I have no idea if anyone else knew this or not...but I had to share b/c I just learned on pure accident!! I went to change the color of a paint splatter, and accidentally clicked on Gradient Fill, and then I clicked my pointer on the layout with the Gradient Fill box still open and moved the mouse and it allows you to lighten and darken the gradient that way...you can go in any direction you want with the pointer. That is all
it's also handy if you want the sky to be darker in photos because, like me, you tend to overexpose the sky in favour of keeping the foreground subjects (like whatever the kids are doing) well exposed. So in this case after selecting 'gradient fill' on a new layer, you would drag from the top of your photo, where the sky usually is, down (assuming your gradient in the little preview box goes from dark to light/transparent) and then blend mode that to overlay to bring the sky back (disclaimer: it doesnt always work if the sky is waaaay overexposed)
