Better way than dodging to lighten

I found a much better way (IMO) than the dodge tool yesterday whilest reading a PS book in the bookstore. They point out that the dodge tool "damages" the pixels and you cannot get them back to their original state (other than undoing history, of course).

Here's what I learned... and it has made a really big difference for me so far!

1) Create a new layer via the top toolbar (not the little icon) Layer->New->Layer.

2) In the dialogue box that pops up, change the Mode to Overlay, then it allows you to check the little checkbox that says "Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray)". Check this box! That's the magic.

3) Pick your paint brush or whatever you want to use and lower the opacity to 10-15%, whatever you discover you like.

4) Now just paint white where you want to lighten something, and black where you want to darken it.

Change your mind later, just delete the layer and voila... back to where you started.

Also, I've noticed with the burn tool, if you click to paint and hold the button down, going over the area twice with one brush stroke will dodge it twice as light. Whereas with this method, you don't have to be careful not to overlap you painting because it will not keep incrementing your paint stroke... like that makes any sense... how can I say this. If you paint with 10% opacity and click and paint over and over the area without letting go of the mouse button, you only paint 10%. Whereas with dodge if you make a stroke and go back over it again, you dodge essentially 20%. But with this new method, you can still paint over the area as many times as you want to build the lightness.... paint it again at 10% and you have an effective 20% lightening.

Hope some of that made sense... but I find it works great! Hope this was able to finally help someone out here, as I have been helped greatly by many on this board.

hmm definitely going to try it out.. I barely ever use the dodge tool though.. 90 percent of the time I make a new layer lighten the entire layer and mask the parts I want lightened..

Yeah, I hope a couple people try it out and comment on it. I'm not saying this is the end all be all way to dodge, but it sure seems to work better than the dodge tool for me. I still consider myself a PS novice (just up from rookie), so I by no means am claiming any superior knowledge here. But the guy that wrote the book said something about it being one of his best things he learned and wished he had come up with it I felt the same way after trying it out!

Thanks TTGator, I'm gonna try it and see how it works.
Thanks for sharing, that's what I love about this place, people are willing to share!

TSEE wrote in post #4277209
Thanks TTGator, I'm gonna try it and see how it works.
Thanks for sharing, that's what I love about this place, people are willing to share!

I know I can count on you to come back and give feedback

Yeah, like I said, hopefully some people will find this useful and it will help them out. If so, it will make me feel good about contributing to the forum after taking so much!

I just gave this a quick try and it does work very well.
You can also darken by painting with a dark brush.

Ooooooooh im gonna have to try that - i definitely use the dodge tool too much lol...maybe this will work out better for me

TTGator wrote in post #4277242
I know I can count on you to come back and give feedback

Yeah, like I said, hopefully some people will find this useful and it will help them out. If so, it will make me feel good about contributing to the forum after taking so much!

As soon as I give it a whirl I'll be back for CC on it.
In fact Art sent me a picture I intended to do dodging on, so I'll try your technique on it and see how it works. I'll be back later for an update!

This method is in several Photoshop books. Both methods of dodging and burning have their place. One works better for certain things.

And for those who say the actual dodge/burn tools are "destructive", then create a new layer and dodge/burn that. Same concept - you can delete whatever you don't like.

CheetaPita wrote in post #4277479
Ooooooooh im gonna have to try that - i definitely use the dodge tool too much lol...maybe this will work out better for me

Good, then we can consider it an even trade for your B&W tutorial that we are all so eagerly awaiting

Mario. wrote in post #4277519
And for those who say the actual dodge/burn tools are "destructive", then create a new layer and dodge/burn that. Same concept - you can delete whatever you don't like.

True. But I guess it just makes it harder to tweak if you wanted to come back to a .psd later? If you had made it too light, all you would need to do is paint a low opacity black and you get it back. Maybe that's what the author meant?

TTGator wrote in post #4277618
True. But I guess it just makes it harder to tweak if you wanted to come back to a .psd later? If you had made it too light, all you would need to do is paint a low opacity black and you get it back. Maybe that's what the author meant?

That is true.

I just don't want everyone to use this as a replacement for the dodge/burn tools. They both do very different things in my opinion, and I personally use BOTH these methods for my processed photos.

you are talking about essentially the action painting with light II.
The big advantage of dodging and burning is that you can select shadows, midtones, or highlights separately. as such, it can act to increase contrast, as well as well as change exposure. More powerful than painting with light. If you are worried that you are damaging the pixels, you can always first make a copy of your background layer, apply changes to the top layer, and use a layer mask later for areas that you did not like.
I use both methods, but they really serve different functions.

I don't doubt that they both have their place. On the people forum it is widely used for eyes, it seems, and I just found this method to work very well for that. Better than dodge/burn for what I was doing. I'm sure someday I'll need the other, and hopefully someone will be able to show me how and why! Thanks for the input!

kevindar wrote in post #4277706
you are talking about essentially the action painting with light II.
The big advantage of dodging and burning is that you can select shadows, midtones, or highlights separately. as such, it can act to increase contrast, as well as well as change exposure. More powerful than painting with light. If you are worried that you are damaging the pixels, you can always first make a copy of your background layer, apply changes to the top layer, and use a layer mask later for areas that you did not like.
I use both methods, but they really serve different functions.

Ah, well there you have it. Very good explaination of the differences, thanks!