NemoClaw Knowledge Wiki

Lightroom's Three Brushes: Dodging, Burning, and Enhancing Photo Depth

3 min read

Lightroom’s Three Brushes: Dodging, Burning, and Enhancing Photo Depth

Generated: 2026-05-29 · API: Gemini 2.5 Flash · Modes: Summary

Lightroom’s Three Brushes: Dodging, Burning, and Enhancing Photo Depth

Clip title: The 3 Lightroom Brushes Most People Don’t Know Author / channel: photoshopCAFE URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9yzgw_5S5A

Summary

This video tutorial, presented by Colin Smith of PhotoshopCAFE, focuses on a powerful technique to add three-dimensional depth and make subjects “pop” in photographs using selective adjustments within Adobe Lightroom. The main topic revolves around mastering Lightroom’s brush tools for dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening) specific areas of an image, highlighting the often-overlooked flexibility of having three distinct brush settings.

Smith begins by introducing the core concept of dodging and burning, explaining how selectively lightening or darkening areas can dramatically enhance an image’s depth. He then delves into the key brush controls within Lightroom’s Masking panel: size, feather, flow, density, and Auto Mask. Size controls the brush’s diameter, while feathering determines the softness of the brush edge, adjustable with the Shift + bracket key shortcut. Flow dictates how quickly the effect builds up with each stroke, allowing for smoother, pencil-like shading, and density sets the maximum intensity of the applied effect. Auto Mask is useful for edge detection but might hinder smooth blending for broader strokes. Crucially, Smith reveals that Lightroom offers two primary brush presets, “A” and “B,” each capable of holding independent settings, and a third “Erase” brush.

The instructor demonstrates how to utilize these three brushes for different purposes. Brush A can be set up for broad, soft strokes (e.g., darkening the edges of a landscape), while Brush B can be configured for more precise work (e.g., darkening under a bridge or brightening specific highlights on trees), maintaining distinct feather, flow, and density settings without constant manual adjustment. The Erase brush, accessible by clicking “Erase” or holding the Alt/Option key while brushing, also holds its own unique settings, or it can temporarily adopt the current brush’s settings to remove unwanted effects. This independent customization for each brush and the quick toggle between them significantly streamlines the workflow, enabling intricate and nuanced local adjustments to enhance light and shadow.

The primary takeaway is that by pre-setting and intelligently utilizing Lightroom’s three brush modes—Brush A for general adjustments, Brush B for detailed work, and the Erase brush for corrections—photographers can achieve more dynamic and dimensional images with greater efficiency and control. This method avoids the tedious back-and-forth of resetting sliders, allowing for a more fluid and artistic dodging and burning process directly within Lightroom.

Video Description & Links

Description

Most Lightroom users don’t realize there are actually 3 different brush behaviors hiding inside Lightroom Classic—and they completely change how you dodge and burn a photo. In this tutorial, Colin Smith shows how to use Lightroom brushes to add depth, shape, and dimension while revealing some surprisingly overlooked brush features that make editing faster and more precise.

Lightroom Virtual Summit: https://y3ggzejo4l.krtra.com/t/dnkzjbiMgNZa

► Free Photoshop add ons: https://photoshopcafe.com/vault ► THE GEAR I USE: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/my-recommended-gear-colin-smith/ci/56280 ► https://www.amazon.com/shop/photoshopcafe ► THE MUSIC I USE: http://share.epidemicsound.com/photoshopcafe ► SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDS: https://www.youtube.com/user/photoshopcafe?sub_confirmation=1 ► PREMIUM COURSES: https://photoshopCAFE.com/video ► INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/photoshopcafe/ ► WEB: https://photoshopcafe.com ► FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/photoshopCAFE ► TWITTER: https://twitter.com/photoshopCAFE #Lightroom howto communityxadobe lightroomBrush

Tags

learn photoshop, photography, colin smith, photoshopcafe, colin smith tutorial, photoshopcafe tutorial, adobe photoshop, Photoshop, learn Photoshop, lightroom dodge and burn, lightroom brush tool, lightroom classic tutorial, dodging and burning lightroom, lightroom brushes, lightroom editing tips, lightroom hidden features, lightroom brush tricks, lightroom classic brushes, lightroom depth editing, lightroom retouching, adobe lightroom classic, colin smith lightroom

URLs

Graph View

Backlinks