‘Local adjustments’ is a bit of a catch-all term. It means picking out an area of an image for adjustment while leaving the rest unchanged. So how do local adjustments work and which software does them best?
Burning in
An old black and white darkroom technique where areas of a print were given a longer exposure under the enlarger to make them come out darker. Usually you would do this by extending the print exposure while covering up those areas you wanted left alone, either with your hand, a piece of card or a specially shaped 'mask'.
Rediscover dodging and burning in black and white
Back in the days of film, a ‘straight’ black and white print was only a stepping stone. A properly finished print was almost always enhanced with some skilled ‘dodging and burning’. Dodging and burning is a classic technique in black and white, where certain areas of a print are held back (dodged) under the enlarger […]
How to use the Lightroom adjustment brush tool to dodge and burn your colour shots
Dodging and burning was a standard darkroom technique for black and white photographers, but it works just as well on colour shots. ‘Dodging’ is where you lighten selected areas of the image and ‘burning’ is where you darken them. With the Lightroom adjustment brush tool this is really easy to do, and you can control […]