You are here:

Using the Develop Brush

The Develop Brush is designed to allow you to make a variety of edits to specific areas of your photos. You can adjust the Exposure, Saturation, Fill Light, Contrast, Clarity, Sharpness, Vibrance, Temperature, Tint, Color Strength, and Hue in your photo by brushing on the effects. For example, instead of adding fill light to an entire photo, you may want to only add it to certain areas, such as backlit subjects. You can apply up to eight brushes to separate areas in the image and assign each with unique effect settings.

You can save edits you make with the brush tool as a preset for future use.

To Use the Develop Brush:

In Develop mode, on the Tune or Detail tab, click the Brush in the Masking pane to open the control panel and enter Brushing mode.
Specify the brush settings in the panel, or as you work, as described in the table below.
Start painting the effects onto your photo.
Adjust the sliders to get the effect you want.

To apply another mask, (up to 24 are available), click the + on the bottom left of the panel and select a masking option. A new icon (related to the type of mask selected) will appear in the Masks section. Your currently selected mask will be outlined in blue. You can reselect any of the masks at any given time by clicking its respective icon.

Press Save As or Done.

If all of the sliders are at zero, brush strokes will appear in color, (as selected in the drop-down next to the Show mask checkbox), as no changes have been made to the image.

Hold Command while using the brush tool to activate the pan feature.

To Delete Brush Masks:

To Delete Brush Masks, right-click the mask in the Masking Pane and select Delete Mask, or press the delete button .

Develop Brush Options
Nib Width	Adjusts the size of the brush. You can use the mouse wheel to adjust nib width or adjust the Nib Width slider.
Feathering	Adjust the slider to control the softness of the transition between the brush strokes and the image. Use Shift + mouse wheel to adjust the amount of feathering or adjust the Feathering slider.
Pressure	Adjust the slider to control the strength of the brush.
Add brush stroke	Brush while holding the left mouse button down.
Erase brush stroke	Brush while holding the right mouse button or control key down.
Smart Brushing	See the Smart Brushing section below.
Show brush strokes	When this option is checked, the currently selected brush's strokes will be displayed in the color shown. This is helpful when brushing a complex area with a subtle effect because it can be hard to tell if you have missed a spot. The color can be changed in case you are brushing on a red area of the image.
Develop Brush Tune Tab Options
General
Exposure	Drag the slider to the right to increase exposure, or drag to the left to decrease exposure. One eV is equivalent to one stop of exposure change. Brush on exposure.
Saturation	Drag the slider to the right to increase saturation, or to the left to decrease saturation. Brush on saturation.
Vibrance	Drag the slider to the right to increase vibrance, or to the left to decrease vibrance. Increasing the vibrance does not affect skin tone in an image. This is unlike saturation, which intensifies all colors equally. Brush on vibrance.
Temperature	Drag the Temperature slider to the left (more blue) or right (more yellow) to select a specific color temperature. Brush on white balance.
Tint	Drag the Tint slider to the left (more magenta) or right (more green) to match the white balance settings that you selected when you took the photo. Brush on white balance.
Fill Light	Drag the slider to the right to add light to the darkest areas of the image. Brush on fill light.
Contrast	Drag the slider to the right to increase contrast, or to the left to decrease contrast. Brush on contrast.
Clarity	The Clarity tool adds subtle definition to the details in your image. Use the Clarity slider to enhance the contrast of midtones, without overpowering the shadows and highlights. Drag the slider to the right to increase clarity, or to the left to reverse clarity. Brush on clarity.
Color Strength	Set the Color Strength slider, then move the Color slider to your desired color band. With Color Strength set to 0, no color will be applied.
Hue	Use the Hue slider to set the desired hue for your mask.
Develop Brush Detail Tab Options
Sharpness	Move the slider to the right to brush on sharpness, or move the slider to the left to brush on blur.

You can right-click a slider to reset to the default value.

Smart Brushing

You can use the Smart Brush to target your brushing to specific colors, brightness values, or a combination of color and brightness. The Smart Brush only affects pixels similar in value to the pixel in the center of the brush stroke, and allows you to apply adjustments to those pixels.

To Use the Smart Brush:

In Develop mode, on the Tune or Detail tab, click the Brush in the Masking pane to open the control panel and enter Brushing mode.
Select an option from the Smart Brushing drop-down menu:

Color	Uses the color of pixels similar in value to the pixel in the center of the brush stroke to determine if they should be brushed on, depending on the Tolerance slider setting.
Brightness	Uses the brightness of pixels similar in value to the pixel in the center of the brush stroke to determine if they should be brushed on, depending on the Tolerance slider setting.
Magic	Uses a combination of the color and brightness values similar to the pixel in the center of the brush stroke to determine which pixels should be brushed on, depending on the Tolerance slider setting.

Use the Tolerance slider to increase or decrease the range of pixels affected by the Smart Brush.
Place your cursor over the color or brightness you wish to select and begin painting on the effect.
Adjust the sliders to get the effect you want.
Press Save As or Done.

You can erase brush strokes by right-clicking and brushing over your strokes.

To Turn off Smart Brushing:

Select Off from the Smart Brushing drop-down menu.