What does the Sponge tool control?

• A. Saturation
• B. Brightness
• C. Contrast
• D. Hue

Answer: (A)

Saturation—the vividness or intensity of colors in an image. The Sponge tool is used to brush in color saturation, either increasing it to make colors more vibrant or decreasing it to desaturate areas, depending on the mode you choose in the options. This adjustment happens only where you paint, so you can localize color strength without touching brightness or hue globally. Brightness changes lightness, often handled by brightness/contrast tools; hue shifts the actual color along the color wheel; contrast changes the difference between light and dark tones. The Sponge tool isn’t used to alter those properties directly, it’s specifically about how strong the colors appear. This makes it ideal for enhancing or toning down color without changing the overall exposure or color shift of the image.