Retouching with the Patch Tool

Using the Patch Tool, larger areas can be replaced and repaired with a good portion of an image.
As with the Healing Brush, automatic sampling of the texture and lighting improves the merging.

• Open image number 03.jpg from the Samples-Healing folder.
  To remove all the metalwork in the foreground requires a lot of cut and paste, but this Tool can help.

• Enlarge the image to 100%.

• Choose the Patch Tool in the toolbox; it is in the same section as the Healing Brushes.

• With the cursor, draw round an area that needs to be repaired or replaced.
  It's best not to select too big an area at once, because it is harder to get a good match on all sides.

• In the options bar, check the Source button.
  
  
  

• Position the cursor inside the selected area and its symbol changes slightly.

• Drag the cursor to the left and over the water. The marching ants area is duplicated and the original selection is replaced as you drag. Keep dragging and moving the cursor until the best match is found.

• Release the cursor and click on the image outside the selection to remove the selection.

• The tool works the other way as well.   Make a selection over an area of water which can be used as a patch.

• In the options bar, click on the Destination button.
  It does not matter if a button is checked before or after a selection is made.

• Drag the selected patch on to the area to be replaced. Click outside the selected area to paste it down.

  Once a selection has been made, more can be added to it.
  

• Hold Shift and drag the cursor over part of the

• To remove part of the selection, Alt drag / Option drag over the area to be removed.

Repairing tears in photographs

• Open image number 04.jpg.

• Choose the Patch Tool from the toolbox and we'll repair the scratch in the hair on the right of the image.
  
  

• Encircle the scratch with the Patch tool.
  By clicking and holding Alt / Option, the cursor is turned into a rectangular selector and straight lines can be drawn.
  

• Go to View > Snap To > Document Bounds. There should be no tick next to Document Bounds. If there is, highlight Document Bounds and release the cursor to remove the tick.
  This feature will cause selections to align with the boundaries of the image's. We don't want that to happen here, because it is too restricting.

• Position the cursor inside the selection and drag down and a little to the left, until a new portion of hair is within the selected area. Releasing the cursor places the new patch into the selected area.
  The repair is likely to be pretty good or maybe just a little extra work needs to be done with the Healing Brush.

• If the marching ants prevent a clear view of the working area, they can be hidden with Ctrl + H / Cmd + H, which is View > Extras.
  
  

• A selection needs to be a little larger than the damaged area to allow the repair system to blend, but the selection should still be kept as small as possible. The Magic Wand can help here.
  Press W for the Magic Wand Tool.

• Choose a Tolerance of 30.
  Check the Contiguous box and leave Anti-aliased unchecked.

• Click on the damaged white area on the left of the nose. The whole patch will be selected.

• Go to Select > Modify > Expand and enter a value of 2.
  This gives a neat surround to the damaged area.

• Choose the Patch Tool.

• Drag the selection down and on to a good piece of skin.
  Release the cursor.
  Pretty close, although a little extra healing work can be done
  on the highlight area near the A.

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