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The Photoshop Eyedropper Tool: Get the Right Colors!When you paint digitally, you will be switching between the Photoshop eyedropper tool and the Photoshop brush tool very often. This is because the palette that you will be using will not contain all the colors that you need.On top of that, it’s a hassle to always go back to the palette to find a color and then switch back to the brush tool to use that color. This is why the Photoshop eyedropper tool is so important because it allows you to quickly reference the needed colors for you to focus on painting! So, where can we find this tool? 1. Locating the Photoshop eyedropperNear the bottom right of the toolbar, you will find a tool that looks exactly like an eyedropper. As soon as you click on it, your tool icon will change to the Photoshop eyedropper.
Now, as soon as you hold the icon, you will also notice there are two additional tools to use: the color sample tool and the measure tool. The color sample tool is easy enough as it lets you reference specific points on a painting where a color you need is located. You can reference up to four points. This is convenient if you’re usually using a range of color that you want to reference on the painting itself. As for the measure tool, just think of it as a virtual ruler to measure specific lengths of a line. 2. The Photoshop eyedropper optionsAs soon as you select the eyedropper, you will get only one option to choose from: the sample size.
Normally, I would use just point to point. What this means that it will change the main foreground color on your toolbox to the color that you have referenced. For example, if you choose red and then you select the eyedropper tool to select blue, then the red foreground color on the toolbar will change to blue. What you would need to know is when to use the 3 by 3 average and the 5 x 5 average. Basically, when you view a picture that has a range of colors in one point, like a scanned photograph, you will notice something called noise. The noise consists of different colors in one point. With the point to point sample, you can only sample one color point. That means you will get an exact color of that area but won’t get the needed color of that area. To do that, you will need to sample the area with the other options. This will provide you with an ‘average’ of the color you need. The larger the sample point, the more accurate the color will be! 3. Understanding digital color behaviorsAs you start painting, the range of colors that will appear on your digital canvas is dependent on how much pressure you put on the brush tool and how many times it goes over the same area.You can experiment a bit. Try this: choose a color, set your brush pressure to around 25 percent, and then color with it. Go over certain areas as you release your brush and repaint the areas. The colors that become painted vary because the colors will build up on each other as you paint and repaint the areas. Eventually, they will reach the exact color that you have chosen on your palette.
The important key concept here is to notice the range of colors that can be displayed just from using one color and your digital pen settings! What does this mean? Well, what happens when you want the colors to be more uniform? You can, of course, select colors in the palette that you think will match. However, it may not be accurate at all. There’s just too many for the palette to list! 4. Use the Photoshop eyedropper!When that happens, then you need to use the Photoshop eyedropper to apply the needed colors. Obviously, it will by time consuming to switch between the brush tool and the eyedropper tool. This lesson will teach you the importance of doing multiple things quickly. Normally, most digital art programs will allow you to switch between tools with the push of a single button. There are three keys worth noting on a Windows Operating system: the ctrl key, the shift key, and the alt key. Each key gives its own specific commands to alter the tool in a certain way. Photoshop has the entire eyedropper tool built into the alt key! This means that, while you’re coloring with the brush tool, you can hold alt to get the eyedropper out. From there, you can select the colors to replace the color on your toolbar. In this way, you can easily get nice color gradients done quick and efficiently! Of course, you can switch it to other tools like the smudge tool and smudge the colors in place. Thus, practice with the right hand on the ctr, shift, and alt key as they will give you additional options to paint more efficiently. But most importantly, keep up your motivation to learn these simply shortcuts as they will help you out immensely!
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