Affinity Photo: How to Manually Lighten & Darken Certain Parts from an Image Without Producing Dull Colors

[andren]

I need to make certain shadows from an image lighter, and make some areas of the image darker. I need to do this with a brush, because I only want to go over certain areas, without affecting the whole image.

I want to Lighten & Darken specific areas from the image, but I want to avoid creating Dull Colors when I do this.

What is the best way to Lighten & Darken specific sections from the image by using a brush, without affecting other parts of the image?

Thank you for your help!

[RichardMH]

I use curves set to Gray and Luminosity blend mode. Adjust the curve, add an empty mask then brush it in. 

[Old Bruce]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:08 PM, andren said:

I need to make certain shadows from an image lighter, and make some areas of the image darker. I need to do this with a brush, because I only want to go over certain areas, without affecting the whole image.

This is called Dodging and Burning. There are tools for it 

[andren]

On 12/5/2022 at 12:20 AM, RichardMH said:

I use curves set to Gray and Luminosity blend mode. Adjust the curve, add an empty mask then brush it in. 

I will try this out. Thank you

[andren]

On 12/6/2022 at 12:35 PM, Old Bruce said:

This is called Dodging and Burning. There are tools for it 

Thank you!

I will try to use dodging and burning to lighten and darken parts of the image.

I just wish I could apply these effects on a different layer, in order to have more control when editing these areas. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this though.

[Old Bruce]

4 minutes ago, andren said:

I just wish I could apply these effects on a different layer, in order to have more control when editing these areas. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this though.

You could use a 50% grey Pixel layer set to Overlay blend mode just above the image. Do the dodging and burning on that grey layer and it should lighten darken the areas.

[andren]

On 12/10/2022 at 2:27 PM, Old Bruce said:

You could use a 50% grey Pixel layer set to Overlay blend mode just above the image. Do the dodging and burning on that grey layer and it should lighten darken the areas.

 

Thank you!

I tested it out. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 50% grey, so I picked a middle gray and lowered the opacity of that layer to 50%. I set the layer mode to Overlay.

It seems to work with dodge and burn, but I noticed that it also brightens the overall image a bit.

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, andren said:

 I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 50% grey,

Grey that is at 50 on the Greyscale slider in the colour panel. 100% opacity set to Overlay.