Heal, clone and retouch photographs

How it works#

Retouching tools serve different purposes. Clone Stamp copies image information from a chosen source, making it useful when texture must be reproduced deliberately. Healing Brush combines a chosen source with the destination, while Spot Healing offers a more automatic starting point for small blemishes. Remove and Patch provide other ways to repair selected or painted areas.

Choose a source near the repair when the surrounding texture and lighting should match. Work in small passes and inspect repeated patterns: a copied edge or distinctive mark can make a repair obvious. Tool options include sampling choices and, for relevant tools, sampling across layers. Check those settings before assuming a blank retouching layer will receive the result you expect.

Blur, Sharpen and Smudge affect local detail. Dodge and Burn lighten or darken areas using range and exposure controls; Sponge changes local saturation. Color Replacement targets layer pixels with sampling and tolerance options. These are image-editing operations, not generative prompts. Duplicate important content or keep a saved original so an overly strong repair can be corrected without reconstructing the photograph.

Try it#

1. Duplicate the image layer or choose an appropriate retouching layer and sampling mode.
2. Select a healing or cloning tool suited to the defect.
3. Use small strokes and inspect the texture around each repair.
4. Compare the result at normal viewing size before saving.