Dodge or Burn?

So, in what instances do you use dodge or burn? This week, I think I have used it more than I normally do, due to the fact, that I am just realizing how much you can do with it.

In the photo just below, the steers face was almost unseeable. The moment I took this photo, I hadn't thought about the exposure difference. Sometimes, I don't exactly see things the way the camera does. When I opened it up in Photoshop Elements Camera Raw, I was disappointed to find out that you couldn't see the steer at all. after I had edited the photo to my liking, I opened it in the main editing window and brought up the dodge brush and went over the same spot twice, at 100%   

In the same instance here, because the sun was right in front of the camera, a lot of the picture had lost the vibrance and clarity. When I opened it up in Adobe Camera Raw, I pulled some of the blacks in, to give it a bit clarity. After I had recovered most of the photo, the building was unfortunately a bit dark. I opened it in the main editing window and brought the dodge brush up again and lightened up the building.

 In this photo you see here, I had shaded the lens with my hat, acting like a lens hood. So   I didn't have to recover anything except for some highlights down in the lower third of the frame in the foreground. This is when the burn tool comes in handy. A lot of people I have sat there and edited with asked me why I didn't just pull in the highlights in with the recovery mode in Camera Raw? The reason I don't do this is because the recovery mode effects the whole frame, as to apposed to the burn tool, where I can apply it where I want and how much I want.  

Here, I used the burn brush. The gloss on the guitar had reflected a bit, so I used the burn tool to bring it back to the right contrast between colors.

{ SHORTY }