With the Blur Tool, you can soften portions of an image. This tool can cause areas of an image to appear as if they were out of focus. The Sharpen Tool is the exact opposite of the Blur Tool. The Sharpen Tool lets you sharpen the edges in portions of an image. The Smudge Tool is like the Blur Tool, but this tool will slide the colors of an image around and blend them together.
In the following example, we used the Blur Tool to soften the braches of the tree and the Sharpen Tool to accent the rooftops. After the adjustments were made, the rooftops became the new focal point of this image, even though the tree is in the foreground. With the Smudge Tool, we distorted the roof support to show an example of how the Smudge Tool might be used.
Original Image
Adjusted Image
How do I use the Blur, Sharpen and Smudge Tools?
1) Select the Blur, Sharpen, or Smudge Tool from the Toolbox:
2) On the Options Bar across the top of the screen, select the brush size and type of brush you want to use from the Brush pull-down menu. (Click the arrow on the upper right corner of the brush palette to see a menu for additional brush options.)
3) Also on the Options Bar, adjust the Pressure percentage to between 10-15% (The lower the percentage, the less drastic the effect, allowing you to maintain precise control over the amount of blurring, sharpening, or smudging).
4) Draw with the mouse to create the effect.
Credit to Dr. Mary Nicholson
