Dodging and burning is a great way to tone down loud parts of your image, or to add dimension by lightening or darkening parts of the image with a brush. Don’t grab the Dodge and Burn tools and paint on your layer because that will permanently alter the pixels. To set up a nondestructive dodge-and-burn layer, hold down Option (PC: Alt) as you click on the Create a New Layer icon (+) at the bottom of the Layers panel. This will bring up the New Layer dialog with a few options. Change the blend Mode to Overlay. This will hide anything that’s 50% gray and only allow tones that are lighter or darker to show. When you change the mode a checkbox will appear in the dialog that says “Fill with Overlay-Neutral Color (50% Gray).” Most people click this on without really understanding why. If you’re going to dodge and burn with the Brush tool (B) set to a black or white brush, you don’t need to fill with gray; it makes no difference at all. The reason this option exists is for using the Dodge and Burn tools, as these tools need pixels to work and won’t work on a blank layer.
This tip originally published in Colin Smith’s “Photoshop Tips” column in the August, 2023 issue of Photoshop User magazine.
