This is Celia Henderson’s written guide to part one of Photoshop Brushcraft, her four-part series, which ran live with us in October 2026

Most of us pick up the Brush tool, drag the size slider, and get on with it. Up in the options bar there are twelve other controls we have never touched, and a whole panel of settings behind them that changes how the brush behaves entirely.

This is the guide to that panel. It is written to be worked through alongside the recording of part one, which is why every walkthrough opens with a set-up line telling you exactly what to have on screen before step one. Watch, pause, follow the page, then carry on.

Who this is for

This is the companion to the workshop, not a substitute for it. Brushcraft is sold as a complete four-part series, and the guide is written for people who are watching it.

If you booked the series and took the sessions-only ticket, this is the written material that goes with part one. If you added the guides to your ticket when you booked, you already have it, and there is nothing to buy here.

What is inside

The options bar, decoded. All thirteen controls numbered on a screenshot and named, from the Tool Preset Picker through to Symmetry. If you have wondered what the little airbrush icon does, it is in here.

Opacity and flow, properly explained. This was the moment of the live session. Opacity controls transparency. Flow controls the rate paint is applied, and keeps building while you hold the stroke down. There is a page of its own on it, with a visual comparison, and it is the single most common confusion in Photoshop brushwork.

Walkthroughs to follow at the computer, each with its own set-up line and numbered steps:

• Setting up, resetting the tool and reshaping the tip, with the keyboard shortcuts for size, hardness and opacity

• Flow, the airbrush, smoothing and legacy brushes, including writing your name at 0% smoothing and again at 100% to feel the difference

• Finding a brush by searching for it, then putting the Dune Grass brush to work

• Switching jitter on and off so you can see what each panel actually changes

• Scattering and colour dynamics, with the real default values written down so you can reset after experimenting

Every Brush Settings panel as a reference: Brush Tip, Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Texture, Dual Brush, Colour Dynamics, Transfer, Brush Pose, and the on-or-off settings at the bottom that most people never open, including Noise, Wet Edges, Build-up and Protect Texture.

Brush management and housekeeping. Creating your own brush groups, saving favourites as tool presets, duplicating a brush into several folders, and exporting a group as an .abr file so your brushes survive a new computer. This matters more from part three onwards, when you start making brushes worth keeping.

The Kyle Webster brushes. Brush sets that come free with a Creative Cloud subscription, and which a lot of people are paying for without knowing. How to find them, download them and import them.

Brush settings in retouching. All of the above applied to real repair work: an elliptical tip angled to clone a narrow stem without spilling into the detail around it, a square tip rotated to follow the straight edge of a planter, soft brush and low exposure for dodging petal ridges, and the Spot Healing blend modes that fix a dark speck on a pale petal.

Where part one sits in the series

Part one is the foundation the other three are built on. Everything Celia shows with a standard brush applies to the Clone Stamp, the healing tools, the Eraser, Dodge and Burn and the Adjustment Brush as well, which is what makes the rest of the series possible.

• Part 1, 12 October. Brush Tools in Action. The subject of this guide.

• Part 2, 26 October. Creative Brush Techniques.

• Part 3, 9 November. Create Your Own Custom Brushes.

• Part 4, 30 November. Celebration of Brushes.

From Mark

Celia’s cover photograph gives away her sense of humour. It is her sitting in the doorway of a canvas tent with a fire going behind her, under the title Photoshop Bushcraft. I can own up to that one: I sent the first invitations out with Bushcraft written on them. The guide inside is entirely serious.

What I like about it is the set-up lines. Every walkthrough starts by telling you exactly what to open and which brush to pick before step one, so you are not reading three paragraphs to work out where you are meant to be. It is written to be worked from at the computer rather than read in an armchair.

What people said on the workshop

“I’ve learnt so much already and it’s only been 14 minutes!” — Sue

“I have learnt so much in only a few minutes” — Glynis

About Celia

Celia Henderson LRPS teaches both Photoshop and Affinity Photo, and has run workshops for the Royal Photographic Society as well as here. She has been presenting for Camversation for years, and her Monday sessions have become a regular fixture.

She teaches at a pace you can actually follow, she explains why rather than just what, and she is very good at spotting the thing everyone is quietly stuck on.

You can see her own work at artofflowerphotography.co.uk and celiahenderson.co.uk.