The blur, sharpen and smudge tools.

The Blur, smudge and sharpen tools

The blur and sharpen tools are referred to as the “focus” tools since they work to harden, or soften edges within an image. The smudge tool is for special effects, or just having fun.

I often use the blur tool to smooth over uneven transition areas after retouching, or to reduce unwanted spots in areas that don’t offer a good sampling location for the clone stamp.

To use the blur tool, select it in the toolbar, set desired values and settings in its options palette [see below], choose a brush from the pop-up palette in the options bar, and then drag in the image over the area you wish to soften. Be aware that blurring occurs even when the cursor is not moving, as long as the mouse button is held down. The speed of the effect is determined by the Pressure setting in the tool’s options bar.

If you choose Edit > Fade immediately after using this tool, you can change the opacity of the strokes you have just applied.

A shortcut for changing brush sizes while using any of these tools is to press the left bracket [ to decrease brush size, and the right bracket ] to choose a larger brush..

When editing an image with any tool that uses brushes, you can right click on the image and the brushes pop-up palette will appear right next to your cursor.

The sharpen tool works by increasing contrast at distinct edges. Be aware that this will cause you to lose detail at the top and bottom of the brightness scale (very light, and very dark areas) when sharpening. The Luminosity setting in the blend mode menu can be useful to avoid color shifts or halos when sharpening.

To use the sharpen tool, select it in the toolbar, set desired values and settings in its options bar [see below], choose a brush from the options bar pop-up palette, and then drag in the image over the area you wish to sharpen. Be aware that sharpening occurs even when the cursor is not moving, as long as the mouse button is held down. The speed of the effect is determined by the setting in the Pressure box at the top of the options palette.

The smudge tool is supposed to simulate finger painting. Color is displaced, or ‘smudged’ from the place where the pointer is clicked. It is moved in the direction the cursor is dragged. How far the initial color is moved depends on the setting in the Pressure box in the tool’s options bar.

• Marquee tool
• Move tool
• Lasso tool
• Magic wand tool
• Crop tool
• Slice tool
• Airbrush tool
• Paintbrush and Pencil tools
• Stamp tool
• History Brush
• Eraser tool
• Gradient and bucket
• Blur, sharpen, smudge
• Dodge, burn, sponge
• Path tool
• Text tool
• Pen and anchor
• Shape and line
• Notes tool
• Eyedropper, measure
• Hand tool
• Zoom tool
• Color Picker
• Mode tools

Photoshop Tutorials

	Creating spooky text - 6+7
	Creating 3d Text - 6.0
	Creating Engraved text - 6.0
	Working with colormasks - 6.0
	Using the quick mask tool - 6.0
	Creating perfect rounded edges - 6.0
	Slicing a graphical interface - 6.0
	Creating torn and burnt images - 6.0
	Creating realistic wires - 6.0