- Select the sponge tool in the toolbox. Now to modify the sat-
uration levels. Click and hold the burn tool icon and choose
the little sponge from the flyout menu, as in Figure 4-12. Or, if
you loaded my dekeKeys shortcuts back in the Preface, you can
press the N key, which I liberated from Photoshop Extended’s
3-D tools. (Preface skippers, press Shift+O.) - Reduce the Flow value to 10 percent. Although it’s calculated
differently, the Flow value in the options bar serves the same
purpose as the dodge and burn tools’ Exposure value—it modi-
fies the intensity of your brushstrokes. In my experience, the
default value of 50 percent is way too high. Press the 1 key to
knock Flow down to 10 percent. - Drag in the image to temper overly intense colors. The dodge
tool tends to increase the saturation of colors, and burn tends
to decrease saturation. (This started in CS4; it was the oppo-
site in CS3.) Photoshop lets you alternate between adding and
depleting saturation using the Mode option in the options bar:
Figure 4-12.
- Make sure Mode is set to Desaturate.
- Get a big brush and paint over the
cheeks, nose, and eyes, which are the
regions that received the most atten-
tion from the dodge tool. - Change the Mode setting to Saturate
and paint across the forehead, which
was made slightly dingy by the burn
tool.
- Create another snapshot. Not essential,
but a good idea. Alt-click (or Option-click)
the icon at the bottom of the History
panel. Name this snapshot “Sponged Col-
ors,” and click OK.
PeaRl Of WISDOm
Speaking of saving, remember that Photoshop does
not save anything tracked by the History panel. This
goes for both states and snapshots. If you want to
save a particular snapshot, drag it onto the left icon
at the bottom of the History panel, which copies
the snapshot as an independent image. Then use
File→Save to save the image.Figure 4-13.