Photoshop - What brush hardness do you use?

[mr_marks]

<p>Hi, I would like to find out what are your preferences for brush hardness for the following PS tools:<br>

- healing brush<br>

- clone stamp<br>

- dodge & burn<br>

Thanks for your inputs!</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>no fixed size or hardness / It all depends on the task at hand.</p>

[marlon]

<p>If it's for portrait retouching I also use the softest brush for clone stamp & dodge/burn. The more gradation the more natural it seems. I cary the opacity and the flow, however.<br>

For healing brush I will use the softest if I'm getting rid of lots of lines. However, if there are a lot of small bumps for instance I will raise the hardness a click or two so the overlapping feathering doesn't kill texture.<br>

Hopes this helps... the best advice is to keep practicing until you see what looks good to your eye. Many ways to skin a cat for every single method.</p>

[brian_ellis19]

<p>Like Ellis said, it just depends on what you're doing. Sometimes hard works best, sometimes soft.</p>

[1815photography]

<p>I use the same tools in Adobe Lightroom and again it depends on exactly what I'm doing. I wouldn't pick a fixed setting for every situation.</p>

[redphoto]

<p>I use the soft brushes most of the time, especially when retouching people. The soft edges hid your work better. I only use a hard brush if I have a really precise edge that I am working on. And sometime I go in the middle. But you should definitely lean towards the soft brushes.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>theres is in fact suggested hardness and size when you do retouching</p>

<p><strong>- healing brush =</strong> <em>hardness 100%, size around 21-30</em>.. You dont need to have a soft brush with this tool as it create is own blend, and i always start with a size 21-30 and retouched all the pimple and else at 100% view on a 12-23 megapixel image.. it look like a small brush, more precise and if well done you wont see any spot on your images. Opacity 100% most of the time. Flow 100%<br /> <br /> <strong>- clone stamp =</strong> <em>hardness 0% most of the time, size around 21-30</em>. Again i use this brush size and retouched all the pimple and else at 100% view on a 12-23 megapixel image.. it look like a small brush, more precise and if well done you wont see any spot on your images. Since this tool can create problem if not done correctly, by using a 0% hardness you are also creating a small amount of blur around the retouching zone. Flow 100% all the time, Opacity is set to what i need to get thing natural.. from 10% to 100%.. theres no standard.</p>

<p><strong>- dodge & burn =</strong> <em>hardness 0% everytime, size depend of the zone to retouch</em>.. Opacity is set to 30%-50%, shadow / midtone / hihglight is use depend of what i want to dodge or burn.. but i use those tool rarely or just to get a quick result. I prefert to use a layer fill with gray.</p>

<p><strong>layer fill with gray set to overlay = for burn.</strong> Use a brush with white color set to 20% - 30% opacity and paint the area you need to highlight.</p>

<p><strong>layer fill with gray set to softlight = for dodge.</strong><br /> Use a brush with black color set to 30%-40% opacity and paint the area you need to darken.</p>

<p>Why softlight or overlay? overlay is use to create a light area but with some contrast.. if you where to use softlight, the lighter area would look a bit soft in contrast when you paint.. overlay fix that problem.</p>

<p>those are my setting... but what do i know about retouching! ; P</p>

[mr_marks]

<p>Hello Patrick, thank you very much for sharing this! I appreciate it.</p>

[nealcurrie]

<p>I don't use healing brush. For clone stamp, I usually use 100% for editing film scans, otherwise the grain isn't consistent. I don't use dodge/burn enough to have a common preference, as I usually use layer masks and brush the masks for dodging/burning.</p>

[gooseberry]

<blockquote>

<p>Patrick wrote:<br /><em><strong>Opacity</strong> 100% most of the time. <strong>Flow</strong> 100%</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I remember reading once somewhere what's the difference between two, but don't recall it anymore. 'Opacity' is self-explanatory, but what does 'Flow' do?</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>brush opacity vs flow:<br>

Opacity controls the amount or intensity of the color. Flow controls its dispersion.</p>

<p>see a quick test to better understand how to use it. Choose a blue brush 30 pixels, 100% hard edge. On a white layer, select Opacity 10%, Flow 100% and brush for a couple of inches. See the resultant color and smoothness. Now reverse the values of the opacity and flow and see the difference. Opacity controls the amount or intensity of the color. Flow controls its dispersion. These things combined give you a tremendous level of control in your application of brushes.</p>

<p> </p>

[mr_marks]

<p>I think the flow can be thought as "the rate of paint flowing out of the brush"</p>

[mr_marks]

<p>Hi Patrick, what "spacing" do you use for the brush? Thanks again</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>the default 25%</p>

[gooseberry]

<blockquote>

<p>mr marks wrote:<br /><em>what "spacing" do you use for the brush?</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>What is "spacing" and where do I find it? -- I can see no such parameter :O</p>