Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [24]
Figure 1.61 This shows the Bristle preview, which can be enabled by clicking on the button circled in Figure 1.62. It can be toggled in size, moved around the screen, or closed. The Brush preview can also be turned on or off via the View/Show menu (or use ). -clicking and -clicking also affect the angle of the brush seen in the preview.
Figure 1.62 The Bristle tip Brush panel options. The Bristles slider determines the density of the number of bristles within the current brush size. The Length determines the length of the bristles relative to the shape and size of the selected brush. The Thickness determines the thickness of each bristle. The Stiffness controls the stiffness or resistance of the bristles. The Angle slider determines the angle of the brush position - this isn't so relevant for pen tablet users, but more so if you are using a mouse. Lastly, the Spacing slider sets the spacing between each stamp of the brush stroke.
Dodge and burn tools
The dodge and burn tools were much improved in Photoshop CS4. However, you are still limited to working directly on the pixel data. If you do want to use the dodge and burn tools, I suggest you work on a copied pixel layer. Overall, I reckon you are better off using the Camera Raw adjustment tools to dodge and burn your images, or use the adjustment layers technique that is described in Chapter 5.
Tools for filling
The various shape tools, including the line tool, are really of most use to graphic designers who wish to create things like buttons or need to add vector shapes to a design layout. In Figure 1.63, you can see an example of how a filled, custom shape vector layer was placed above a pixel layer that had been filled with a gradient.
Figure 1.63 In this example I filled the background using the gradient tool in linear mode using the ‘Chrome’ preset. The sun was added as a custom shape layer filled with a solid pale yellow color, to which I added an outer glow layer style effect.
The paint bucket tool is another type of fill tool and is a bit like a combination of a magic wand selection combined with an Edit Fill using the foreground color. As much as I like to ignore the paint bucket, I can be proved wrong. Recently, photographer Stuart Weston showed me how he used the paint bucket tool to add small filled patches of color to a large composite fashion advertising image - I have to say, the final image did look very good.
Neutral Density Gradient Tool Preset
I should mention that in Photoshop CS5 there is now a new Linear gradient preset called ‘Neutral Density’. This uses a 60% opacity black to transparent with a Normal blend mode. You could use this to add a darkening gradient to the top of an image, but a darkening image adjustment masked by a linear gradient is still a more effective solution.
The gradient tool will certainly be of interest to photographers. For example, you can use the Adjustment layer menu to add gradient fill layers to an image. Gradient fill layers can be applied in this way to create gradient filter type effects. However, you will also find that the gradient tool comes in use when you want to edit the contents of a layer mask. For example, you can add a black to white gradient to a layer mask to apply a graduated fade to the opacity of a layer.
Tools for drawing
If you want to become a really good retoucher, then you are at some stage going to have to bite the bullet and learn how to use the pen tools. The selection tools are fine for making approximate selections, but whenever you need to create precision selections or masks the pen tools are essential, as I have shown below in Figure 1.64.
Figure 1.64 If you need to isolate an object and create a cut-out like the one shown here, the only way to do this is by using the pen and pen modifier tools to first draw a path outline. You see, with a photograph like this, there is very little color differentiation between the object