I just watched PiXimperfect's video you're referencing before coming here by chance. The way you've described the usefulness of the linear light method on a 50% gray layer makes SO much sense, especially since it's possible to increase its fill, saving a ton of brushing time. Instant fan and subscriber! You've definitely helped cut my workflow time by a considerable amount with this suggestion! Can't thank you enough!

I will be sticking with you Blake. Merry Christmas and thanks for all the expertise you have given us in 2020.

Hi Blake... I have been following your videos for sometime now and i find it very informative.. i simply dont understand why you have so less subscribers when your teaching methods are outstanding... Anyways please do keep doing whatever you been doing and I am definitely looking out for it. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you.

Thanks Blake. Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas.

Superb rebuttal and clarification. Really interested in the linear light method...will look at your video on that method.

I was using Delicious Retouch Dodge and Burn retouch panel and came across my 50% gray method. I barely understood dogde and burn and now this! Thank you very much! It makes a lot of sense for an optimized workflow.

Hi Blake and Merry Christmas! Have been following you for years now..."So without further ado," keep up the great work :o)

Hi Blake. I know you didn’t “want” to do this video but I am so very pleased you did do it. You did an excellent job and my understanding has been greatly improved. You showed absolute class in not letting this become personal. Both you guys have excellent Photoshop content and in the end I don’t think there was even a substantive disagreement. It was about different approaches for different people. It is really is just such a shame about the title of the other video. We can thank the almighty KZfaq algorithm for that. Keep up the great work!

Great explanation! Never new what the grey layer was for TBH now I do. Thanks, you know what you are talking about.

Very good video this one. Really appreciate seeing how and why the different methods do what they do.

You are one of the 5 best teachers on KZfaq, and he is also one of them :-)

I do a lot of dodging and burning in Lr because I just couldn't get it to work in Ps using the dodge and burn tools. Now I know why. I'm going gray layer from now on. Great video. Thanks and have a wonderful holiday!

Thanks for such clear explanaition!

So well explained, thanks for this. For my workflow (and something I recommend) I use mainly 2 brushes, a hard one at 100%fill, hardness at 100% too and shape dynamics with pen pressure, and a really soft one at 1-2% fill hardness at 1%, switching between them with just a right click on my pen on the wacom.

I really like the 50% gray method. I was dodging/burning with the curves layer method and although I eventually achieved what I wanted it was cumbersome. I understand how your method works and dodging/burning is now efficient and fun. Thank You!!!

Well thought out with good justifications for the method.

I've always used 50% gray layer with black and white pincel, especially when working with luminosity masks. I've never thought of using dodge and burn tools, which makes more sense btw. I never knew what the 50% gray layer was for, but now I know. I prefer using the 50% gray because it lets you clearly visualize what you did by only looking at that layer. Great explanation. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Very good explanation. Thanx for the video.

On a roll Master. Well done. A joyous Christmas to you and the family. Thank you!

Blake, you nailed it! I like very much 'the other guy' and I just watched the video you (elegantly) mentioned. But in this matter, your method gave me the result I was looking for, for the longest time. I used to hate when I saw that gray over my colors when burning. With these settings you taught, I got exactly what I was looking for when using D&B tools! No gray color over my beautiful colors, very natural highlights, and very, very, natural overall result as a whole, fast and with no effort! Thank you so much and all the best to you :)

Oh hum... Tweedledum & Tweedledee. I've been using your Gray Layer/Dodge/Method since you introduced it... No Problem Whatsoever. The color stays exactly where I want it every time. Thanks for making this video, Blake. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

True story! You rock!

Nice way to Dodge out of having to answer all those emails, and I like how the Burn on the other channel was civil and on point ;)

Thanks for this. I've had so many arguments with friends about this (gosh what nerds we are). And we all know who you are talking about (and he's a great guy). Whatever works great, works great!

Thank you for the explanation, already subscribe your channel

Thankyou for the video, its hard to find a brief history of dodge and burning even in 2021

Yesssss...!!! Agree!!! Really good arguments¡¡

I always use 2 curves adjustment layer. First one goes up, second one down. Both with black masks and then I can mask in my Dodge and Burn completely separated. Maybe this is a bit too complicated, but you can create all of this in a macro and start brushing right away. And with that method I can adjust flow, opacity AND the curve itself and each setting for Dodge and Burn separately.

Hi Blake........,I've learned a lot from you. You elaborated super hard things so easily mannnn thatz amazing....THANK YOU VERY MUCH... , dont need bother about those pix 'IMPERFECT' ones, who even photoshop their voice and accent ;) ........... and yaa.........I hate his 'EYEBROWS'. You keep going with your great work please........... : Love and respect from India.

I learned to dodge and burn with the 50% gray layer, but utilizing the brush at a low opacity. I will definitely try the linear light method using the dodge and burn tools. Thanks, Blake - and Happy Holidays!

Thank you for the explanation, I'm very new to photoshop, best to start with good habits. Cheers

Funny, before even clicking on your video (as I was watching Unmesh's vid) I wrote a comment, why would you use the brush on the grey layer? just use the dodge and burn tools and you don't have to adjust the brush to 50% gray to erase anything. Glad someone with a youtube channel is bringing this to everyone's attention.

