Lighten/Darken Tool

[jlovda]

Excuse me as I am a very basic user. I am trying to darken a small portion of a road on a picture. I cannot figure out how to DARKEN. When I click on the tool and look at the settings across the top, it seems I can only make things get lighter from the baseline. The HELP menu does not go into any instruction.

Thank you

[LeviFiction]

Be careful with the darken tool, you want to set the opacity to a low value somewhere between 10-20% opacity. It'll build up slowly but it'll be more controlled. The effect is strong as its essentially adding black directly to the image. Lighten adds white.

Left-click + Drag to lighten, Right-click + Drag to darken. There is an option on the tool options palette that says "Swap Mouse Buttons" if you check the box then the left mouse button will darken and the right-mouse button will lighten.

There are other options as well such as the burn brush which offers more control.

But all of those are "destructive" what that means is they actively change the image data. Once saved you cannot undo the changes. Another option to consider is using layers. I cannot give the best explanation of these methods but they are relatively simple. For example. I mention that that lighten/darken brush acts like it's adding black to the colors. You can simulate the same thing by creating a blank layer, grabbing the normal paint brush and setting the color to black. Then set the opacity of the brush to a low setting and change the blend mode of the layer to "Lightness" you'll be painting black on the blank layer but it should build up in a similar way to the lighten/darken brush and the layer can be deleted or cleared if you want to start over.

[Jean-Luc]

Excuse me as I am a very basic user. I am trying to darken a small portion of a road on a picture.

Could you post a portion of the image showing the road? It would be easier to give you more precise instructions.

[jlovda]

The left button/right button is so simple but I could not find that anywhere.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/79976134@N07/50483204761/

Near the back of the image by the barn the road is hard to see unless magnified.

Thanks

[migf1]

Levi gave excellent instructions, but here are some additional video tutorials:

Destructive: https://youtu.be/icTU0EjMhEw
Non-Destructive (1 layer): https://youtu.be/d7KdE7-1xl0
Non-Destructive (2 layers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfohTpWYb4M&t=436s

In general, you can search for Dodge and Burn tutorials

[LeviFiction]

The left button/right button is so simple but I could not find that anywhere.

Yeah the help files hide useful information near the bottom or in small text. On the "Retouching images areas by using brushes" help page at the very bottom there is a single sentence under a lightbulb icon that says "You can apply the opposite effect of a retouch brush by right-clicking as you apply the brush to the image."

So all adjustment brushes, even those that have a separate opposite effect brush (dodge and burn for example) can apply the opposite effect by right-clicking. And you can choose which effect is mapped to which button by using the Swap buttons checkbox.

You can also make use the Learning Center palette, when you select a tool the palette will show basic information on how to use that tool that is a lot easier to read and puts the useful information front and center....usually.