Back to Basics: A Refresher on the Dodge, Burn and Sharpen Tools in Photoshop

Photoshop is a program of many talents; however, there are three tools that you probably haven’t used much for some time now. As some of the first features to find their way into Photoshop, the Dodge, Burn and Sharpen tools have quickly become dismissed as blunt tools of the past.

However, as Photoshop Principal Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes explains in the video above, these three tools have become much more refined and usable since the release of Photoshop CS4. In the five-minute Photoshop Playbook episode above, he re-introduces you to these selective editing tools and how to best use them so that you can maybe add them back into your workflow.

It’s a great refresher for anyone who hasn’t touched the Dodge, Burn or Sharpen tools in a while, or for the beginner who is maybe just now learning how to use this powerful program. Press play to check it out for yourself, and once you’re done watching Hughes do his thing, feel free to add to his instruction in the comments down below with some pro tips of your own.