Adobe Photoshop Background Eraser Tool

Use the Background Eraser tool when you are working on a layer to erase pixels to transparency. You can set tolerance and sampling values to control the level of transparency and the sharpness of its boundary edges.


The Background Eraser cursor displays a crosshair at the centre of the brush cursor. This indicates the tool’s ‘hotspot’ – the point at which the tool’s settings have the greatest effect.

1. To erase pixels on a layer, select a layer on which you want to work.

2. Select the Background Eraser tool to show its options in the Options bar. Select a brush from the Brush Presets Picker.


3. Choose Contiguous from the Limits pop-up menu to remove adjacent pixels that fall within the tolerance setting. (Discontiguous erases pixels throughout the image. Find Edges preserves sharp edges along objects).

4. Set a Tolerance value (using the Tolerance field), or drag the Tolerance slider (accessed from the Tolerance pop-up). Set a low Tolerance value to limit the effect to pixels that are very similar in colour value to pixels at the ‘hotspot’. Set a high Tolerance value to erase a broader range of similar colours.


5. Choose a Sampling option. Select Continuous to erase all colours that you drag the Background Eraser tool across. Select Once to erase pixels that are the same colour as the pixels on which you first click . this is useful when you want to erase areas of solid colour. Select Background Swatch only if you want to erase areas containing the currently set background colour.

6. Select the Protect Foreground Color if you want to prevent the tool from erasing any pixels that match the currently set foreground colour.


7. Choose a Brush size from the Brushes palette.

8. Position your cursor on a layer, then click or drag to erase pixels on the layer to transparency, based on the settings you have chosen.

Adobe Photoshop Magic Eraser

Use the Magic Eraser tool to erase pixels on a layer to transparency. The Magic eraser works best when you want to remove the background pixels around a hard-edged object. The Magic Eraser tool erases pixels based on a tolerance level, similar to the way in which the Magic Wand works.

1. To use the Magic Eraser Tool, first select the layer on which you want to work. Select the Magic Eraser tool to show the Magic Eraser options in the Options Bar. Enter a Tolerance value. Set a low Tolerance value to erase pixels that are very similar in colour value to the pixel on which you first click. Set a high Tolerance value to select a wider range of pixels.


2. Set an Opacity value of 100% to erase pixels completely. Set a lower Opacity value to create a partially transparent effect. Select the Anti-aliased option to create a smoother edge when pixels are erased.

3. Select Contiguous to erase only pixels that fall within the Tolerance value specified, and that are adjacent to each other. This option erases continuous areas of pixels, Deselect Contiguous if you want the Magic Eraser to erase all pixels that fall within the Tolerance value anywhere in the image.



4. Position the Cursor, then click to erase pixels that fall within the Tolerance value.

Adobe Photoshop Eraser Tool

Use the Eraser tool to erase portions of your image. The Eraser rubs out to the background colour when you are working on the Background layer. It eraser to transparency when you are working on any other layer, provided that the Transparency Lock option is not selected in the Layers palette.

1. To erase areas of your image, select the Eraser tool(E) to show Eraser options in the Options Bar. Use the bar to specify Mode. Opacity , Flow, Airbrush and Erase to History options.



2. Click and drag on your image to erase to the background colour or transparency, depending on the layer on which you are working.

Opacity
Use the Opacity setting to create the effect of partially erasing pixels.

Mode

Use the Erasing Mode pop-up to choose an erase mode. The default is Brush. Block is useful when you need to erase along straight edges. The Block eraser is a fixed-size square.

Erase to History
Use the Erase to History option on return pixels to their status at a particular state in the History palette. Click in the History Brush column in the History Palette to set the state to which the Erase to History option returns pixels.

The Dodge, Burn and Sponge Tools

The Dodge, Burn, Saturate/Desaturate group of tools are sometimes referred to as the ‘toning’ tools. The Dodge and Burn tools are based on the traditional photographic technique of decreasing the amount of exposure given to a specific area on a print to lighten it (dodging), or increasing the exposure to darken areas (burning-in).

The Dodge Tool
Use the Dodge tool to lighten pixels in your image.
1. To lighten areas of an image, select the Dodge tool. Remember to choose an appropriate brush size. A soft-edged brush usually creates the smoothest result. If the Options Bar is not showing, you can double-click the Dodge tool to show it.



2. Set the Range pop-up menu to Midtones, Shadows or Highlights to limit changes to the middle range of greys, the dark or light areas of the image respectively, and also set Exposure to control the intensity of the tool.
3. Position your cursor on the image, then click and drag to lighten the pixels. Release the mouse then drag across the pixels again to intensify the effect.

The Burn Tool
Use the Burn tool to darken pixels in your image.
1. To darken areas of an image, select the Burn tool, Remember to choose an appropriate brush size. A soft-edged brush usually creates the smoother result.

2. Set the Range pop-up to Midtones, Shadows or Highlights to limit changes to the middle range of greys, the dark or light areas of the image respectively, and also set Exposure.
3. Position your cursor on the image, then click and drag to darken the pixels. Release the mouse then drag across the pixels again to intensify the effect.

The Sponge Tool
You can use the Sponge tool when you want to subtly increase or decrease colour saturation in areas of your image.
1. To saturate/desaturate areas of an image, select the Sponge tool. Remember to select an appropriate brush size.

