6.0 Sponge Tool
Used to change
an image's color saturation
Found at # 23 in the Toolbar diagram at left
The burn, and sponge tools are hidden under
the dodge tool in the toolbox. To access
them, click on the dodge tool icon (the one that looks like a black lollipop)
and hold the mouse button down. Choose the tool you want from the pop-up
menu that appears.
The sponge tool will increase or decrease the color saturation of areas you drag over. How rapidly the effect occurs is determined by the setting in the Pressure box in the tool's options bar.
To use the sponge tool, select it in the toolbox, choose your settings, and pick a brush in the options bar, and drag in the image. This tool has an effect on click, but does not do any additional work until it's moved. However, repeated stroking over the same area does have a cumulative effect.
If you choose Edit > Fade immediately after using this tool, you can change the opacity of the strokes you have just applied.
A shortcut for changing brush sizes while using this tool is to press the left bracket [ to decrease brush size, and the right bracket ] to choose a larger brush..
Note that these tools cannot be used on 1 bit Bitmap mode, or Indexed color mode images.
The keyboard shortcut for the sponge tool is the letter O. You can cycle through the dodge, burn, and sponge tools by holding down the Shift key while pressing the shortcut letter.
The illustration below is the sponge tool's options bar. To choose a brush size, and type, click on the little down arrow to the right of the brush thumbnail. A pop-up palette of available brushes will appear. For more information on brushes, please see the Brushes page.
The Mode box is shown, again below the options bar with its menu
open. Choose Desaturate to cause colors to move towards gray, or
become less “colorful.” Choose Saturate to cause colors
to become more intense, rich, and pure.
The Pressure value's slider is shown activated. To use this slider, click on the arrow at the right side of the box. You can also type a number into the box. This setting determines how fast the dragged over colors are affected. Higher values give faster results. I think it's better to use a very low setting and stroke repeatedly, as needed.
If you have doodled with a tool's options and want to get back to the default settings, click that tool's icon at the far left end of its options bar. Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop's .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
Photoshop Tips | 6.0
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