Dodge/Burn Tool

Shortcut: O

The Dodge/Burn tool lightens or darkens pixels using the OKLCH color space for perceptually uniform adjustments. It's the fastest way to add shading and highlights without leaving the existing color.

Dodge vs Burn

The tool options row arms one mode with a sun/moon toggle: Dodge lightens by increasing OKLCH lightness, Burn darkens by decreasing it. Left-click applies whichever mode is armed, and right-click always applies the other one, so the alternate mode is one click away no matter which is armed. A hint next to the toggle names what the right button currently does.

With the tool already selected, press O or click the tool icon again to swap the armed mode.

Both modes preserve the original hue and chroma of each pixel, so highlights and shadows stay color-consistent with the base tone.

Why OKLCH?

OKLCH is a perceptually uniform color space — the same numeric step produces the same visual change across different hues. Dodging a red and a blue by the same amount yields highlights that feel equally bright, unlike RGB or HSL where mid-blues tend to look disproportionately dark.

Tool Options

Dodge/Burn has its own settings, separate from the brush. The tip is always circular, and the brush size shortcuts do not affect it:

  • Size — Diameter of the tip, 1 to 64, set in the tool options row
  • Strength — How much each stroke changes lightness, 1 to 100, starting at 25. Shown as Intensity in the tool options strip on touch layouts
  • D + drag — Visual size adjustment

Size and Strength are remembered separately from the brush's own settings.

Dodge/Burn is an advanced tool, so it is hidden in Simple mode.

Live Preview

Hover over the canvas and a preview shows what the tip would do to the pixels under it, before you press anything. The preview steps aside once the stroke starts, so what you see while dragging is the real result. It follows the Live Preview setting in the View menu, and it needs an RGBA layer: on an indexed layer you get no hover preview.

Selection and Symmetry

  • Dodge/Burn respects the active selection — only pixels inside the mask are affected.
  • Symmetry settings apply: strokes mirror across the configured axis the same way the brush tool does.

Tips

  • For flat colors, a few light dodge/burn passes create natural shading without adding new palette entries.
  • In indexed color mode the result snaps to the nearest palette color — use a ramp palette for clean transitions.
  • If you need a specific target color rather than a relative shift, use the Shading tool instead.
  • Combine with Blur for soft transitions between dodged and burned areas.