawback — simply return to Masks actions and click on on Invert. Now the whole foreground has been routinely masked! If the AI algorithm hasn’t fairly caught the whole lot, you need to use the Brush instrument to tidy up the perimeters.

The finished picture now has a lot better foreground element and is extra balanced.

Utilizing the Curves slider

Publicity isn’t the one instrument you need to use to dodge and burn. The Curves instrument may do a wonderful job.

Here’s a panorama picture with a little bit of haziness and that’s a contact overexposed. There’s shadow element that may be darkened to create extra definition.

First, open the Develop instrument, search for Curves, and choose the luminance curve button (the white circle).

Now click on and drag to bend the curve. Bending the curve up will lighten the picture; bending the curve down will darken the picture.

When you’re glad together with your Curves changes, go to the Masking tab and choose Brush.

Now you may paint within the shadows the place you need them. Be aware that we’ve utilized the impact with better energy within the foreground than within the background, making the picture extra natural-looking.

The result’s much less haze and a better sense of depth.

Utilizing Layers and mixing modes

That is essentially the most superior method to dodge and burn, however it could actually yield nice outcomes.

On this instance, we are going to apply a fancy dodge and burn impact to this cityscape picture. First, open the picture. Then, in a brand new Layer, open the identical picture as soon as extra.

Underneath Layer Properties, change the mix mode to Multiply. This now creates a darkened composite picture to work with. If the impact is just too darkish, scale back the Opacity slider to your style.

Now it’s time to masks. On this case, darkening the underside corners of the picture and a number of the foliage within the center floor will assist draw the viewer’s eye in the direction of the middle of the composition. Additionally, the sky is a bit of overexposed.

First, underneath Layer Properties, click on the Masking tab and apply a Linear Gradient masks on the high of the picture to tone down the sky.

Subsequent, use the Brush masks to color in a number of the foreground element to be darkened.

To dodge, add a 3rd layer containing the identical picture. Underneath Layer Properties, choose Display screen from the mixing choices. This creates a lightened model of the picture and, simply as earlier than, if the impact is just too robust, modify the Opacity slider accordingly. This time, the Brush masks is used to focus on the foreground foliage and the robust lights contained in the constructions.

The top result’s a punchier picture the place the foliage within the center floor shouldn’t be as distracting, whereas the foreground foliage and the glowing constructions appear radiant within the blue hour mild.

Luminar Neo is Skylum’s flagship picture enhancing software program for Home windows and macOS.