How to Use Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush Tool

1. Select brush settings.
2. Choose a blending mode (optional).
3. Choose whether to sample all layers.
4. Specify a healing method.
5. Apply the Spot Healing Brush.
6. Troubleshoot your fixes.

The following step-by-step instructions on how to use the Spot Healing Brush tool refer to the sample image shown here. As you can see, this desert landscape shot contains various flaws in the sky, such as spots and lines, that the Spot Healing Brush tool can quickly fix.

 

1. Select the Brush Settings

The first step in using the Spot Healing Brush tool is to choose the brush settings that will make your repairs as easy as possible. To adjust the settings of the brush:

 

1. Click on the arrow to the right of the brush size icon in the Quick Selection toolbar.
2. A menu will appear in which you can adjust six parameters of your brush:
   1. Diameter: Changes the size of the brush in pixels. Settings range from 1–2500 pixels. You can also change brush size by pressing the [ or ] keys.
   2. Hardness: The harder the brush, the more precise its selections will be. Settings range from 0–100%, with 100% being the hardest brush. Keep hardness set to 100% when using the Spot Healing Brush tool.
   3. Spacing: Controls the distance between the brush marks in a stroke—in other words, how often the brush “touches” the target area in a single stroke. Settings range from 1–1000%. Generally it’s best to keep Spacing set to 100%, but higher numbers will yield finer selections.
   4. Angle: Specifies the angle at which the brush strikes the target area, relative to the horizontal axis. Settings range from 0° to +180° (for angles above the horizontal) and from 0° to −180° (for angles below the horizontal). The angle that you choose can make it easier to access certain parts of an image, such as corners or other tight spots.
   5. Roundness: Specifies the shape of the tip of the brush. A circular brush has a value of 100%, a linear brush has a value of 0%, and any setting in between makes the tip of the brush elliptical. Adjusting the roundness can be helpful when you need your brush to focus on parts of the target area that would be difficult to pinpoint with the default 100% round brush.
   6. Size: This setting applies only if you’re using an external input device, such as a pen or stylus wheel. If you’re not, keep it set to Off. Otherwise, choose the input device that you’re using.

Which Settings Should You Choose?

• Always use a brush with a diameter slightly larger than the flaw you’re trying to fix.

For instance, if you’re trying to remove dust spots that are about 10–15 pixels wide, you’d want to use a brush with a diameter of 20–30 pixels or so. Doing so will help the tool’s sampling feature work better, which in turn will make your fixes appear more seamless. You can use the bracket keys—the [ and ] keys—to change the diameter of your brush on the fly while working with the Spot Healing Brush tool.

 

2. Choose a Blending Mode (Optional)

Photoshop’s blending modes are settings that determine how the existing pixels in an image are affected when a painting or editing tool is applied to those pixels. Blending modes are an advanced Photoshop concept that you don’t need to understand in order to use the Spot Healing Brush tool effectively. As a beginner, in almost all situations you’ll get satisfying results simply by skipping this step and leaving the blending mode set to Normal.

 

3. Choose Whether to Sample All Layers

4. Specify a Healing Method

• Proximity Match: Samples pixels from around the edge of the selection and then uses those pixels to fix the flaw in the selected area
• Create Texture: Samples all the pixels within the selection and then creates a texture to patch the area
   
  

Which Healing Method Should You Choose?

• Try your fix with the Proximity Match setting first. If you don’t get satisfying results, undo your work (press Ctrl+Z on PC, Command+Z on a Mac), switch to the Create Texture method, try again, and see whether your results improve. If neither method yields good results, you’re probably best off trying another retouching tool, such as the Patch tool or the Clone Stamp tool, to make the fix.

5. Apply the Spot Healing Brush

• Clicking: The best way to remove spots and other small imperfections is simple— set your brush to a diameter slightly larger than the spot, position the brush around the spot, and click once. The spot will vanish and be patched seamlessly. The spots surrounded by yellow circles in the sample image shown here can all be removed using the clicking method.
• Stroking: To remove line-shaped flaws, such as hairs, cracks, or other fine lines, set the brush diameter to a size slightly wider than the line and then click and drag from one end of the line to the other. As you click and drag, a black shadow will trace your progress to show you what you’ve covered so far. When you release the mouse button at the end of the line, the shadow will vanish and the patch will cover the unwanted element. All the line-shaped flaws surrounded by red circles in the sample image shown here can be removed using the stroking method.
• Painting: To remove larger unwanted elements, such as the vehicles shown in the foreground in the sample image, you need to take a more elaborate approach. Set the brush to an average-size diameter (20–30 pixels), and then click and drag the brush back and forth in a zigzag pattern across the entire unwanted element—as in the stroking method, a black shadow will track your progress. Release the mouse button only once you’ve “painted” over the entire element. After you release the mouse button, Photoshop will compare the element that you’ve painted with the surrounding pixels and patch the entire area. The vehicles in the sample image (surrounded by the green circle) can be removed using the painting method.
   
  
   
  

6. Troubleshoot Your Fixes

• Clicking: Clicking on spots is the most consistent and effective approach to using the Spot Healing Brush tool. Problems with the clicking method typically result from an improper brush diameter. For instance, if your brush diameter is too large, your fix might sample pixels that don’t match the area you intend to patch. In that case, your best bet would be to undo your work (Ctrl+Z on a PC or Command+Z on a Mac), resize the brush to a smaller diameter, and try again. If your brush is too small, you might end up sampling pixels from the unwanted spot itself. In that case, you’d want to undo and repeat the process with a brush slightly larger than the spot.
• Stroking: The stroking method works consistently well on line-shaped flaws, but only if those flaws occur within an area that contains the same consistent color, texture, and so on. If you’re trying to remove a line-shaped flaw from an area with more than one dominant color or pattern, try stroking in stages—click and drag on one part of the flaw until you reach an area in which the underlying color or texture changes. At that point, release the mouse button, then start again at the spot where the color or texture changes, and proceed until the end of the flaw or until you reach another area of differing color or texture. Stroking is also the one method in which the Create Texture setting often works better than the Proximity Match setting. If you’re not getting satisfying results with the Proximity Match setting, undo your work and try switching to the Create Texture setting.
• Painting: The painting approach yields the least consistent results of the three methods and always requires some extra care. The key to making it work is to do repeated passes over the area that contains the unwanted elements. For instance, after just one pass over the vehicles in the sample image, some ugly “residue” remains, as shown in the image here. By taking a few extra passes over the area with the Spot Healing Brush, the residue itself gets patched. In other words, if your first try with the painting method doesn’t yield the results you want, repeat until you’re able to create a seamless patch.