Chapter 8. Repairing the Details
This chapter covers all types of image "repair" and the tools you'll need to restore
and retouch images in a variety of situations. We'll first cover some basic tools
used for all types of repair and then get into specific techniques for image
restoration, glamour, portraiture, architecture, still life, and scenic subjects.
NOTE

There are some procedures, such as using a high-key glow effect for a glamour
portrait, that may be considered retouching but (from a workflow perspective) are
really special effects. Those procedures are covered in Chapter 11.
Limit Destruction to a Retouching Layer
Retouching, when done on the image itself, is totally destructive of any
area that it affects. For that reason, you should do all the retouching on at
least one separate retouching layer. You already started one of these in
the "The Magic Action for Layered Workflow" section in Chapter 5 for
spot retouching. What you'll be doing here, when the discussed
techniques are necessary, is creating new individual layers for more
specialized techniques and then grouping them so they are easy to find,
move, rearrange, and blend. It is also done at this time because you need
retouch at the earliest practical stage. First of all, you need to do it for
quick client turnaround and before you or the client decide to do more
"refined" destructive procedures. Second, the changes you are most
likely to want to make for purposes of reinterpretation are those that
follow this procedure in the workflow. Remember, one of the purposes
of an organized workflow is to ensure minimum time waste when an
image needs to be reinterpreted.

8.1. General Repair Toolkit
Certain tools and commands are part of what I like to call Photoshop's "Repair
Toolkit." These included the Healing tools, the Clone tool, the History brush, the
Replace Color tool and command, and a technique for copying entire selected
portions of the image.
Quick Switching Between Tools in the Same Menu
Each of the tool sets in the Toolbox has a letter assigned to it. To find out
what that letter is, pass the cursor over the tool. In the case of the Healing
Tools, the letter is J and for the Clone stamp tool, the letter is S. To switch
between tools in the same category, just press the letter repeatedly. Also,
in Edit Preferences General make sure you check "Show Tool Tips"
and uncheck "Use Shift Key for Tool Switch."


8.1.1. Healing Tools
Another headline for this section might be "Using Spot Retouching Tools." But I'm
calling it Healing Tools because the most efficient tools are found in the sub-menu
of the Healing Brush tools. One of these is a brand new tool called the Spot
Healing brush.
The first thing you want to do when you're about to use the Healing tools is to
create a blank layer immediately above the layer you're about to retouch. When
you are about to use the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, or Clone tool, check
the Sample All Layers box in the Options bar for those tools. Then turn off all the
other layers. After you've checked Sample All Layers and made a new layer, your
retouching strokes will all appear only on that one transparent layer. Now you can
erase those strokes and make a new one if you make a mistake. You also have the
option of reducing the effect of your retouching by decreasing the opacity of the
healing layer.
I placed the above tip in another publication at one time (frankly, I don't remember

which one) and got an email saying, "Yes but what if you don't want to change the
opacity of all of the retouching evenly?" That's a very good question that has a
simple answer: put the Lasso tool in Add mode and select all the spots you do want
to change the opacity of. Then press Cmd/Ctrl-X to cut them from the current
retouching layer and then Cmd/Ctrl-V to paste the contents of that selection to a
new layer. Then change the opacity of the new layer.
8.1.1.1. Spot Healing brush
The beauty of the Spot Healing brush is that it's a big time-saver. Size it to cover
the target spot or zit by pressing the [ (left square bracket) to make the brush
smaller or ] (right square bracket) to make the brush larger) keys and click.
Photoshop fills the surrounding area with its textureprovided you made the brush
size too big. How do you know when you've made the brush size too big? Look
carefully at the ex-spot and see if it's been filled with the surrounding texture. If it
hasn't, just undo (Cmd/Ctrl-Z) and switch to the Healing brush tool (see the
"Healing brush" section next). In Figure 8-1, I have intentionally exaggerated the
spots and blemishes that you can easily fix by tapping them with the Spot Healing
brush. That's exactly what I did to the figure on the right.
Figure 8-1. On the left, you see skin defects. Thanks to the Spot Healing brush,
there are none on the right.
8.1.1.2. Healing brush
There are some areas that are too big for the Spot Healing brush to handle, or at
least to handle very well. You could deal with these areas pretty well with the
Patch Tool, but it won't sample to another layerat least not until some future
version of Photoshop. So thank Heaven for the Healing brush. The Healing brush
lets you set an anchor point to tell it what texture to use in the patch, then it always
blends that texture into any area you paint with the Healing brush.
There are two options for how to use the Healing brushSampled and Pattern. Most
of the time you'll want to use the Sampled button in the Options Bar. Pattern is
only useful if you want to replace an area with a pattern. The difference between
doing that with the Healing brush and the brush is that the Healing brush brings in

