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The Smart Brush tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 combines the Quick Selection tool (Elements 6) and adjustment layers; it offers a quick way to adjust, enhance, and add effects to your photographs and is located in the Full Edit area of the Editor.
When you click on the Smart Brush a menu pops open showing nine categories of nearly 70 effects that can be applied to your photo. It's great because all you have to do is make your choice from the list and simply paint over the area you want the effect to be applied. After you begin drawing your initial selection the tool automatically switches to the Add to Selection mode. To remove any part of your selected area you can hold down Alt on your keyboard and paint away the parts you want to get rid of.
Just how does it work? If you take a look at the Layers palette, you'll see that an adjustment layer was created-in our example, a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer-along with the layer mask that accompanies adjustment layers. The area you selected is shown in white on the mask, thus revealing the effect. The black areas on the mask are hiding the effect.
To edit the effect, you can either double-click the adjustment layer in the Layers palette or you can double-click the red adjustment pin located in your selection on the image. As long as the adjustment layer is one supported by Adobe Elements, the dialog box for that adjustment layer will open and you can make any changes you wish.
Please take note that some of the presets were actually created using an adjustment layer included in the full version of Photoshop and not in Elements, so you won't be able to edit these effects.
The very latest tips on leaning photoshop and elements editing software along with simple to follow videos. You will be provided with the first steps to get to grips with learning Photoshop tricks and you will build up your confidence as an Adobe editing software user.
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