Burn (Darken)

Brush the Burn adjustment on an image

You use the Burn Quick Brush adjustment to darken a specific area of an image. For example, if you want to obscure a visual element in the shadows of the image without using the Levels or Curves adjustment to crush the blacks (changing the tonality of all shadows in the image), you use the Burn Quick Brush adjustment.

For information about Levels and Curves adjustments, see Adjust the levels of an image and Adjust the tonal curve of an image.

Figure. Image before and after a Burn Quick Brush adjustment.

Selectively darken an image

  1. Select a photo.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • In the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, choose Quick Brushes > Burn (Darken) from the Add Adjustment pop-up menu.

    • In the tool strip, choose Burn (Darken) from the Quick Brush pop-up menu .

    The Burn Brush HUD appears, and the Burn adjustment controls appear in the Adjustments inspector and the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, if both are shown.

  3. Specify the brush stroke settings using the controls in the Burn Brush HUD.

    For more information, see Apply Quick Brush adjustments and Work with brush strokes.

  4. Brush the adjustment on the area of the image you want to darken.

Modify the Burn adjustment after it has been applied to an image

  1. Select a photo with the Burn adjustment applied to it.

  2. In the Burn area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, use the Amount parameter controls to modify the strength of the adjustment.

    Figure. Controls in the Burn area of the Adjustments inspector.