Thank You!

Hi Blake: Thank your for calling out this obvious 'click-bait' video by the KZfaq creator that you have mentioned. I know who you mean, and I must say that I no longer watch or pay any attention to this person. I have always like and appreciate your candid and UN-baised approach to PS. I follow the method you have outlined and find it works the best for my post-processing workflow, and it makes the most sense as it doesn't create UN-necessary down-stream issues. Keep fighting the good battle! Best wishes to you and your family this holiday season. Cheers, Keith

Totally agreed. As you said,there is a place in your workflow. Julia Kuzmenko (hope i write it correctly) and some other retouchers use the 50% gray on overlay or soft light to contour the images.

I thought the same thing when I heard “him” say that about the gray layer. I’ll have to check out the linear light method. Something else I’ve seen other tutorials claim is that when they use D&B on a gray layer to make sure they check “Protect Tones”. Am I wrong in thinking that’s a waste of time since they’re working on the gray layer its not actually going to protect the tones of the image? The gray layer has no color tones to protect. And the blend mode is going to mess with the colors of the actual image regardless. Or am I missing something?

You found the video that led me to ask you why 50% grey was any better than just an empty layer. You have risen to the challenge. Ha. I will keep trying to prove you wrong about something but it's beginning to feel like a hopeless undertaking. My friend is watching the ZSE videos and loves them.

Man, after watching this video I am on full alert. Did somebody declared dodge & burn war? Merry Christmas and hope to see you before 2021.

I usually do my dodging and burning on a copy of the original photo, this way I can target the highlights, mid tones and darks separately. Is there a way for doing this on 50% grey layers, instead of the photo itself? Thanks. (mostly I use dodging and burning to correct scanned artwork (white) paper tone, without affecting the painted\drawn art itself. If the "art" gets too light, I use the burn tool set to the mid tone to darken it without effecting the light tone of the paper)

Great perspectives

The method you advocate has some very serious problems that are easily demonstrated by merely creating a 50% gray layer and using the dodge/burn tools on it. Burn will darken the gray towards black, dodge will lighten the gray towards white. But when the gray is lightened is leaves the midtones and becomes a highlight. When the gray is darkened it leaves the midtones and becomes a shadow. Whatever range you were working in you're not working in it anymore. Your adjusted areas are now out of the range you were initially adjusting but the untouched areas adjacent to them are still in it. This creates multiple problems. If you try to go back in and reverse your adjustment by using the opposite tool the tool will not have any effect until you change the range. ie if you just burned the gray to where it's now a shadow and want to take it back then you have to change your range to shadows. If you stay in the midtone range then your correction adjustment will have no effect. If that's not bad enough - when you try to paint out your adjustment by going from dodge to burn and your adjustment is in a range that overlaps say midtones/shadows then if you don't mask your initial adjustment the tool will adjust the unadjusted areas outside of your initial dodge/burn differently than the one you just did. This is hard to describe but easy to demonstrate by just creating a 50% gray layer and dodging/burning/erasing a few times. It quickly becomes a mess. Effectively if you burn and then want to erase you'll have to change the range from midtones to shadows, switch to dodge, erase what you did and then switch the range back to midtones The true impact of this won't be noticed unless you adjust back and forth several times. You can't 'erase' your adjustment without changing where it resides in the adjustment range. The only way to completely erase your adjustment is to switch tools completely to the brush tool and paint back in 50% gray. So as long as you don't make mistakes or change your mind while adjusting your way has merit - you can see your adjustments on the 50% gray layer (though I don't think this is really much of an advantage tbh - if you really want to see your adjustments using the blank layer method then there's nothing stopping you from creating a solid color fill layer in green etc below the adjustment layer and toggling its visibility). As soon as you go back and forth a bit it's a lot MORE work to do it this way than to just use a blank layer with a brush in overlay mode. That way you set a low flow, use X to switch between dodge and burn and hold tilde down to erase if you don't like it Sorry - I enjoy your videos and generally agree with your methods but in this case I think your method is 'imperfect'

Hi Blake, I found this really interesting and thought provoking, and as you make the key point about it being a personal preference. Being a regular ZSE user I want back to check in the training material and panel for ZSE and it confirmed what I thought which is that is very much 50% grey and soft light technique which tended to come at the end of the workflow. Does this mean potentially adding a color cast at the end of all the color correction, grading etc. Would you recommend not to use the ZSE panel for D&B and instead use the actions you have supplied?

Excellent information, as usual! What do you think about D&B using Lightroom compared to Photoshop?

The biggest problem with the transparent layer I saw was on picking up the percentage from that layer, since white is always 100% white, and black Is always 100% black. With the gray layer, I can see the percentage of gray for every pixel on the layer... Also, blurring layer doesn't change color percentage on the transparent layer, black stays black always...

Thanks, Blake. Can you comment on the use of the history brush for dodging and burning? Some photographers argue that this is the best method there is. BTW, Merry Christmas!

