Spot Healing Brush Tool

The Spot Healing Brush Tool will clean up small unwanted marks from an image even more easily than the standard Healing Brush.
This brush will make its own sample from the pixels around the mark and match in the texture, tone and lighting.

• Use image number 01.jpg for this tutorial as well.

• From the toolbox, choose the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

  
  
  

• In the options bar, click on the Brush icon to open its dialogue box.
  
  
  
  
  

• The relevant adjusters here are Diameter and Hardness.
  Leave Spacing at 25%.

• Set Hardness at 100% for best results.

• The Diameter of the brush should be sufficient to cover the unwanted mark and still allow space around the blemish.
  Do not make the brush size over-large for the dirty mark.
  

• For Mode, choose Replace to retain the grain, noise and texture of the original.

• Proximity Match will use the pixels around the edge of the brush shape to make the repair.

• Usually Proximity Match works, but if it does not undo with
  Edit > Undo Spot Healing Brush, and try again with Create Texture checked.
  This will use all the pixels within the area to make the fix.

• Using a brush diameter of 12, position the cursor over a dirty mark on the image and click.
  The brush automatically takes its own sample and merges it in with the surrounding area.

• The brush can be dragged over slightly larger marks and scratches.

• The Spot Healing Brush will certainly not work on everything.
  Where there is fine detail, for example, the standard Healing Brush can be better. A specific sample can be chosen for the repair.
  If that is still not succesful, use the Clone Stamp Tool.

The option bars for the Healing Brushes have a box called Pattern. They can repair a large area with a designated pattern, but that comes later....

To deal with larger areas as a standard repair or to have more control, use the Patch Tool.

Retouching can be difficult but there are also many methods that can save a lot of effort and bring great results. There are tricks and tips galore in Photoshop In A Day.

The next page is an introduction to the Patch Tool.






Healing Brush Tool
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Patch Tool
Red Eye Tool

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