Lightroom 6 Tutorial - How to use the Lightroom Brush Tool

The Brush Tool (also called the Adjustment Brush) is one of the most important tools in Lightroom. While the Graduated Filter applies adjustments in a straight gradient, the Brush Tool lets you paint adjustments onto specific, irregular areas of your image. You can brighten just the subject’s face, sharpen just the eyes, desaturate just the background, or warm up just one section of the photo. It is the ultimate tool for targeted local adjustments.

Today we go over how to use the Brush Tool in Lightroom.

How to Access the Brush Tool

1. Open your image in the Develop module.
2. Press K on the keyboard, or click the brush icon in the tool strip below the Histogram.
3. The Brush panel will open with adjustment sliders and brush settings.

Understanding the Brush Panel

The panel is divided into three sections:

Effect

This is where you set what the brush will do. You have sliders for Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Clarity, Saturation, Sharpness, Noise, Temperature, and more. Move any slider before painting, and the brush will apply that adjustment wherever you paint.

Lightroom also has built-in presets (like Dodge, Burn, Soften Skin, Teeth Whitening) in the Effect dropdown at the top. These are pre-configured slider combinations for common tasks.

Brush Settings

• Size controls how large the brush is. Use the [ and ] keys on your keyboard to quickly resize.
• Feather controls the softness of the brush edge. High feather creates a soft, gradual transition. Low feather creates a hard, defined edge.
• Flow controls how much adjustment is applied per stroke. At 100%, one stroke applies the full effect. At 25%, you need to paint over the same area four times to reach full effect. Lower flow gives you more gradual control.
• Density controls the maximum strength of the brush. Even with multiple strokes, the brush will not go beyond this value.
• A and B at the top let you switch between two brush presets. Set A to a large, soft brush and B to a small, precise brush so you can toggle between them quickly.

Auto Mask

The Auto Mask checkbox is a powerful feature. When enabled, the brush automatically detects edges in the image and keeps the adjustment within them. For example, if you are brushing exposure onto a face, Auto Mask will prevent the adjustment from bleeding onto the background. It is not perfect, but it saves a lot of time on most images.

How to Paint Adjustments

1. Set the adjustment you want to apply (for example, increase Exposure by +0.5).
2. Set your brush size and feather.
3. Paint over the area you want to affect. You will see a pin appear on the image indicating where the adjustment was applied.
4. To see exactly where you painted, hover over the pin. The painted area will be highlighted.
5. To add more area, keep painting. To remove area, hold Alt (Option on Mac) and paint. This activates the Erase brush, which removes the adjustment from wherever you paint.
6. You can adjust the sliders after painting. The changes update in real time on the painted area.

Creating Multiple Adjustments

7. Click New in the brush panel to start a new adjustment with different settings. Each new adjustment gets its own pin and its own set of sliders.
8. Click on any existing pin to go back and modify that adjustment.

Tips

• Use low Flow (20-30%) and build up gradually. This gives you much more control than painting at 100% and trying to get it right in one stroke.
• Zoom in for detail work. When working around eyes, lips, or fine edges, zoom to 100% for precision.
• Use Auto Mask near edges, but turn it off for broad, open areas. Auto Mask can create choppy results when there are no clear edges to detect.
• Dodge and burn with the brush. Set Exposure to +0.3 for dodging (brightening) and -0.3 for burning (darkening). Paint over areas to sculpt the light. This is how portrait photographers create depth and dimension.
• For broader adjustments that follow a gradient, use the Graduated Filter instead. For per-color adjustments, use the HSL panel.

That is how you use the Brush Tool in Lightroom. It gives you precise, paintable control over every adjustment in your toolkit, making it one of the most versatile editing tools available.