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Make it Real With the Photoshop Blur Tool!What is the Photoshop blur tool?Well, after you get used to knowing what you can do in the brush tool, the dodge tool, the eraser tool, and the layers box, the next thing you should need to know is the Photoshop blur tool. It is these sets of tools that will help you blend colors together, create environments, as well as creating depth through small control changes on your painting. Just think of it as how artists use their actual hands, in conjunction to the brushes, to create amazing blending effects. 1. Locating the Photoshop blur toolJust underneath the eraser tool is the Photoshop blur tool. If you click on it, you will get three individual tools: the blur tool, the sharpen tool, and the smudge tool. Let’s focus on the blur tool first of all.
The icon looks pretty much like a raindrop! So how would you use this tool? It’s just like the basic brush tool. You first select the brush type, size, and pressure, and then you go over the areas that need to be blurred. Simple, right? Not if you don’t know what areas need to be blurred! So how would you figure that out? Through logical thinking, of course! Just think about how your eyes work in general. What you can do is to take a simple coffee cup (not to focus on it) and move it in and out of your field of vision. What happens? When the cup is close to you, it gets blurry. When it’s far apart, it gets clearer. But do you know what? If it goes even further from you, to a range of a few meters, it gets blurry again. Now, I want you to do the same thing. This time, I want you to focus on the cup. Move it closer to you. You will discover that the cut is still clear when it’s that close to you. Moreover, the background becomes completely blurred out. Congratulations! You have already begun learning how to compose a digital painting. Just by knowing how your eyes work, you can paint a composition based on what you think is important, which translates to allowing the viewer to see things from your perspective! Plus, you now have the bur tool to help you achieve this goal. 2. Know the menu options available!Now, when you click on the Photoshop blur tool, the following options appear. You can, of course, choose the size and type of the brush, the amount of pressure, or strength, rate that you want to blur your pictures, as well as the available blending modes.
But I want you to forget about the blending modes. Just keep it on normal. Why? It is because these options are supplemented by the dodge and burn tools as well as the brush tool. Moreover, it can get unpredictable as all you want to do is create depth and not color changes! Again, play around with the Photoshop blur tool options on photos or any available images on your computer. Use it on the background of these images. It doesn’t have to be perfect as the object is to feel comfortable with creating depth. 3. Use the sharpen tool to bring things out!As you may notice, right underneath the Photoshop blur tool is the sharpen tool. Essentially, you will use this tool to bring objects closer to you. When you click on this tool, you get the same options available in the blur tool.Again, don’t worry about the blend modes! Keep it on normal. If an object is closer to you, it is clearer than objects in the background. For example, the laptop that I am typing this article on is clearer than anything else because it is the center of attention. What I notice is that the edges of the laptop are very clear. Therefore, I need to use the sharpen tool on the edges of the laptop, if it was a photograph of my desk, and bring it out of the background while blurring everything around it. I can also sharpen the keys so it brings out the laptop even more. The optimal situation for using the sharpen tool is on a single layer with its own object inside. For instance, you can create a layer called circle with a drawn circle inside. Then, you can use the sharpen tool to sharpen the edges without affecting the background! Give it a shot! 4. The smudge tool puts colors together!While the Photoshop blur tool and the smudge tool are important for creating depth between layers, the smudge tool is king for blending colors together to create depth. For every object, there is always a shadow and highlight to them. Because of this, no real object has one pure color when drawing. A white ball is never completely white since you have light acting on it to create depth. However, the colors associated with bringing that white ball to life, which are the various shades of grey from the shadows, are blended in so well that it integrates seamlessly to different shades of grey without you noticing it. Here’s what you can do to utilize the smudge tool. Click on the smudge tool. The same options of the blur tool will appear with the smudge tool. You first, paint a deep color on the palette using the brush tool, and then paint over it with another color of your choice that is similar to that color. Obviously, the colors don’t blend in well with each other regardless of how close the colors are. But you can use the smudge tool to blend the two colors together very nicely. The lower the pressure sensitivity, or strength, is on the smudge tool, the better it’ll blend. Just think of the smudge tool as how artists draw in real life. They draw using a pencil, and then they use their fingers to smudge things out as a means to blend things together to create depth! Hence, the smudge tool is your digital fingers at work! Based on this analogy, you can see how important the smudge tool is! Play around with it until you get tired of the Photoshop blur, sharpen, and smudge tool, but always stay motivated to continue your learning!
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