Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

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ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
User Guide
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.
3
Specify a blending mode and pressure. 
4
Select Use All Layers to smudge using color data 
from all visible layers. If this is deselected, the 
smudge tool uses colors from only the active layer.
5
Select Finger Painting to smudge using the 
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.
6
If you are using a pressure-sensitive drawing 
tablet, specify the effects of stylus pressure. 
(See “Specifying the effect of stylus pressure” on 
page 149.)
7
Drag in the image to smudge color.
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.
To use the blur or sharpen tool:
1
Select the blur tool ( ) or sharpen tool ( ). 
2
Choose a brush size from the pop-up palette in 
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.
3
Specify a blending mode and pressure. 
4
Select Use All Layers to blur or sharpen using 
data from all visible layers. If this is deselected, the 
tool uses data from only the active layer.
5
If you are using a pressure-sensitive drawing 
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).