Dodge and Burn

I am a bit frustrated by the ability for an easy Dodge anb Burn in PL. I am trying to get this feature with the Brush tool.
If anyone could explain his Dodge and Burn workflow in PL?
In lightroom it could be done quite easy with the Radial filter.
The main issue with the Brush tool is that the gradient is only at the feathering area. In the center, within the brush width there is no gradient. Which is good for using it wherever you need brush, but it’s an issue when you need to dodge. In LR however, there is a continues gradient from the external borders up to the very center of the radial filter, which let you Dodge very nice and easy.
Any idea for an easy D&B in PL?

While Lightroom directly shows the effect while you draw your mask, you have to first draw the mask and then adjust the tool’s sliders to taste.

Lightroom starts out with preset values for dodging and burning (and other local adjustments) while DPL starts with all sliders (values) set to neutral.

Apart from the above, DPL’s masks work differently, so we need to adapt our way of working accordingly. DPL offers a few different masking tools that you select depending on what you want to do: gradients, u-points etc. Check this out: https://help-photolab2.dxo.com/en/local-adjustments-detail-corrections

I’ll check out the limits of what you can do and add my findings here:

Lr lets me create a brush that has, let’s say, the size of a penny. I can then add aslope to the outside of the penny. A cut through the brush profile would either show a mesa (like in monument valley) with a steep side (feather set to 0) or a slope if the feather is set to >0. I can see where the slope starts and where the mesa top is because of the circles that Lr draws. I cannot define a brush with mesa top size 0 with a slope (volcano shape)

DPL seems to be able to do the same with the following differences:

  1. DPL will not draw circles to delimit he brush unless the brush has a minimal size (something like from a 1/4th-slider position on, also depending on slope size)
  2. When I use the brush, I get a fuzzy mask and I see the circles - or not, this looks like a bug to me.
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Thanks for your reply, I have edited my post to make it more clear.
Could you share your workflow how to do D&B?

Hi, Doron,

Perhaps you could post a sample image to show what you are wanting to achieve (?)

Regards, John M

How to dodge or burn (on Mac)

  1. activate the local adjustment function by clicking on the respective button in the toolbar at the upper edge of the window
  2. select the tool, e.g. the brush and define its size and feather
    a) using a mouse: cmd-scroll or shift-scroll until size and feather are what you want
    b) using a touchpad: suboptimal: push and pull sliders at the lower lefthand overlay area again and again until you have what you want
    :poop: while you change sizes with the sliders, you cannot see the mask/circles :poop:
    c) :smiley: shift/cmd-scrolling with two fingers will work though :smiley:
  3. push and pull the sliders that overlay the image
    There are three sets of sliders, D&B use the set that you select clicking on the topmost icon at the left edge of the sliders (active in the screenshot)

At the end, all will be well - or not, then you have to go back and do some more stuff…

I will try to illustrate what did I mean.
I believe that all users of PL use the brush for D&B.
Those who use PL as plug in to LR I believe they prefer the Radial filter tool in LR which for my opinion does the D&B much better. And this is my problem I can not get in PL the same effect as I used to have in LR…
In Ex. 1 - Feathering=100% : The gradient is only at the Feathering area ( Good for brushing, not good for D&B, makes it look artificial)
In Ex. 2 - Feathering=0% : Therrfore no gradient.
In Ex. 3 - Illustration of LR circular filter The gradient all over the area (Best for D&B)

I also requested that more than a year ago. Since a similar question was already posted, I commented this one:
https://forum.dxo.com/t/pressure-sensitive-brushes/4083

Unfortunately, nothing has happened in this regard.

And there are many more of such requests (call them improvement suggestions if you like) that still are not addressed for a very long time. There are so many rather “small” issues that could make using PL so much more convenient - yet nothing happens. This is extremely frustrating.

Tilmann

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You are absolutely right.
It seems like unfortunately there are two PARADIGMS in this company.

  1. "We know what we are doing, if you think you need any feature it means your workflow is wrong.
  2. PL is only a Raw Converter. We are afraid to make it a full feature editing tool.
2 Likes

I must correct myself. Interestingly, the current version of PL2 in fact has a setting for opacity/saturation (I don’t know which wording is used in the english version) for the brush. I just found this after looking at the first screenshot of platypus above (take care that the appearance in Windows is completely different).
I don’t remember that this has been announced, though…

Nevertheless, at least this function has been implemented meanwhile.

Tilmann