How to use the Lighten/Darken Brush

[Phil47]

How can I use the Lighten/Darken Brush to darken a patch on a bird's feathers so it is not burnt out please?
I have looked high and low but cannot find any instructions except a 2012 YT video which I cannot fathom out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=afNIMwoTfB4
I can find many references on this website to the fact that in the 2020 version it isn't or at least wasn't working properly.
Has that been fixed?
Thanks.

[Kathy_9]

This tutorial explains it nicely. It was done by one of our members, LeviFiction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exrcgOD0zbw

[Phil47]

Thanks Kathy-9, I know LeviFiction - he has helped me before on other matters.

[migf1]

Yeah, PSP 2020 sometimes have issues when brushing in general, especially on layers placed below adjustment layers and masks.

Anyway, the thing with the Lighten/Darken brush is that you should be very subtle with its opacity and hardness. For the opacity, try a really low value, like 10 or even less, and set hardness to 0. Keep the step low too, below 10 or even at 1 (depends on the brush size and the picture). Then you can brush over the desired area multiple times. For example, if you set the opacity to say 10, then every contiguous stroke you make adds 10% opacity... this gives you quite a bit of gradual control.

If the Lighten/Darken brush still doesn't cut it for you, you can add a new transparent layer above the bird, and set it to either Overlay or Soft Light blend mode (the former gives stronger results). Then select the regular brush tool, with the default round, soft brush, and set your foreground & background colors to black and white, respectively. Again, keep opacity and step to very low values, and hardness to 0.

Now, every time you brush with black on the new layer (left mouse), it will darken the corresponding area of the bird in the layer beneath. Brush with white (right mouse) to lighten the area beneath. This is a very common retouching technique, called Dodge & Burning. There are other ways too, like the Dodge and Burn brushes, available in the same menu with the Lighten/Darken, but most of the times they give harsher results.

For even more control, you can create 2 layers instead of 1, and call them Dodge, and Burn respectively. In the dodge layer you brush with white, in the Burn layer you brush with black. Don't forget to set thier blend mode to Overlay, or to Soft Mask (for more subtle changes).

If you are up to masking, you can create 2 Curves (or Levels) adjustment layers instead of 2 plain transparent layers. You can set them to Luminance (L) blend mode, so they only affect the lightens and not the colors on the bird (or leave them to Normal blend, so they affect both the lightness and the colors). One of these curves should be set to brighten things, and the other to darken things. Then you can work on their masks, to control what will happen on the underlying bird layer.

Using separate layers for dodging and burning has one more advantage, that you can control their opacity separately at any given time. The curves give even more control.

[Jean-Luc]

How can I use the Lighten/Darken Brush to darken a patch on a bird's feathers so it is not burnt out please?
I

If the subject allows it, you can also use the Cloning tool.