How To Use The SPOT HEALING BRUSH TOOL With CONTENT-AWARE in Photoshop - ADVANCED Method Video Lecture | Mastering Adobe Photoshop CC 2017: Step by Step Tutorials - Design

Hey, everyone!
Welcome to the Photoshop Training Channel.
My name is Jesus Ramirez and you can find
me on Instagram @JRfromPTC.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you
how to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool with
Content-Aware to quickly remove blemishes
and other imperfections in your photos.
The Spot Healing Brush Tool is often used
in portrait photography and that’s what
we’re going to focus on in this tutorial.
But, I’m also going to show you how you
could use it in different types of photos.
So, first of all, select the Spot Healing
Brush Tool, which is here on the Tools Bar
or you can press J on the keyboard to enable
it.
Once you select the Spot Healing Brush Tool,
make sure the Type is Content-Aware.
This will make it possible to sample from
around the areas that we paint over.
So, what I’m going to do is I’m going
to create a New Layer, and I’m just going
to put that right above the portrait.
And with the Spot Healing Brush Tool selected,
I’m going to make sure that Sample All Layers
is checked and then, I’m going to remove
one of the wrinkles here on his face.
Notice that Photoshop did a pretty good job
in removing that wrinkle.
It’s non-destructive.
And this is probably how you have seen this
tool being used.
But, this tool is actually more powerful than
that.
Let me zoom in just to let you, so you could
see what I’m talking about.
So I painted over that wrinkle, and if you
saw my last tutorial, on the Patch Tool with
Content-Aware, you saw that I changed the
Blending Mode to Lighter colour, you could
also select Lighten and that brings back some
of the original texture of the skin.
So notice the before and after.
So the Lighten or the Lighter colour Blending
Mode work very similar.
You keep the brightest pixels, whether it’s
on the Blend Layer or the Base Layer.
In this case, we’re trying to remove the
wrinkle.
The wrinkle is obviously darker, so we’re
trying to hide those darker pixels.
And that is what we do by selecting Lighten.
Normal, also brings in some dark pixels that
you may or may not want.
So it’s a good idea to work in the Lighten
or Lighter colour Blending Mode.
Now, I’m going to zoom out and you’re
going to see one thing.
I’m going to disable this layer for now
and I’m going to create another layer.
I’m going to go back into the Spot Healing
Brush Tool, but this time I’m going to change
the mode from Normal to Lighten.
So we can actually do something very similar
by changing the Blending Mode of the tool,
not of the Layer.
So when I paint directly over the wrinkle,
I get a similar effect but it’s all in the
tool.
Let me zoom in, so that’s before and after.
Notice that I’m only removing the darker
pixels and so you can get a better understanding
of how this works, I’m just going try to
remove all the wrinkles here, on this part
of the face.
So I’m going to create yet another blank
layer.
The Blending Mode is Normal and I’m going
to change the mode to Normal on the Spot Healing
Brush Tool as well.
I still have Content-Aware selected and Sample
All Layers checked.
I’m going to increase the size of the brush
and I’m just going to, just do a big giant
heal on this area here and notice how Photoshop
introduces dark texture that really doesn’t
help this portrait.
I’m going to disable that layer, create
one more layer and the only change that I’m
going to make is change the Mode to Lighten.
Once again, the reason we’re selecting Lighten
is because we’re trying to remove the darker
pixels which make up the wrinkles.
So I’m going to paint over that same area
once again and notice the difference.
So it makes a huge difference when you select
Lighten in the Mode to remove the wrinkles
on the image.
I also want to point out that if you select
Lighten for the Mode and change the Blending
Mode from Normal to Darken, which is the opposite,
they cancel each other out and this layer
essentially becomes invisible.
And if I change it to Lighten, it’s basically
the same as Normal.
Notice that there is no difference when I
switch between them.
So usually I like to leave the Layer at Normal
and change the Mode to either Lighten or Darker
depending on what type of blemishes I’m
trying to remove.
In this case, I’m removing wrinkles and
some of these blemishes are dark.
So one way that you can think about it is
like this, if the blemish is darker than the
skin colour then choose Lighten.
