Use a custom brush and a Local Adjustment with the Paint With Color option, then a single click of the custom brush, to stamp a shape into your photo. However, for photo compositors or when working with multi-layer photo documents, custom brushes open up a lot of options with layer blending, texture manipulation, and creative editing. My style of photography doesn’t call for them very often.

The Manual Spacing control in the advanced settings (gear menu) is also useful for more sweeping brush strokes.Īs a landscape photographer, I use custom brushes sparingly. The Angle control is much more interesting and useful with a Custom Brush, letting you orient the brush shape. Visit the Masking Brush article for a detailed description of each control.

The controls for the custom brush are exactly the same as those for the Masking Brush. (And if you need a refresher, check out the Introduction To Masking In ON1 article. Remember the masking mantra - black conceals white reveals. Why? Custom Brushes are used with masking, and masks are constructed using black, white, and gray tones. The only criteria is the image or shape is a black and white image. In fact, just about any image can be turned into a custom brush. ON1 has some custom brush packs and you can also install Photoshop brush styles (ABR files), too. ON1 includes a variety of custom brushes and using the Extras Manager, you can import other brush shapes. A Custom Brush is simply a different shape for the masking brush. However, there are many more shapes than a circle.Įnter the Custom Brush. A circle is a versatile shape for masking, and when used with edge detection of the Perfect Brush, the standard circular brush can handle many masking jobs. What Is A Custom Brush?īy default, the Masking Brush tool uses a circle as the brush head. If you missed the article introducing the Masking Brush, read that and then come on back. This article explains custom brush shapes in the Masking Brush tool. This article is part of a mini-series about the masking features in ON1 Photo RAW and ON1 Effects. Ready to buy? Use the offer code SDP20 at checkout and SAVE 20% !

There is no extra cost to you and it helps support ON1 tutorials like this one. If you are trying ON1 Photo RAW, the ON1 plug-ins like ON1 Effects or ON1 HDR, or upgrading your ON1 software to a newer version, please consider using my affiliate link.

How to upload photoshop brushes