Soften a specific area of an image

The Soften tool is used to make a specific area of an image softer.

1. Do one of the following:

   • In the Tools sidebar, click Soften or choose if from the grouped tools.

   • Choose Tools > Retouch > Soften from the Tools menu at the top of your screen.

2. In the Tool Options pane, customize the Soften tool:

   • Brush Size: Drag the Brush Size slider to adjust the size of the Soften tool brush. Press and hold the Option ⌥ key to extend the range of the Brush Size slider beyond 100%. You can also manually enter a value from 0% to 200%.
 💡 Tip: You can use the [ and ] keys on your keyboard to change the size of the Soften tool brush.

   • Softness: Drag the Softness slider to adjust the softness of the edges of the Soften tool brush. With softer edges, the softened areas will usually blend in better with the rest of the image.

   • Strength: Drag the Strength slider to adjust the intensity of the softening effect.

3. Select a tonal range to soften:


   • All: When you brush over an area to soften it, the darkest, brightest, and midtone areas are softened equally.

   • Shadows: When you brush over an area to soften it, only the shadows in that area are softened.


   • Midtones: When you brush over an area to soften it, only the midtones in that area are softened.


   • Highlights: When you brush over an area to soften it, only the highlights in that area are softened.

4. Brush over the area of your image you’d like to soften.

Show before and after or reset effects

Show Original: Click the Show Original button to see what the image looked like before.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard.

Click Reset to discard all the current changes.