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When you have a relatively large area of a photo that you want to clean up in some
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way for example, correcting damage such as that you see at the bottom left of
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this image is selection based cleanup is often the easiest approach.
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And when you want to use a selection as the basis of a cleanup in Photoshop.
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The best choice of tools is the Patch tool.
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Now, I actually didn't use to be a big fan of the patch tool in prior versions
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of Photoshop, because it didn't allow you to work on a separate empty image layer.
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In order to use the patch tool non-destructively, you had to create a
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copy of your background image layer, which would double the overall file size.
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Now, with Photoshop CS6 we're able to use the patch tool on an empty layer, and
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that's certainly my preferred way of working.
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So, let's take a look at how we can patch this area of the image at the bottom left
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corner, using the patch tool. One thing to keep in mind with the patch
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tool is that we're only able to work on a separate empty image layer if the image
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is in the RGB color mode. I generally prefer to scan original
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images into the RGB color space in any event.
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But if you are working with a gray scale image, you'll need to convert it to RGB
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first if you want to work in this way. You can see that this image is currently
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in the gray scale mode, and so I'm going to switch it to the RGB color mode first.
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I'll go ahead and choose Image and then mode followed by RGB Color in order to
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convert this image to the RGB color space.
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Now, I can create a new empty image layer for my cleanup.
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I'll go ahead and click the Create New Layer button, the Blank Sheet of Paper
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icon, at the bottom of the Layers panel. And then I'll double-click on the name
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for this layer so that I can type a new name, pressing Enter or Return to apply
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that name change. Next, I'll choose the patch tool from the toolbox.
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The patch tool is hiding underneath the spot healing brush tool.
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So, I'll click and hold my mouse on the button for the spot healing brush tool in
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order to bring up the File menu, and then I'll choose the patch tool from that file menu.
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The patch tool behaves as a selection tool initially, specifically it behaves
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as though it were the Lasso Selection tool, and so I can simply click and drag
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on the image in order to create a selection and generally I will create a
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selection that is just a little bit larger than the area that I need to clean up.
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I'll then drag outside the image in this case, since the blemish continues all the
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way to the edge. I don't need to drag right along the
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edge, I just need to drag outside the image, and when I release to close my
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selection, that selection will automatically match up with the edge of
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the image. I now have a selection created that
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defines the area that I want to clean up. But before I actually clean up that area,
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I want to check my settings on the Options bar.
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For the Patch option I want to make sure that I have content aware selected,
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rather then normal. That makes sure that the Patch tool will
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take advantage of the content aware technology, which greatly improves your
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results in most cases. The adaptation option determines how much
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the pixels that you're using as the source to clean up the area that needs to
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be fixed can be adjusted. If I chose the very strict option, then
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virtually no change will be applied to most of the pixels that are being copied.
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If I chose very lose, then lots of change might be applied.
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When it's important to retain the exact structure, then you'll use very strict.
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And when you don't care at all about that structure, for example cleaning up a
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cloudy sky where randomness is actually a very good thing, then I would use very loose.
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For this image, I want to go somewhere in between.
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Because I want to retain the texture of the water, but I want Photoshop to be
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able to blend things a little bit, so that we get a little bit more randomness.
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So I'm going to use the medium option, I also need to make sure that the sample
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all layers check box is turned on. This is what enables me to copy pixels
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onto an empty layer from the layers below, in this case just my background
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image layer. So now I have the Patch tool completely configured.
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I'll go ahead and drag my selection. Now, as I do so, you'll notice that the
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area that I'm attempting to clean reflects that area underneath my current selection.
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So, as I drag the section around, I'm able to get a pretty good sense of
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whether or not the area that my mouse is currently over represents a good source
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of pixels for that destination area. I will come out over here into an open
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area of water, making sure that I keep the entire selection inside the image.
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If I drag downward a little bit for example you will see that I am revealing
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the portion of the original unpatched area at the bottom left corner, so I'll
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drag that selection back up, make sure that the entire selection is over the
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water and then I will release the mouse. Photoshop will then process that area,
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and what it's done is copied pixels from my source area into the destination area
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and then attempted to blend them. And blend them both in terms of matching
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overall texture, but also blending into the surrounding area so that I hopefully
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have a very seamless result. I'll press Ctrl + D on Windows or Cmd + D
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on Macintosh in order to deselect that selection, so we can get a better look at
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the result. And overall it looks very very good.
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There is a little bit of obvious blending here.
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We can see a transition that's not so smooth in certain areas.
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For that type of cleanup I'll tend to use the Spot Healing Brush tool.
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So I'll go ahead and choose the Spot Healing Brush tool from the toolbox.
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I'll make sure that the settings are appropriate, specifically choosing the
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Content Aware option and Sample All layers, and then I can simply paint.
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I'll adjust my brush size a little using the left square bracket key to reduce the
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brush size or the right square bracket key to increase the brush size.
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And then I can paint along that seam and Photoshop will blend a little bit more
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for me. And in this case, that's working very,
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very well to blend the results so things look a little more seamless.
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So, I'll continue applying a little bit of cleanup there, until I'm happy with
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the final result. But by Turning Off the Visibility for the
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Cleanup Layer, you can see we go from an image that has this obvious scar on it,
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to an image that is blended pretty well. I could certainly continue applying a
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little bit more corrective work there to improve the blending.
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But as you can see, using the patch tool as the basis of a selection based image
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clean up can be very quick and easy, for serious blemishes.