1
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:05,200
With older photos, there is a good chance that you'll find a lot of blemishes to
2
00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,232
clean up. And that can be both things that appeared
3
00:00:08,232 --> 00:00:11,677
in the original scene that you'd prefer to get rid of, as well as various causes
4
00:00:11,677 --> 00:00:16,188
of damage over time. It might be dust from an enlargement that
5
00:00:16,188 --> 00:00:21,190
was printed or scratches or other damage to a transparency, for example.
6
00:00:21,190 --> 00:00:24,179
But the point is with an older photo there is a good chance there is going to
7
00:00:24,179 --> 00:00:28,797
be a lot of image cleanup work to do. Fortunately, there is one tool in
8
00:00:28,797 --> 00:00:35,010
particular in Photoshop that can make easy work of a variety of image cleanup tasks.
9
00:00:35,010 --> 00:00:37,290
And that tool is the spot healing brush tool.
10
00:00:37,290 --> 00:00:41,184
Let's take a look at how we can use the spot healing brush tool to clean up
11
00:00:41,184 --> 00:00:46,290
various blemishes within a photo. I'm going to start off by creating a new
12
00:00:46,290 --> 00:00:49,518
empty image layer. At the bottom of the layer's panel I'll
13
00:00:49,518 --> 00:00:53,082
click on the Create New Layer button, the blank sheet of paper icon and then I'll
14
00:00:53,082 --> 00:00:57,380
double-click on the name of that layer and rename it.
15
00:00:57,380 --> 00:01:02,130
I'll go ahead and just type cleanup, for example, and then press Enter or Return.
16
00:01:02,130 --> 00:01:05,705
I do highly recommend that you rename these pixel based layers that you create
17
00:01:05,705 --> 00:01:09,115
for image cleanup so that you won't be confused later as to why that layer is
18
00:01:09,115 --> 00:01:15,144
there and what it was used for. With the image clean up layer created
19
00:01:15,144 --> 00:01:20,150
I'll go ahead and choose the spot healing brush tool from the toolbox.
20
00:01:20,150 --> 00:01:24,270
I'll then check the options bar to make sure the settings are as I would like them.
21
00:01:24,270 --> 00:01:27,861
The most important settings here are to take advantage of the content aware
22
00:01:27,861 --> 00:01:31,452
technology for the type option and to turn on the sample all layers check box
23
00:01:31,452 --> 00:01:35,271
so that we can actually work on an empty layer while still copying pixels from the
24
00:01:35,271 --> 00:01:41,225
background image layer. That's all that's involved in terms of a
25
00:01:41,225 --> 00:01:44,930
basic configuration of the spot healing brush tool.
26
00:01:44,930 --> 00:01:48,370
The only other thing I'll want to do is to adjust the brush size.
27
00:01:48,370 --> 00:01:51,604
I can use the left square bracket key on the keyboard to reduce the brush size, or
28
00:01:51,604 --> 00:01:56,060
the right square bracket key on the keyboard to increase the brush size.
29
00:01:56,060 --> 00:01:59,492
Generally speaking, you'll want a brush that is sized no larger than the object
30
00:01:59,492 --> 00:02:04,122
that you're trying to clean up. I also recommend working with a
31
00:02:04,122 --> 00:02:07,818
hard-edged brush. So, from the brush pop-up, you'll want to
32
00:02:07,818 --> 00:02:11,090
make sure that that hardness is set to 100%.
33
00:02:11,090 --> 00:02:14,522
And that's because, Photoshop going to perform the blending for you, you don't
34
00:02:14,522 --> 00:02:17,460
need to have a blended edge for the brush.
35
00:02:17,460 --> 00:02:20,660
I'll go ahead and zoom in on some of the areas here that could used to be cleaned
36
00:02:20,660 --> 00:02:23,660
up just a little bit, you can see some horse droppings in the middle of the
37
00:02:23,660 --> 00:02:28,400
street, for example. If I want to Remove them, all I need to
38
00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:31,802
do is Paint over those areas with the Spot Healing Brush tool and that area of
39
00:02:31,802 --> 00:02:35,610
the image will be cleaned up automatically.
40
00:02:35,610 --> 00:02:39,150
So, I can continue in this manner, cleaning up the various blemishes, in
41
00:02:39,150 --> 00:02:43,620
this case what has been left behind by some of the horses.
42
00:02:43,620 --> 00:02:46,790
So that I can improve the overall appearance of the photo.
43
00:02:46,790 --> 00:02:51,740
Of course, zooming in to other portions of the image, you might find other blemishes.
44
00:02:51,740 --> 00:02:55,590
Up here in the sky, for example, there appears to be a few blemishes.
45
00:02:55,590 --> 00:03:01,740
I can simply click and paint over those blemishes to remove them from the image.
46
00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:05,827
And because I'm using the content aware option, the effect should blend in very,
47
00:03:05,827 --> 00:03:09,519
very well with surrounding areas of the photo.
48
00:03:09,519 --> 00:03:14,130
So, I'll go ahead and clean up all the various blemishes that I see in this photo.
49
00:03:14,130 --> 00:03:17,445
I obviously have a little bit more work to do, but by turning off the visibility
50
00:03:17,445 --> 00:03:20,454
for the clean up layer and then turning it back on, you can see that those
51
00:03:20,454 --> 00:03:25,900
blemishes reappear when I turn off the visibility for this layer.
52
00:03:25,900 --> 00:03:29,350
But then the blemishes disappear when I have that layer turned on.
53
00:03:29,350 --> 00:03:33,303
So I can simply continue working adjusting the brush size as needed as I
54
00:03:33,303 --> 00:03:37,890
continue with removing blemishes from the photo.
55
00:03:37,890 --> 00:03:40,690
And you can see it's a very, very simple process.
56
00:03:40,690 --> 00:03:44,460
All I need to do really is to configure things initially, and then identify for
57
00:03:44,460 --> 00:03:48,840
Photoshop which areas of the image I'd like it to clean up.
58
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:55,973
And once I've done that it will perform that clean up work automatically