Youll use the painting tools to edit a picture. PhotoShop comes with a bunch of cool tools to help you remove, accentuate, soften, or change parts of an image. You can eradicate dark circles under someones eyes, or add hair to a receding hairline. You can add make-up, or carefully change just about anything you can think of in an image.

Remember that when you are painting or erasing on an image, youre not actually adding or removing pixels. Youre simply changing the color of pre-existing pixels.

Youll do well to keep in mind that images are much easier worked on if you zoom in!

When should I paint, When should I fill?

The painting tools are designed for affecting small area and image re-touching. If you try to paint a large area with any of the painting tools, youll usually get streaky, unhappy results. Youre better off making a selection and using EDIT-> FILL.

Using New View to Help You Check Your Work

Editing is much easier when youre zoomed way in. Unfortunately, its not always easy to see how the actual size image is affected when youre looking at a bunch of dots. Youll end up zooming in, fixing something, zooming out, checking your work, and zooming back in againa lot.

PhotoShop allows you to open another copy of the same image. You can zoom all the way in on one and leave the other at actual size. Changes made on one image will reflect on the other. Youll have the best of both worlds; youll be able to edit by pixel, and watch your changes at actual size.

To open a new view:

1.      Click VIEW-> NEW VIEW

2.      Position both images so you can see them.

3.      Zoom in and work on one image. Your changes will be reflected in both images.

You do not have to save both images separately. Theyre the same image.

The Paintbrush

The paintbrush tool is probably the most used of the painting tools.

Youll need to choose a brush from the Brushes Palette.

Youll need to choose a color to paint with.

Youll need to go crazy adding color and details to images.

You'll need to pay less attention to your wacky web design course teacher.

Opacity

If you draw on a photograph with 100% opacity, itll look like you used a felt-tip marker on the image. Youre going for realism, here. The Paintbrush acts like a normal paintbrush, the more you paint in one place, the more paint youll get.

1.      Make sure you have the paintbrush tool selected . Choose a medium sized brush.

2.      Draw a line on the image

3.      Adjust the opacity on the options palette.

4.      Draw another line.

Big difference!

Painting on Color Photos

Normally, when you paint with the paintbrush, you lay a uniform amount of paint, regardless of shadows, colors and textures. Sometimes this can lead to unnatural looking edits.

Many painting tools have different modes that you can use depending on what youre working with. The most useful painting mode for editing is Multiply.

Multiply mode pays attention to what its painting on. If youre painting on a light color, multiply makes sure that the brush lays down a lighter shade of the color youre painting with. If youre painting on a dark color, multiply lays a darker shade of your chosen color. Shadows are darker than highlights, and your edits look much more natural. Multiply mode leaves no color on pure black areas. It assumes that pure black is an intense shadow, and should not be colored.

When editing a color photograph it is almost always better to use the multiply mode.

Amuse yourself by painting make-up on Emily.

The Paintbrush vs. the Pencil

At first, the Paintbrush and the Pencil tool look very similar. They are similar, actually, except for one difference. The Paintbrush paints soft lines by slightly overlapping neighboring pixels. The Pencil only paints on the desired pixel. Usually, the Paintbrush does a better job editing photographs, while the Pencil is more adept at line art.

The following image is a one-pixel click with the Paintbrush and the Pencil at 100% opacity.

The Line Tool

The Line Tool is found under the Pencil on the toolbox. It draws well, lines. Hold SHIFT while drawing to constrain the line tool to 45 degree angles.

You can also use the line tool to draw arrows.

The Airbrush Tool

The airbrush tool simulates an airbrush. It is useful for soft, delicate lines and subtle editing. Artists that have used a real airbrush will be delighted with this tool, as many of the same characteristics have been retained. The longer you hold on one spot, the darker it gets. The faster you move across the canvas, the lighter the paint is.

Using the Airbrush Tool to Remove Dark Circles From Under Eyes

Every single person in every single image has dark circles under their eyes. Doesnt matter how well rested you are. Dark circles are pretty easy to get rid of using the airbrush tool.

1.      Zoom in on an eye.

2.      Open a new view (VIEW-> NEW VIEW). This will help you edit your work.

3.      Use the Eyedropper Tool to choose a light color from your subjects skin.
By using a color from the same persons skin, youll get a much better result.

4.      Select the Airbrush Tool .

5.      On the Airbrush Tool Options, set the Pressure to a very low number, like 6%.

Lighter skinned people will use less pressure. Its better to start with too little pressure and work your way up.

6.      Choose a brush. Make sure that the brush you choose is smaller than the area that you want to effect.

7.      Holding the mouse button down, slowly drag over the areas you want to lighten. Go slower over darker areas.

Isnt she the cutest?

You can also use the Eraser tool to lessen the appearance of wrinkles, if thats the kind of thing you want to do

The Eraser Tool

The Eraser Tool erases a layer, allowing you to see the layer beneath. If you try to erase on a background layer youll paint with your selected background color.

The Smudge Tool

The Smudge Tool allows you to push parts of an image around. It works like you are smearing paint with your finger.

The Smudge tool is found on the Toolbox.

Using the Smudge Tool to Add a Smile

Nice picture, but you forgot to smile. By using the smudge too to add a very subtle up-turn to the edges of a mouth, you can add a smile where there wasnt one! Select a small brush and only push up on the corner of the lips.

Heres what youll get:

What a cute baby!

The Paint Bucket

When you click with the Paint Bucket, you apply a whole bunch of paint. The paint bucket works like the magic wand. It applies paint to like colors. Unless youre just changing the color of a big solid object, youre most often better off selecting the desired object with the selection tools and filling by choosing EDIT-> FILL

The Rubber Stamp Tool

The Rubber Stamp tool is super-mega-cool. You can use it to totally remove objects from an image like they were never there. You can use it to duplicate or move items in an image.

The Rubber Stamp Tool works by copying part of the image to a different part. In the following image, I copied water over the small boat:

To use the Rubber Stamp:

1. Select the Rubber Stamp Tool
2. ALT + CLICK the area that you want to copy (not the area you want to copy to)
   If you forget to alt + click, the rubber stamp wont work.
3. Drag over the area you want to copy to.

Notice that when you paint a small cross hair moves in the area youre copying from.

The Rubber Stamp works much better if you click and drag instead of click-click-clicking.

If you click and drag so that the crosshair moves across your newly painted area itll start copying what used to be there. How annoying. Simply release the mouse button and re-click to stop this from happening.

You can also use the rubber stamp for facial editing, but youll have to crank the opacity down.

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