I first discovered using the Photoshop History Brush to Dodge and Burn many years ago after acquiring a book called "Digital Photography Fine Print Workshop" written by George DeWolfe.

In July 2011, he wrote an article on the Luminous Landscape website about the technique and how he sets up the history brush in Photoshop using various blend modes to control the overall effect.

Having studied all the options and blend modes that he uses, it dawned on me that rather than trying to remember all of them and keep referring to handwritten cheat sheets, it would make more sense to code them directly into a Photoshop Plugin.

This is something I did around 2020 which did work well, it was a cumbersome workflow because it relied on having extra brush tool presets installed on the computer and wasn't all that seamless with how Photoshop worked.

As of 2022, things in the Photoshop world suddenly came on leaps and bounds as Adobe started to improve its new UXP plugin technology which opened the doors for developers to communicate more with Photoshop.

Although a slow process, the code has finally been completely rewritten from scratch which has allowed version 2.0 to be released.

What Is Dodging And Burning?

For those not familiar with the process, Dodging and Burning is a technique originating in the black-and-white darkroom. Primarily it was needed to add interest to an image that might otherwise look “flat”. Typically, many black-and-white photographs would lack contrast and appear lifeless when printed. By Dodging and Burning it was possible to enhance the photos to make areas more prominent and features stand out.

By applying Dodging and Burning to selected areas of an image, you can lighten or darken them.  When we view a photograph, our brains work by subconsciously directing our eyes more toward light areas and away from the dark. Understanding this helps to direct our viewers’ attention unconsciously.