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USING PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 8
Painting
Last updated 7/26/2011
More Help topics
“About brush options” on page 219
Smart Brush tools
The Detail Smart Brush tool automatically creates an adjustment layer as you paint. It doesn’t alter the original image
layer. You can paint and change the adjustments as many times as you want without degrading your original photo.
See
“Adjust color and tonality using the Smart Brush tools” on page 108.
Use the Smudge tool
The Smudge tool simulates the actions of dragging a finger through wet paint. The tool picks up color where the stroke
begins and pushes it in the direction you drag. You can smudge existing colors in your image, or smear foreground
color on the image.
Original image (left), and after smudging parts of the photo (right)
1 Select the Smudge tool in the toolbox. (If you don’t see it in the toolbox, select either the Blur tool or the
Sharpen tool , and then click the Smudge tool icon in the options bar.)
2 Set options in the options bar, and then drag within the image to smudge color.
To temporarily use the Finger Painting option as you drag with the smudge tool, press the Option key.
You can specify any of the following Smudge tool options:
Brushes Sets the brush tip. Click the arrow next to the brush sample, choose a brush category from the Brushes pop-up
menu, and then select a brush thumbnail.
Size Sets the size of the brush in pixels. Drag the Size pop-up slider or enter a size in the text box.
Mode Specifies how the paint that you apply blends with the existing pixels in the image. See “About blending modes”
on page 205 for more information.
Strength Sets the amount of the smudge effect.
Sample All Layers Smudges using color from all visible layers. If this option is deselected, the smudge tool uses colors
from only the active layer.
Finger Painting Smears the foreground color at the beginning of each stroke. If this option is deselected, the smudge
tool uses the color under the pointer at the beginning of each stroke.