Blake, between the 50% gray layer and the two separate curves layer method, which do you prefer? I've read somewhere that the curves method is significantly quicker. What are your thoughts?

Too funny, I am taking your Best Blend Mode class right now. The timing is hilarious; my brain apparently looks for humour at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="180">3:00</a> am Let's talk cumbersome. The way that I was taught to D and B for portraits was with color on 50% grey set to soft light, then the eye dropper tool to sample a highlight color, then shift that color away a couple integers from yellow, save THAT to swatches, name it, then sample a shadow area, shift it away from red, save to swatches, name it. Then set brush tool to 1% and switch back and forth for shadows and highlights (and keep track of those swatches until the image was finalized). Sometimes I would forget to clean the swatches out for a while and I would end up with endless swatches that I needed to clean out after. Same with landscapes and wildlife except I may have 4 or 5 swatches to keep track of for one image. D and B with color definitely has a place in my work flow but your way just saved me a lot of time. I just briefly played with this on a portrait, a bear and a landscape and using the Linear Light for D and B flows so much easier and faster. I like the way that Linear light mode allows me to adjust without the need for more brushing or duplicating a layer to increase the depth of the D and B Thank you so much for the lessons. I have joined and paid for many courses over the years and I have to say that I love yours. You have an easy to understand way of teaching and well laid out courses that help make sense of Photoshop

dodge is like contrast filter on brightness and contrast except you apply it as a brush.

I use the 50% Gray layer and have the flow at 6% and then when finished doing D & B I change the opacity to 85% just to take the edge off and I feel it works well.

I commented the same thing on his video, but he never replied. I told him I can't use a empty layer because i use the dodge and burn tools not the brush. So i need the 50% grey layer.

Does a blank layer respond to different brush blend modes, say overlay? Could there be cases where I may want to use a different blend mode for the brush other than Normal?

👍

Serious question. Still trying to learn. Why not use the dodge and burn tools in PS for dodging and buring instead of the brush tool?

A color is a set of HSB. If you change B you will get a new color. That’s the problem with most D&B techniques as shadows of the same Hue (e.g skin tones) are typically less Saturated. A true Dodge technique needs to add Saturation and not just add Brightness.

I recall you stating years back from various BR videos.. that the 50% layer is not the best for D&B. So I've been using your D&B Pro Panel with Method 2 around 20% Opacity. Hard to change now.

As I said under Piximperfect's video and under another one of yours, the massive downside of the 50% grey is the pain to actually erase any edit. The method is very effective and doesn't matter if it's old or new, it's only less flexible than the transparent layer or than my own method (I talk about it in my video). I have also found that dodge and burn should actually have different blending modes for ideal results, not just one layer (either 50% or transparent). But in the end, there's no right or wrong: whatever makes your workflow faster and effective should be your way to go and if 50% grey is your way, use that 👍🏻

Thank you, Blake. Would it work with PS Elements as well?

The main problem if you PS works with Layers, PS calculate . It´s a differnce if PS calculate with nothing , or calculate with a difference of 50% Grey. The difference is a flattening the depth and Grainness. If you retouch faces . it is absolute o.k. If you retouch landscapes it´s a mess. The the reason most people prefer Lightroom unstead PS. With every brushstroke, and every layer you loose a little bit life that contains the Image naturally. I know Lightroom do similar things like PS, but it´s a difference.

Checkmate! ;-)

How do we erase using this method?

Creat a linear black/white gradient and dodge at 100% exposure across it with each of the three tone ranges. .Burn across it as well with the three ranges. Note the results. Create a new gradient and add a 50% gray layer, setting it to Linear Light. Dodge and burn as above and note the results. Bless us with a video on this experiment. I won’t reveal the results, but I’ll say that they just blow what we ALL thought was happening completely away. It’s concerning. None of us understand the actual mechanisms of these things.

Boom! You can drop the mic now.

It is apparent that you and that Unmesh Dinda dude of Piximperfect are having a feud. You win because your method works, and most important--your hair and, beard, and eyebrows are far nicer than his.

How about using multi-layers of curve & opacity. If you think your original edits were crazy aggressive you can go back and make tweaks.

Is the "instructor" piximperfect?

I typically dodge and burn with empty layer while I have a luminosity mask selected and marching ants hidden.

Great video Blake, but in all fairness to him, at the end of his video, he does leave the judgement open, asks to be critical and use one's own preferred way. He does not say which is better. His title was completely wrong.

😛🤪😜Your subject topic is better matched with the T-shirt you wear.... grey color.😛😛😋

Is it just me or the video is heaviky inspired from piximperfect including the title and thumbnail

Superbly confusing.

Why you don't name him? Every Photoshop user in the world knows who you mean in this video🤣🤙

Wait, did you seriously talked for 10 minutes to explain yourself? Listen to me son, there are many ways to achieve the same (or very similar) result in Photoshop, right? You have your method, someone else has another method. Are you happy with your method? Awesome! Some people should just stop being petty and go pluck their eyebrows! ;)

Im here after searching piximperfect's video. He still suggested few thing on that video, anyways its good to learn new things.. New suscriber added 😊