Julieanne Kost's Blog

When burning down edges in a traditional darkroom, the corners were often affected more than the sides (due to overlap). To achieve this effect in Photoshop, create a  new layer and set it’s blend mode to Multiply on the Layers panel. Then, select the Gradient tool and select the “foreground to transparent” gradient from the gradient picker (in the Options bar). Select a light to medium gray as your foreground color (or select black and lower the opacity of the Gradient tool) and set the blend mode for the Gradient tool to Multiply. Position the gradient tool at the outside edge of the image and click-drag the gradient into the image as far as the burned edge is desired. Repeat for each edge.

The first illustration is of the original image. The second and third illustrations both show the darkening (burning) of the edges (both use a separate layer with their blend mode set to Multiply in the Layers panel and 50% gray as the foreground color). However, in the center illustration the blend mode for the Gradient tool is also set to Multiply - notice how the corners are darker than the sides. In the third illustration the blend mode of the Gradient tool was set to Normal - as a result, the corners and sides are all the same value. Obviously the edges are exaggerated here for demonstration purposes - to reduce the effect, you would simply decrease the opacity of the layer on the Layers palette.

‘,’ (comma) or ‘.’ (period) goes to previous or next gradient swatch in the gradient picker
”,’ (comma) or ‘.’ (period) + Shift goes to first or last gradient swatch in list

The Gradient tool has multiple styles to choose from (Linear, Radial, Angle, Reflected and Diamond). ‘[' or ']‘ will move you quickly from one to the next gradient style.

When using the Gradient tool, be sure to check “Dither” on in the Options bar if you want to minimize banding over long gradients.

The Paint Bucket can fill with not only the Foreground color but also a Pattern. With the Paint Bucket selected, simply choose which option you prefer in the Options bar. Note: the Fill command (Edit > Fill) also has the pattern option, but the Paint Bucket may be faster than using a dialog box.

The Paint Bucket has two additional blend modes. Use the Behind blend mode to click on and fill transparent areas of an image, and the Clear blend mode to click and erase areas of an image(based on the color clicked on).