Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

Page of 296
149
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
User Guide
Specifying opacity, pressure, or exposure
You can specify opacity, pressure, or exposure for 
a variety of tools: 
Opacity is used by the gradient fill, pencil, paint-
brush, clone stamp, pattern stamp, and impres-
sionist brush tools.
Pressure of action is applied by the airbrush, 
smudge, blur, sharpen, and sponge tools.
Amount of exposure is used by the dodge and 
burn tools.
To specify opacity, pressure, or exposure:
Enter a value, or drag the slider for Opacity, 
Pressure, or Exposure in the options bar.
Opacity, pressure, or exposure can range from 1% 
to 100%. For transparent paint or a weak effect, 
specify a low percentage value; for more opaque 
paint or a strong effect, specify a high value. 
If you have selected a tool without an opacity 
option in its options bar, press a number key to 
set the opacity in multiples of 10% (pressing 1 sets to 
10%, pressing 0 sets to 100%). 
Specifying the effect of stylus pressure 
Photoshop Elements is compatible with most 
pressure-sensitive digitizing tablets such as the 
Wacom
®
 tablets. With Control Panel software for 
your tablet installed, you can specify the type of 
effect that results when you vary stylus pressure. 
These stylus pressure options affect the magnetic 
lasso, magnetic pen, pencil, paintbrush, airbrush, 
eraser, clone stamp, pattern stamp, impressionist 
brush, smudge, blur, sharpen, dodge, burn, and 
sponge tools. 
To specify the effect of stylus pressure:
Click the Brush Dynamics button (
) in the 
options bar, and choose Stylus for each of the 
options you want to set:
Size to have increased pressure create a broader 
brush stroke.
Opacity/Pressure to have increased pressure 
make the paint more opaque or more intense.
Color if you want light pressure to paint with the 
background color, making a transition to the 
foreground color as the pressure increases. (This 
option is only available when using a tool that 
supports color.)
Note: If the highest pressure of your stylus does not 
reach 100%, contact your tablet vendor. This 
problem is caused by the driver software, not 
Photoshop Elements.
Specifying a paint fade-out rate 
If you don’t have a stylus, you can still simulate 
actual brush strokes by setting the rates at which 
most of the drawing and painting tools fade out 
from their beginning strokes. You can specify 
which options dynamically change over the course 
of a brush stroke: opacity, size, and color can all be 
individually set.