STEP BY STEP DODGING & BURNING IN A WORKFLOW Use the Adjustment Brush and Dodge / Burn tools for powerful local adjustments

01 CONVERT TO MONO

When converting to mono we can control the brightness of colours, which gives us a head start with adjustments. After importing into Lightroom, go to the Develop Module and click ‘Black and White’. Use this panel to lift the yellows and darken the blues, like so.

02 LIGHTEN THE WATERFALL

Grab the Adjustment Brush from the Lightroom toolbar. Double-click ‘Effect’ to reset any previous settings, then dial in +1 Exposure. Paint over the waterfall and the water to lighten them. We can also crisp up the details by increasing Clarity as shown.

03 OPEN IN PHOTOSHOP

Right-click the image and choose Edit in>edit in Adobe Photoshop. Once open, hit Cmd/ctrl+j to duplicate the background layer, so we can work on a copy of the original. Get the Burn tool, go to the tool options and set Exposure 10%, Range: Midtones.

04 DARKEN THE EDGES

Using a soft-edged brush tip, paint around the edges to subtly darken them, creating a vignette that draws the eye to the details in the centre of the shot and away from the edges. Next, set Range: Highlights and paint over the brightest rocks to darken them.

05 LIFT THE WATER

Set the Range to Shadows, then paint over the crevices in the rocks to darken them, emphasizing the textures. Next, switch to the Dodge tool and set Range: Highlights, Exposure 10%. Paint to lift the ridges in the rocks, and to add subtle bright streaks in the water.

06 ADD EXTRA PUNCH

Keep dodging and burning as you see fit – you can hold Alt while using either tool to switch to the other. Finally, we can add extra punch. Click the Create Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel and choose Curves, then plot a gentle S-shaped curve line.