153. Soften Selected Details Before You Begin  148 About Sharpness
See Also  149 Sharpen an Image
151 Blur a Background to Create Depth of Field 152 Create a Spin Effect
If you want to soften specific details in your image so that they are not so obvious, you can do so with the Smudge tool. This tool absorbs colors from the point where you first touch it to the image and paints copies of those colors it absorbs as you apply the brushstroke. The tool continually absorbs new samples and applies those samples again as the stroke continues. The result is a smudge effect, as though your image were made of liquid pixels and you were dragging a cotton swab over it. You select the settings for the Smudge tool on the Options bar. You can select any brush style or size. Typically, you select a brush size that matches the area of the image you want to smudge. You can also specify a blend mode for the smudge effect. See 111 About Tool Options for more information on setting brush styles, sizes, and blend modes. 1. | Choose Smudge Tool
Open the image you want to adjust in the Editor in Standard Edit mode and save it in Photoshop (*.psd) format. If there's more than one layer in the image, choose the layer containing the contents you intend to smudge from the Layers palette. To protect any parts of the image you don't want to smudge, select the region containing the spot you want to correct.
NOTE  | The Smudge tool shares the same location on the Toolbox as the Blur and Sharpen tools. If you do not see the Smudge tool, click the Blur or Sharpen tool and then select the Smudge tool from the Options bar. |
From the Toolbox, click the Smudge tool.
| 2. | Set Tool Options
Specify the settings for the Smudge tool on the Options bar. From the Presets list, choose a brush tip. Elsewhere on the Options bar, you can select the tool's size, blend mode, and strength. See 111 About Tool Options for more information. The blend mode determines how the colors in the pixels are blended together when you use the Smudge tool. Typically, the Normal mode works best when softening details in an image.
TIP  | If you want to add the foreground color to your smudge, enable the Finger Painting check box. The foreground color (as specified in the swatch at the bottom of the Toolbox) will be blended into the image as you use the Smudge tool. |
Typically, you want to keep the Strength of the smudge at around 50% so that the pixels will blend evenly to create a soft effect. You can adjust the strength by typing a value in the Strength field or by adjusting the slider.
 | 3. | Soften Details
Begin applying the tool by clicking and holding the mouse button where you want to start smudging. For a pen tablet, position the pointer by hovering the pen, and then tap and hold the pen where you want the stroke to begin.
To draw a freehand stroke, continue holding the button down as you drag the mouse. The mark you draw follows your pointer. As you draw, the Smudge tool continually resamples content from the layer directly beneath it, or from the merged content of all layers if the Use All Layers option is enabled.
To draw a straight horizontal or vertical line, press Shift now, and continue dragging the mouse. The Editor senses whether you intend for the line to move up, right, left, or down by the general direction in which you're moving the mouseit doesn't have to be exact.
To draw a straight line between points, release the mouse button. For a pen tablet, lift the pen. Move the pointer to where you want the end of the line to appear. Press Shift, and then click this point. The line will be an application of the tool over the distance between the start and end points, relative to the tool's current Strength setting. You can continue drawing from hereeither a freehand mark or another straight line segment.
TIP | To change brush tips for the Smudge tool at any time, right-click the image. The Brush Presets palette appears. Choose a new tip from the Brushes list, and then click the X button to dismiss the palette. |
| 4. | View the Result
When you're satisfied with the result, make any other changes you want and save the PSD file. Then resave the result in JPEG or TIFF format, leaving your PSD image with its layers intact so that you can return at a later time to make new adjustments.
It's enough that I have fewer hairs of my own these days without having to spend time going over my publicity photos to remove even more of it. ("Hairs," I've noted, is the only word in the English language where by using it in the plural, you imply fewer of them rather than more.) But here, alas, I have a stray hair. So, I smudge it out of existence with the Smudge tool.
The trick is to sample parts of the forehead and smudge them over to one side to cover up the hair. If I had applied all my strokes in one direction, I'd end up basically moving my hair to one side. So, I applied several very small strokes in varying directions. I use a soft, narrow brush tip because I don't want to obviously copy forehead patternsthe result will look too obvious…well, like a comb-over, and I already have one of those. In a moment, the unwanted hair is removed. (And all for three conveniently low, easy payments….)
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TIP | Repeated applications of the Smudge tool starting at the same point on an image results in the creation of a solid area of color. In an image of a person's face, this result could be confused with a sore or blemish. |
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