Nondestructively adjusting the exposure in certain areas of your image can be a very beneficial technique to use.

You create a 50% gray layer with a blending mode like Soft Light. Then with the Brush tool on a lower Opacity, paint in the Burns and Dodge with Grays and Blacks.

Step 1. Create a new layer on your document and go to Edit/Fill. Use a setting of %50 Gray.

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Step 2. Set the Layer Mode to Soft Light.

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Step 3. Select a large Brush and lower the Opacity to about %20. With Black selected as your Foreground color begin to paint in your Burning, the areas you would like darker.

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Step 4. Select White as your Foreground color and paint in the area you would like Dodged in your image, this will lighten up the areas.

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Step 5. To return certain areas back to the original exposure select the same %50 gray and paint.

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You can now easily hide the layer or delete it entirely without any damage to your original image.

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