burn baby burn
Just wanted to share a quick picture to show you just how quickly a conversion and quick bit of work with the burn tool change dramatically change a photo.
Here is the original:
And here is the conversion:
All I did here was run Brenda’s BW2 action, and then, setting the burn tool to shadows, burn the greenery at about 50-60%. This won’t work well with all backgrounds, although I have found it fairly easy to do with most greenery and other areas of dark or deep colour.
You need to be careful of any areas in your picture that might fade to shadow (in this case if you look closely you’ll see that I burned in some areas of her hair, so I need to go back and fix that) so that you don’t burn the detail there. For this reason you should always do your burning on an adjustment layer, so you can use a layer mask* to mask back in any details you didn’t intend to burn out. If you are left with a few bright spots - you can usually either do a few quick passes with the tool still set to shadow and increase the opacity, or set it to highlights and sweep over just the bright areas (being careful of the rest of your image).
*If you do not use layer masks as a part of your regular post processing workflow - do yourself a favour and learn about them. They give you so much control and allow for fine tuning - learning to use masks significantly improved my conversions.
I love the drama of the bnw, but the colour is just TDF gorgeous! I love how lush and vivid the green bg is.
Comment by Amanda K — 06.22.07 @ 9:03:10
Oh these are both really good, she is a beauty!
Comment by Jennifer — 06.22.07 @ 3:19:09
thanks for always being willing to share your knowledge. am i able to subscribe to your blog? also was the color shot sooc or did you do adjustments, it’s just beautiful!
Comment by jayne — 06.22.07 @ 5:59:49
Thanks so much for sharing your process. She is a real beauty!
Comment by Kasie — 06.22.07 @ 10:03:19
WOW.. I love them both that conversion is awesome..
Comment by Elizabeth — 06.23.07 @ 1:41:14
Love this tip! I will be checking back for more…
Comment by kg — 06.23.07 @ 2:07:16
awesome shot! thanks so much for the tip. i love to burn but i’ve never used it for this. i can’t wait to try it.
Comment by christie — 06.23.07 @ 7:25:44
She is so pretty! Cool technique! I’ll have to try this. Thanks!
Comment by Angela — 06.24.07 @ 8:08:12
LOVE your work!!! I’ve seen you over at ILP and just love your photos!
Comment by Leah — 06.25.07 @ 5:22:44
Everything is beautiful in both pictures. You are one talented lady! thanks for sharing too~
Comment by frederique — 07.01.07 @ 10:30:41
Thanks so much for the lesson. I will try to learn masking, I feel so intimidated by it, and now with the lesson you just gave us, I’m more encouraged. Thanks so much, Jeannette.
I love the composition!!!! and of your the model is just plain beautiful. =)
Comment by Tiffany — 07.08.07 @ 12:45:49
you know how much I heart you and your work…I am JUST seeing your blog for the first time…amazing work…just amazing oxxoxo
Comment by lisajulia — 07.18.07 @ 2:52:54
Wonderful picture! Will have to look into those actions!
Another burn/dodge technique that is non-destructive is to create a new layer above the layer you want to dodge/burn and set the new layer to “soft light”. Then with your brush tool, paint black the areas you want to burn and paint white the areas you want to dodge. Using the opacity of the brush to effect how much the effect you want and using the eraser tool to erase any the details you don’t want effected.
Both ways work of course. It’s choosing the techniques that works best for you! I find it a bit easier in my case. Let me know what you think!
Comment by Rich Smith — 08.01.07 @ 6:13:43
Gorgeous! You are amazing!! Thanks for sharing your process too
dina
Comment by Dina — 08.02.07 @ 2:52:42
Thanks for the tutorial…and the inspiration. I don’t currently have Photoshop installed, so I tried to recreate the effect with Picasa. I was able to get some similar effects by increasing shadows. I’ve posted my photos to my blog, if you’d like to see how they came out.
Comment by Dallas — 08.31.07 @ 3:09:58
Gorgeous! Thanks for the tips. Found you through ILP, and love your amazing work.
Comment by Anna — 09.25.07 @ 7:25:54