One of the places were Gimp shines

This is one of the places were Gimp shines:
Gimp has the ability to control the opacity of brush strokes and smudge strokes independently from the layer. Photoshop does not have this ability. The user can only control the rate of the stroke.

Being able to adjust the opacity of brushes and smudges allows blending colors quickly and easily on the layer you're working on. Not having to add extra layers keeps things simple.

Illustration 1: Above: Notice several strokes were made with varying opacities using Gimp's opacity slider.

Illustration 2: The colors and shades are now blended nicely using not only the rate control but also the opacity control. This allows for more gradual blending.

After contacting Adobe Photoshop on Facebook, this is how they described the way an artist can blend colors in Photoshop:

Adobe Photoshop said: You can control the Blending mode, Size and strength of the tool in the options bar. But if you want to adjust the opacity of the work, you can create a new Blank layer, and check the "Sample all layers" option. This will allow you to paint/smudge on the blank layer only. Then you can adjust the layer opacity or blending mode of the layer that contains only the smudge data.
Bobbie Colegrove said: ok, but I still would like to control the opacity of the brush and smudge strokes instead of just the layer.


So, there you have it. Which is simpler: being able to conrol the opacity of the brush and the smudge tools themselves on the same layer you're working on or having to add extra layers just to be able to blend colors seemlessly and gradually?