Adobe PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS Manual page 143

If a brush is too large to fit in the palette, it appears
as a smaller brush with a number indicating the
actual diameter in pixels.
Specify a blending mode and pressure.
3
(See "Setting options for painting and editing
tools" on page 147.)
Select Use All Layers to smudge using color data
4
from all visible layers. If this is deselected, the
smudge tool uses colors from only the active layer.
Select Finger Painting to smudge using the
5
foreground color at the beginning of each stroke.
If this is deselected, the smudge tool uses the color
under the pointer at the beginning of each stroke.
If you are using a pressure-sensitive drawing
6
tablet, specify the effects of stylus pressure.
(See "Specifying the effect of stylus pressure" on
page 149.)
Drag in the image to smudge color.
7
Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) as
you drag with the smudge tool to use the Finger
Painting option.
Using the focus tools
The focus tools consist of the blur tool and the
sharpen tool. The blur tool softens hard edges or
areas in an image to reduce detail. The sharpen
tool focuses soft edges to increase clarity or focus.
For information on other ways to adjust
sharpness, see "Sharpening images" on page 98
and "Improving performance with filters" on
page 193.
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
To use the blur or sharpen tool:
Select the blur tool ( ) or sharpen tool ( ).
1
Choose a brush size from the pop-up palette in
2
the options bar. To learn more about using pop-up
palettes, see "Using pop-up palettes" on page 35.
If a brush is too large to fit in the palette, it appears
as a smaller brush with a number indicating the
actual diameter in pixels.
Specify a blending mode and pressure.
3
(See "Setting options for painting and editing
tools" on page 147.)
Select Use All Layers to blur or sharpen using
4
data from all visible layers. If this is deselected, the
tool uses data from only the active layer.
If you are using a pressure-sensitive drawing
5
tablet, specify the effects of stylus pressure.
(See "Specifying the effect of stylus pressure" on
page 149.)
6 Click and drag over the part of the image you
want to blur or sharpen.
Using the toning tools
The toning tools consist of the dodge tool and the
burn tool. Used to lighten or darken areas of the
image, the dodge and burn tools are based on a
traditional photographer's technique for
regulating exposure on specific areas of a print.
Photographers hold back light to lighten an area
on the print (dodging) or increase the exposure to
darken areas on a print (burning).
135
User Guide