How to Use the Spot Healing Tool in Photoshop Elements 4

Give your portraits a virtual touch-up with the Spot Healing Tool in Photoshop Elements 4.

Sometimes photographs contain unwanted artifacts such as blemishes, wrinkles, scratches, lens flares or stains. Photoshop Elements 4 offers a convenient way to remove these imperfections from your photographs. The Spot Healing tool takes samples from the area surrounding the imperfection, including texture, color and luminosity. As you paint over the area with this brush to remove the unwanted areas, it matches this information closely to provide a seamless repair.

Instructions

1. Select "File," then "Open" to import your image to Photoshop Elements 4.

2. Select "Layer," then "Duplicate Layer" to create a copy of your background image. By making your Spot Healing tool modifications on a separate layer, you can easily remove or adjust them later.

3. Choose the "Spot Healing Brush" from the toolbox. Select a hard-edged brush from the brush palette. Choose "Proximity Match," which uses the pixels surrounding the selected area to determine the brush color, luminosity and texture.

4. Use bracket keys to adjust the size of your brush so that it is just large enough to cover the area that you want to modify. The left bracket key makes your brush smaller, while the right bracket key makes your brush larger.

5. Paint over the area by holding down and dragging the cursor. The Spot Healing tool removes the mark and blends the spot with the surrounding area.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use the Spot Healing tool near the edges of an image or next to an area with a very different color or texture. The brush cannot sample a uniform set of pixels to determine the best way to blend the modified area.

References

• "Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Classroom in a Book"; Adobe Creative Team; 2005