Spot Healing in Adobe Photoshop CS2, Part 2

Tutorial: Page (2) of 2 - 06/10/05

Spot Healing in Adobe Photoshop CS2, Part 2 Complex blemish removal and resurfacing The second problem you will encounter is a loss of detail in the subject. For example, the image below show's my subject's eye, which has little wrinkles beneath it.

If I apply the Spot Healing brush to that area, those wrinkles disappear, along with the freckles and eyelashes.

Again, not goo. Pretty soon your subject will be just a blob with a skin texture. The obvious solution to this is, "Just be more careful where you apply the Spot healing brush." But that's not a satisfactory answer. In fact, there's a simple way to overcome this problem without having to go to excruciating lengths to avoid the destruction of important details.

Here's how this works.

1. Create a new layer over your background, and make sure it's the currently active layer.

2. Up in the top Tool Options bar, check the option labeled "Sample All Layers."

3. Now draw your stroke over the area you want to affect, and you will see that much of the detail is retained. In my example, you can still make out the eyelashes and wrinkles, though without a lot of definition. Depending on the image involved, this may work out fine for you. Otherwise, you might want to make some minor adjustments to get some of the detail back.

4. There are two (probably more) ways to do this. First, you can simply turn down the opacity of the layer on which you painted the healing stroke. In the example below, I've turned the opacity down to 72 percent, which keeps the freckles away, but also brings back some of the detail in the eyelashes and wrinkles.

Or you can switch the blending mode of the layer. In the example below, I'm using the "Lighten" mode at full opacity. (Depending on the image, you might choose "Darken" instead.)

So that's how resurfacing with the Spot Healing brush works. But what if you want to do something even more drastic? What if an entire object in your image is a blemish you can't live with, and you want to delete it without leaving a big hole in the middle of the picture? This is the topic we'll take up in the third and final part of this series on the Spot Healing brush in Photoshop CS2.

If you have any questions in the meantime, be sure to drop me a line or post your question in our Adobe Photoshop forum by clicking here.

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