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.

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Out of Town Grandparents, Out of Town Friends, and More Snow

   We have a seventy percent chance of snow this afternoon. I hope it turns out to be a fair lot of snow, maybe six inches...maybe ;) I sincerely hope so!
    Our Grandparents from California are to arrive here Tuesday, and stay till next Wednesday! I can't wait to see them! It should be a blast! I don't know what we plan on doing with them, but, we will find that out when they get here. My guess would be that we are going to visit my brother and his family, and possibly go antiquing, since they love doing that immensely. We got a visit the other day from some friends of ours from Arizona. We had a nice visit, it has been a while since we have seen them.

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