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Hello, and welcome to Paint Shop Basics episode 29
Today we'll be covering the Lighten/Darken tool
You might notice my interface has changed a little.
I'm currently using version 13 of PSP
If you want to try it out, get the trial. Always get the trial.
Since most of the tools are still exactly the same
The lighten/darken tool can be found under the paintbrush.
If you don't see this gradient bar then click on this arrow
Select light/darken from the top of the list
You can also just hit the "L" key.
Okay, the light/darken tool is pretty straight forward
Using a brush it can be used to lighten/darken an area of an image.
There are three main settings that determine how this brush works.
There's the step, the Opacity, and the Mode.
I want to get to get into all three of these really really quick.
First thing I want to go through are the buttons.
Use Left Mouse Button to Lighten Use Right Mouse Button to Darken
It's closer to adding white or black than anything else.
You can't darken a portion that you've lightened with the brush.
Another quick thing is that you can swap those buttons.
Just click the "Swap mouse buttons" checkbox.
Brush strokes with this brush actually build up over time
Watch how it starts up and just builds up slowly
And that's just a single stroke. It's not multiple strokes.
Now you can build up over multiple strokes. But too much and it's like erasing to white.
The maximum amount that a stroke can get is up to your opacity setting.
So we don't start off at 80% opacity We actually start a lot lighter
and it builds up to whatever your opacity setting is.
Your "step" setting determines how quickly the brush stroke builds up.
With a step of 54 there's very light very slow build-up.
Whereas if I have it at 5 There's a very quick build-up
So step is very important in determining how quickly the opacity setting is reached.
Now the recommended setting for "step" is a setting of 10.
Next is our Mode setting. Mode has two options.
Lightness and RGB
I'm going to make an assumption here because I couldn't find specifics on it
Lightness refers to the Lightness setting in Hue/Saturation/Lightness values
And that RGB refers to Red/Green/Blue values
Now, Lighten mode is a very severe effect It's very strong right off the bat.
Now using these same settings with RGB Take a look at what happens.
You notice a much softer effect by comparison
Yes, it's lightening things but it's not as strong as the lighten mode
So lightness is very big in your face and if you want a gradual effect
It's pretty simple, very straight forward and it's a great tool
for controlled lightening and darkening of areas in your image.
The next two tools we'll be covering the Dodge and Burn tools
Also allow you to lighten and darken the image with more control.