Repairing with the Focus and Toning Tools in Photoshop

One of the coolest things about Photoshop is the way it lets you choose one of several tools to accomplish similar end results, but with distinctly individualized looks. The focus and toning tools in Photoshop are examples of this. The focus tools blur, sharpen, and smudge your image in much the same way as the Blur, Sharpen, and Liquify filters. The toning tools lighten, darken, and change the richness of the color in your image a bit like commands such as Levels, Curves, and Hue/Saturation. But where their counterparts operate only on layers or selections, the focus and toning tools let you paint the effects you want directly onto your image. Using these tools, you can create much more subtle, natural looks tailored to meet your exact needs.