Soft Brush?

[Pranav]

What really is soft brush?

I Have seen many people talking that a soft brush can create lighting effects.
Could someone please tell me what is a soft brush & how someone can create lighting effects using it.

Cheers,
Pranav

 

[Mad Snake]

you know when you select just the default brush a circle?, well go down a bit and there will be a circle with soft edges to it and you can use that and lower opacity and change layer type and so on to create lighting effects.

 

[KBC]

Yes, As jimmy said. Softness is based upon the hardness option you see in the brush selection. A brush is not called as a "soft brush" unless the hardness is set to 0-lesser values..

 

[domiw]

In cs4 when you click on brush i reckon the hardness slidder should be at the top, or like the opacity were you can click and slide

 

[KBC]

Absolutely yes. it's been from PS 6 ..

 

[mattfb]

Yeah when you click on the brush dont use the one that is a clean cut circle use the one that looks more smudged...

 

[Pranav]

I got it.Thanks

Its in the basic brushes & the downward section.I use CS2 btw.

Now I need to know, how to create lighting effects using it.Can anyone again tell.

 

[KBC]

Any blending mode from Lighten. But, mostly used blending modes are "Colour dodge or color dodge", "Linear dodge", "Overlay".

Just brush at places where you want to highlight, then set them to any of these modes. Colour dodge would be a better option since you're starting and change the fill (the one down to the opacity scroll bar), It's not that overlay's not, not that easy, but you can use it quickly without shuffling around with fills, when you learn much about brightness and contrast of the artworks you're doing..

 

[Pranav]

Thanks KBC.

Also could you tell me that do we have to use white color or we can use any other color & still get the lighting effects.

 

[KBC]

White is the common colour that is used. But don't bother about it. You'll learn perfect colour usage by gaining experience and doing things. .. But yeah, white is the number 1 colour that's used for creating flashy, shining lighting effects..

 

[mattfb]

I use overlay and lower the opacity usually as Colour Dodge makes it too bright and can ruin the render.

 

[KBC]

I use overlay and lower the opacity usually as Colour Dodge makes it too bright and can ruin the render.

You could just decrease the fill. ..

 

[mattfb]

You could just decrease the fill. ..

Still to bright

 

[KBC]

Still to bright

It'll be invisible a 0% ..