2. Set the Mode pop-up to Saturate or Desaturate and apply a Flow setting.
3. Position your cursor on the image, then click and drag to alter the saturation.

Adobe Photoshop Clone Stamp Tool

You can use the Clone Stamp tool to retouch an image by cloning or duplicating areas of it. This is very useful when you want to remove blemishes and scratches.

1. To clone an area of your image, select the Clone Stamp tool. Set an appropriate brush size using the Brushes pop-up palette in the Options Bar. Make sure that the Aligned option is selected.

2. Hold down Alt and click on the part of the image you want to clone.

3. Release Alt, Move the cursor to a different image part, then click and drag. The pixels in the image where you drag are replaced by pixels cloned from the spot where you first clicked. A crosshair at the point where you first clicked indicates the pixels that are being cloned – the source point.



Clone – Aligned
With Aligned selected, the distance from the source point (shown by the crosshair) to the Clone Stamp cursor remains fixed. When you can release the mouse, move the cursor, then continue to use the Clone Stamp tool; the relative position of the source point and the Rubber Stamp cursor remains constant, but you will now clone pixels from a different part of the image.

Clone – Non-aligned
With the Aligned option off, the source point – where you first click – remains the same. If you stop dragging with the Clone Stamp cursor, move to a different part of the image, then start dragging again, the pixels you clone continue to come from the original source point.

Adobe Photoshop Blur, Sharpen & Smudge Tools

The Blur Tool
The Blur and Sharpen tools are the two ‘focus’ tools. The Blur tool works by reducing contrast between pixels and can be useful for disguising unwanted, jagged edges and softening edges between shapes.

1. To blur areas of your image, select the blur tool. If the blur Options Bar is not showing, you can double – click the blur tool to show it.

2. Set the Blend mode, Strength and Use All Layers Options, position your cursor on the image, then click and drag to blur the pixels. Release the mouse then drag across the pixels again to intensify the effect.

The Sharpen Tool
The Sharpen tool works by increasing the contrast between pixels.
1. To Sharpen areas of an image, select the Sharpen tool, Use the Options Bar to create the settings you want to use.

2. Position your cursor, then click and drag to sharpen the pixels. Click and drag across the same area of the image again, to intensify the sharpening effect. You will produce a coarse, grainy effect if you overuse the Sharpen tool, Use a low Strength setting and build up the effect gradually.

The Smudge Tool
You can use the Smudge tool to create an effect similar to dragging your finger through wet paint. The Smudge tool picks up colour from where you start to drag and smears it into adjacent colours.

1. Select the Smudge tool. Set the Pressure, position your cursor on the image, then start to drag across your image to smudge the colours. The higher the Strength setting, the more pronounced the effect.
2. Select the Finger Painting option if you want to begin the smudge with the current foreground colour.
3. Select the Use All Layers option if you want to smudge colours from other layers in the image onto the layer you are working on. Leave this option deselected if you want the smudge to pick up colour from pixels on the active or target layer only.

Use All Layers
Select this option when you want Photoshop to take into account, or ‘sample’, pixels from layers other than the target layer. In other words, it samples from layers as if they were merged.

Adobe Photoshop Editing Tools

The editing tools – Blur and sharpen, Smudge, Clone and Pattern Stamp, Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Eraser, Healing Brush and Patch – allow you to edit or change pixels in a variety of ways.

The editing tools can be used within a selection or anywhere on an image. Use the Brush Preset Picker to specify a brush size for the editing tool. Many of the techniques and keyboard shortcuts covered for the painting tools apply to the editing tools as well.

Covers

The Blur, Sharpen & Smudge Tools
The Clone Stamp Tool
The Dodge, Burn and Sponge Tools
The Eraser Tool
The Magic Eraser
The Background Eraser Tool
The Healing Brush Tool
The Patch Tool

Creating Rasterised Shapes

A rasterised shape is a shape comprised of pixels. It is not based on a vector path and cannot be edited in the same way as a shape layer.


1. To create rasterised shape, select a layer, or create a new layer. Select a foreground colour for the shape.

2. Select either the Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Line, Polygon or Custom Shape Tool.


3. Select the fill pixels button in the Option Bar.







4. Position your cursor in the image window. Drag diagonally to define the size of the shape. The shape appears in the window. It does not automatically create a new layer. A rasterised shape Is the equivalent of creating a selection, then filling it with a colour.


5. For the Polygon tool, you can set a number of sides for the shape in the Options Bar. Click on the settings POP-UP triangle to access further controls for creating polygons or stars.

The Polygon tool and the Custom Shape tools are not available in Image Ready

Brush Preset Tools

Create a brush tool preset when you have created custom brush settings that you want to be able to reuse, without having to first recreate the custom settings.

1. To create a Brush tool preset, select the Brush Tool, then use the Brush palette to create custom settings for the brush.

2. Choose Window > Tool Presets, to show the Tool Presets palette if it is not already showing.

3. Choose New Tool Preset from the pop-up menu in the palette. Enter a name for the tool preset in the New Tool Preset dialogue box.

4. To access the new tool preset, make sure you have the Brush tool selected, then click the Brush tool presets triangle in the Options Bar. Click on the tool preset in the drop-down list.

"A tool preset allows you to save custom brush settings so that you can access them quickly and easily, whenever you need to, without having to first recreate the settings."