If the blemish is brighter than the skin colour,
choose Darken.
In this case, all these wrinkles and a lot
of these blemishes are darker than the skin
tones, so, we need to choose Lighten and we
can continue painting.
So I’m just going to disable this layer
and start from scratch.
I’m going to create a New Layer and I’m
just going to remove some of these wrinkles
with the Lighten Blending Mode and notice
the great job that Photoshop does in removing
a lot of these blemishes and wrinkles, sunspots
and things of that sort.
When you’re working with the Spot Healing
Brush Tool it’s best to keep short, small
strokes.
You usually don’t want to do big giant strokes.
So just small, little strokes like you saw.
So that’s before and after.
You will notice one thing though, we have
this highlight here from the wrinkle, it’s
not very good.
We also have some of that skin right up here
that doesn’t go away because that is brighter.
The highlight is brighter.
So the Lighten Mode will not remove it.
So what we need to do is create a New Layer,
change it to Darken and we can start removing
some of that skin and see how that works and
we’re going to rid of this highlight here.
So that’s before and after.
And I’m going to double tap on the Hand
Tool just so that we could see what it looks
like.
And the Spot Healing Brush Tool doesn’t
always do that good of a job.
I’m noticing that I’m not really liking
that area here, so I can either bring down
the opacity or just give it another swipe.
Every time we give it another pass, it generates
different pixels.
The pixels are pretty random.
And also, just to show you how powerful this
tool is, I’m going to create another layer
and I’m going to change it to Lighten and
I’m just going to paint over the eyes so
we can get rid of the entire eye.
And I can start painting again in the areas
that Photoshop didn’t do that good of a
job and notice that pretty soon we’re going
to get something that looks fairly convincing,
just by quickly painting over this area.
Anyway, this is just an example of how powerful
Content-Aware fill technology is.
You saw that we removed that eye fairly quickly
and it’s look pretty convincing.
Obviously, we have some issues but you get
the idea.
Another reason why you should consider using
this technique is if you’re working with
an image that has a lot of detail, that it’s
either too dark or to bright that you don’t
want to get rid of and you want to get rid
of the opposite.
So, what I mean by that is, if I zoom in into
this area, you’ll see that we have strands
of hair coming out of his forehead but we
also have some blemishes.
So, what we could do is remove those blemishes
by creating a New Blank Layer, selecting the
Spot Healing Brush Tool, change the Mode to
Lighten because we want to keep the lighter
colours and conceal the darker ones.
So, in this case, these darker blemishes.
So when I start painting, you’ll see that
we start concealing the blemishes but we don’t
lose the detail of the hair.
So, that’s before and after.
So notice how we’ereremoving all of blemishes
right in between the hair and we don’t actually
lose the detail of those strands of hair.
So, I really think this technique is really
powerful and you should use it when retouching
your photos.
And, once again, to reiterate, if the blemishes
is darker than the skin tone, use the Mode
Lighten.
If the blemish we’re trying to remove is
brighter than the skin tone, then use the
Darken Mode.
And I’m going to enable this hot air balloon
layer just to show you that you could use
this tool to remove unwanted items in an image.
In this case, if we wanted to remove one of
these hot air balloons, we could simply select
the Spot Healing Brush Tool, change the Mode
to Normal, make sure that you’re in Content-Aware,
Sample All Layers, create a New Layer to always
work non-destructively.
And I’m going to increase the size of my
brush by tapping on the right bracket key
on the keyboard.
Painting over that balloon and Photoshop automatically
removes it.
The same thing will be true if we were trying
to remove this car from the street.
So, I’m going to create a New Layer right
above that and I’m going to just paint directly
over it.
Notice that Photoshop does a really good job
in removing these unwanted elements.
I missed a spot there so I’m just going
to tap and it will remove it.
Once again, don’t forget that this tutorial
is part of my Content-Aware series on my YouTube
Channel.
I have a playlist with tutorials that all
deal with Content-Aware and the different
tools that it is available in.
You can find the link to that playlist right
below this video.
Let me know in the comment below if these
techniques were new to you.
And if they are, are you going to start using
them in your workflow?
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Thank you so much for watching and I’ll
talk to you again soon.