Free Adobe Photoshop Website Designing Video Tutorial - Healing Brush and Patch Tool

In this Free Photoshop Web Designing Video Tutorial, we will show you how to use “Healing Brush Tool” and “Patch Tool”. These tools are also called retouching tools because you can make your images perfect by removing flaws such as blemishes, scratches etc using these tools. Healing Brush Tool is a better option than Clone Tool.

In Web Designing, both the tools are very helpful. If you want to put images in the website which have some blemishes then you can remove them using these tools according to your requirement. We suggest that you view our "Healing Brush Tool and Patch Tool Video Tutorial" to understand this visually and more easily.

By default Healing Brush Tool is visible. Press J to select Healing Brush Tool and Shift + J to switch between Healing Brush Tool and Patch Tool.

Functions of Photoshop Healing Brush Tool and Patch Tool:

1. Healing Brush Tool: This tool is used to remove flaws from an image by sampling the similar surrounding area. As a result, the repaired pixels merge seamlessly into the image.
2. Patch Tool: Patch tool is used to repair or replace image imperfections by some similar area from an image. For example: you can remove unwanted wrinkles on the face, black areas under a person's eye, some shiny spots on the image etc. This tool is a combination of Lasso Tool and Clone Stamp Tool”.

Healing Brush Tool and Patch Tool will also match the textures, lighting and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels.

Steps for using Healing Brush and Patch Tool

1. Select File > Open.
2. Select “Healing Brush Tool” from the toolbar or press J from the keyboard for removing flaws from your image.
3. Now, click on the Sampled (given in front of Source) option given in the tool options bar.
4. Choose your brush size according to the size of your flaw.
5. Press Alt + click on the area to be copied. This area should be similar to the area with the flaw .
6. Click and drag the brush over the area you want to heal. Do this until the area gets clear.
7. Now, if you want to repair image imperfection with pixels from another similar area , then select “Patch Tool” from the toolbar or press Shift + J.
8. There are two options of Patch tool will appear in the tool options bar i.e. Source, Destination.
9. Lets select “Source” in the tool options bar.
10. Make a selection. Click and drag your mouse on the area, which you want to replace.
11. Now, drag this selected area over the area, which you want to use as a patch to replace your imperfect area and release your mouse.
12. If you have “Destination” chosen on the options bar, the original selection area will be used as the patch (copied) material, and that patch will cover the spot where you stop your drag.

Healing Brush Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

When you select healing brush tool, related tool options appear in the Tool Options bar. These options are described below:

1. Brush: This option is used to set your brush. When you click on the Brush option, then a popup palette will appear with the following options:
   
   • Diameter: You can control the size of your brush using this option. You can change your brush size by dragging the slider or by entering a value in pixels.
   • Hardness: This sets the feathering on the brush edges. You can change the hardness of the brush by entering a value in percentage or simply use slider to change the value.
   • Spacing: Spacing controls the distance between the brush marks in a stroke. By default, value is set at 25% and it gives the appearance of a solid line.
   • Angle: Specifies the angle by which an elliptical or sampled brush's long axis is rotated from horizontal.
   • Roundness: Specifies the ratio between the brush's long and short axes.
   • Size: There are three options of size: Off, Pen Pressure, Stylus Wheel. To base the variation on the pen pressure choose “Pen Pressure”. To base the variation on the position of the pen thumbwheel select “ Stylus Wheel”. Choose “Off” to not vary the size.
   
   
2. Mode: There are various options of mode (i.e. normal, replace, multiply, screen, darken, etc.). Mode controls how image pixels are affected.
   
   
3. Source: Sampled and Pattern are the two options of Source. Source is use for repairing pixels. “Sampled” is use to repair pixels from the current image. “Pattern” is use to repair pixels from a pattern given in the pattern pop-up palette.
   
   Note: The Pattern option is not available for 16-bit images
   
   
4. Aligned: If you choose Aligned in the tool options bar, you can release the mouse button without losing the current sampling point. As a result, the sampled pixels are applied continuously, no matter how many times you stop and resume painting. If you deselect Aligned option the sampled pixels are applied from the initial sampling point each time you stop and resume painting.

Note: If you are taking sample from one image and applying to another, then both images must be in the same color mode unless one of the images is in Grayscale mode.

Patch Tool options given in the Tool Options Bar:

1. Destination: If you choose “Destination” from the tool options bar, then the original selection area will be used as the patch (copied), and the point where you stop your drag will be covered by this patch area.
   
   
2. Source: If you have “Source” chosen in the tool options bar”, the original selection area will use as a patch to replace your damaged area.