my favorite photoshop tool: fade

the fade tool can be used after you make any adjustment.  the fade tool is scalable back from 100%.  the fade tool can be applied through a blending mode.  the fade tool is the best photoshop tool that nobody knows about, and it is your new best friend.

you can access the fade tool immediately under the edit menu.  there is also a key command:  cmd+shift+f.

why is fade the cool tool to use?

instead of guessing at the best opacity for brush stroke, clone stamp, heal brush, patch tool, or whatever, just make it 100%.  after you’ve made the garish full opacity adjustment, access the fade tool and see–in real time preview–what that move looks like at ANY opacity between 1% and 100%, AND using any blending mode!  i also use this tool a lot while adding grain/noise back to portions of the image.  the photoshop filter for noise doesn’t let you go below 1%, but what if even that is too much?  go ahead and make that 1% noise filter, and fade it back (now you also have the option to add noise in blending modes…).  so many other adjustments that need to made either more cautiously or more subtly can be made with the fade tool.  like i said, it’s the best tool you (may have) never known about.