Photoshop : Sponge Tool

There are many tools that are available to use to make amazing works of art or to edit images.  One of these tools that not many people know about is the Sponge Tool.  This tool can be used to either saturate or de-saturate parts of an image.  This concept can be used in a variety of ways and the sky's the limit.

First things first, we need to locate the Sponge Tool.  This tool does not show up on the default Tools window.  Instead, it is nicely tucked away between the Dodge and Burn tools.  With this tool, you can use it just like a paint brush and go over you image.  Now, depending on how it's set will cause it to work in two different ways: Saturate or De-saturate.  These options can be changed by doing so in the Mode menu in the options bar near the top of the screen.

Let's look at Saturate first.  With this mode, the Sponge tool will intensify the colors that you paint over.  A great way to utilize this is if you need to intensify someone's lips or make someone have rosy cheeks.  Just go over the needed areas with the Sponge tool and viola! the area is adjusted as needed.  By changing the Pressure setting you also change how much is changed.  Usually a lower pressure setting is recommended so that you can make subtle changes and keep changing until you get to where you want to go instead of changing drastically and starting over.