brightness and colors from the surrounding areas. You can get some really
interesting effects with this when you want to replace a cluttered background or
texture an object in a still life.
8.1.1.3. Patch tool
The Patch tool lets you select relatively large areas of the image that need to be
hidden or subdued. Simply use the tool to draw a freehand marquee around the
area you want blend with the surrounding area and then drag that selection to an
area that contains the same texture you want inside the "patched" area (see Figure
8-2).
Figure 8-2. The result of using the Patch tool on matching areasin this case the
bags and wrinkles under the eyes.
To use the Patch tool as nondestructively as possible:
1. Make a selection around the area that you want to patch that is large enough
to contain the target area for the patch. The target area is the place where
you want to drag the marquees. Once that selection is made, press Cmd/Ctrl-
J to lift it to a new layer. Figure 8-3 shows how that area would look to
produce the result shown in Figure 8-2.
Figure 8-3. An area of the image lifted as a layer so that patching can be
done nondestructively.
2. Click to activate the Source radio button in the Options Bar. Leave all the
other options at their default.
3. Once you've set your options, make a selection just as you would with the
Lasso tool. You'll get the same type of marching ants marquee.
4. Put the cursor inside the selection and drag it to a portion of the image that
has the pattern or texture you want to blend into the area that was originally
selected.
5. Use the Edit Fade command to lessen the effect of patching. The Patch
tool is so good at doing its job that it can produce an unrealistic or overly
idealized result. If you're patching a pair of matching characteristics, I often
find it better to click the Add option so that you can patch multiple areas at

once. Then, when you use the Fade command, both selections are faded to
exactly the same degree or with the new layer selected, just reduce its
Opacity (drag the slider to the left) until you see the effect you want.
There are times when you may want to see detail inside a patched selection. If you
have done the patch in its own layer, as suggested above, then it's easy to do. Just
use the Eraser tool in Brush mode to erase portions of the patch. If you just want
the Eraser to "fade" its result into the original, lower its Opacity in the Options Bar.
In this example, you could restore one or two of the lines if you thought that made
the subject look more realistic (e.g., if you were asked to make a business portrait
rather than a glamour portrait).
NOTE
I have used a portrait to show how the Patch tool is used because it's most often
used for retouching portraits; in general, portraits get more retouching than
anything else. However, you can just as well use it to restore the texture and color
of a section of graffiti painted wall or cracks in the pavement of a roadway.
8.1.2. Fencing off Healing
Miraculous as the Healing tools are, they're not perfect. If you're healing an area
that is too close to a contrasting area, Photoshop will simply give up trying to
figure out what the clone texture should be and will produce anything from a black
blob to a vignetted or "ghosted" picture of a nearby area. Figure 8-4 shows you
such a result.
Figure 8-4. The Spot Healing brush tried to incorporate texture information from
the area of the photo that you see under the cursor circle in the image at right. At
the right, after fencing off the area with the Lasso tool, the shades are blended
properly, but the Add Noise filter had to be used to match the grain of the rest of
the image.
When you are in this situation, there are two options. One I already suggestedraise
the area to be patched and patch from to a new layer. Since the patching then takes
place on the new layer that has been cut out of the original layer, there are no
neighboring pixels that can confuse the patch tool.

The other option, in case you're working on a multipurpose retouching layer and
making several patches, is to use the Lasso tool to make a selection that will "fence
off" the area within which you plan to patch or heal (see Figure 8-4). Just be aware
that this second technique works only with the Spot Healing and Healing brushnot
with the Patch tool. Imagine that you want to eliminate a hole in a wall next to a
door. Leave the door outside the selection so that Photoshop doesn't try to consider
it in the texture and color that belong within the patch.
Finally, you're less likely to "smudge" your retouching with the wrong neighboring
pixels if you make your stroke parallel to any contrasting pixels that border the