Airbrushing in Photoshop

The Photoshop application is a useful tool introduced by the Adobe Corporation, that enables the user to change and alter the visual appearance of a photo on a computer. This application has become widely known in a very short time because of the convenience it provides. There are many other photo enhancement software available in the market, but none are as effective and beneficial as this one.

The Adobe Photoshop application is employed by millions of computer users around the globe to enhance the quality of their personal pictures. Moreover, it is also used by photography professionals and in almost all photo studios to alter and meliorate their customers' images in the desired way. It has certainly proven profitable for many graphic designing firms, as it can do almost anything under the sun, right from designing to editing. A graphic designer is well-aware of the many benefits this tool has over other graphic designing software.

What is Airbrush in Photoshop?

The paint section in the Photoshop application has four utilities, such as the airbrush, paintbrush, pencil tool, and the paint bucket. The airbrush is a very important utility that is well-suited for soft, smooth, delicate, and subtle editing. A graphic designer normally uses it for removing dark circles which are present beneath the eyes. He also uses it to enhance the quality and appearance of images to incorporate them in projects for making the graphics look bright and striking.

The airbrush utility works in a somewhat similar manner like Paintbrush does. The major difference between them is that the airbrush has a softer and smooth edge. For selecting the airbrush, you have to click on the 'tool', and choose the options which you need from the option bar, such as the brush size, shape and pattern. The brush pull-down menu which is on the option bar enables you to choose a new brush.

There is a facility of adding extra brushes by clicking on the circle button which has a black arrow. The button also provides the function of creating brushes, saving modified brushes, deleting brushes, renaming brushes, resetting brushes and some more utilities useful in airbrushing. You are required to choose an appropriate layer from the layer palette, which you would like to paint on. The airbrush is finally all ready to be used on a picture.

Adobe Photoshop Airbrushing

To carry out the airbrushing in Photoshop, you need to use a series of blurring filters and adjustments that remove the imperfections of the skin without giving the picture an artificial look. Before staring with the airbrushing, it is recommended to make a duplicate copy of the image which you want to airbrush. 'J' is the shortcut key for selecting the airbrush tool. You need not set it's opaqueness, instead you need to set the pressure. The higher you set the pressure the thicker the paint would be on the image. The airbrush is very useful for painting subtle shading and making specific highlights on the picture.

There are many airbrush settings and options available in Photoshop that you can use according to your preference. Many people consider airbrushing in Photoshop a complicated task, but with some practical experience on the utility, they can use it to the optimum.