The Topic of Conversation
During my last Live Event, I received a TON of questions about the difference between FLOW and OPACITY related to the brush in Photoshop. Do not confuse this with OPACITY and FILL in the layer palette. They are two very different topics. Brush flow and brush opacity can be tricky to comprehend, but I have a tip to help you remember.
Brush OPACITY
Acts as a governor. It tells the brush, no matter what, you may not exceed this opacity percentage unless you release your click on your mouse (or pressure on open) and click again and go over the area. At that point, it will allow you to build up the effect. So Brush Opacity is an on-Click Buildup process.
Brush FLOW
Controls the speed at which the brush will build up (much like a can of spray paint). It tells the brush that you may make as many passes as you need, and it will build up based on the amount. So brush FILL is an on-pass buildup process.
Of course, throwing a pen and tablet into the mix makes things a bit more interesting. Watch the tutorial below to see a demo with flow and opacity. You will also learn more about how pressure sensitivity with a pen and tablet can be beneficial. Here is a link to the tablet I use. It is an older tutorial, but I am still using the tablet to this day!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
I think of flow as just that, the rate at which color flows from the brush. The “paint” that’s flowing out of the brush is fully opaque, it’s just flowing at a reduced rate. If you go over the same spot twice you build up “paint”.
Opacity refers to the opacity of the “paint” being used. If you go over the surface with “paint” that’s 50% opaque (50% translucent) it will never get any darker no matter how many times you go over that same area.
This is really awesome. Thanks, Blake. Until watching your video, I’ve never completely understood the difference between the opacity and flow settings for bushes.
Excellent lesson as always.
Love the little swimmer you drew there at the end of the video 🙂 Thanks, flow always confused me, now I understand it better.
Nicely done as usual Blake. You have given me an idea about using my brush when blending with masks.
I often wondered about those buttons. Now my pen works more like a paint brush!
Yo Blake, your brother from Puerto Rico. Your the best . Simple and easy to understand.
klick for table info left or subscribers right does not work !
tablet info
I’ve been watching your Paint BRILLIANT Color with Linear Light Blend Mode video. I notice that you are able to sample a color from your Background layer, while the Linear Light layer is still selected. With the Linear Light layer selected, when I hold Alt and click on my image, I am unable to select a color from the Background layer until I change my selection to the Background layer and then I have to change back to the Linear Light layer to apply the color. Am I doing something wrong? I’m using Ps 2021 on OS 11.2.2
I am still not fully understanding.
Do I have to make a choice between OPACITY or FILL (in which case, what is the default value to set for the other -not selected- parameter?)? Alternatively, can I use both OPACITY and FILL together? This seems to be incompatible.
Can you elaborate?
Tx Blake
NB: wonderful trainings!