Image Adjustments and Retouching Flashcards

Which Photoshop tool is best suited for removing small blemishes by sampling texture from surrounding pixels?

Answer: Healing Brush Tool

The Healing Brush Tool samples texture from a source area and blends it with the color and luminosity of the target area.

What does the 'Protect Tones' option do in the Dodge and Burn tools?

Answer: Prevents clipping of highlights and shadows

Protect Tones minimizes clipping in highlights and shadows while keeping colors from shifting when dodging or burning.

When using a Curves adjustment layer, what does clicking directly on the image with the on-canvas picker do?

Answer: Places a control point on the curve at the sampled tonal value

Clicking the image with the on-canvas picker in Curves adds a control point corresponding to the sampled pixel's luminosity value.

Which adjustment is most effective for correcting a color cast in only the shadow areas of an image?

Answer: Color Balance (Shadows)

Color Balance lets you target Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights independently, making it ideal for isolating a shadow color cast.

In Camera Raw, what does the 'Masking' slider in the Detail panel do?

Answer: Limits sharpening to high-contrast edges

Holding Alt/Option while dragging the Masking slider shows which areas receive sharpening; increasing it confines sharpening to edge detail.

What is the primary advantage of using Smart Filters versus regular filters for retouching?

Answer: Smart Filters are non-destructive and can be re-edited at any time

Smart Filters are applied to Smart Objects, keeping the original data intact and allowing filter settings to be modified later.

Which blending mode is most commonly used when applying a Curves or Levels adjustment to affect only luminosity without shifting colors?

Answer: Luminosity

Setting an adjustment layer's blend mode to Luminosity applies tonal changes without altering the hue or saturation of the underlying image.