The Gentle Art of Retouching

To get through that iceberg tip, very briefly , here's how the Clone Stamp, the Pattern Stamp the Healing Brush, and the Patch tool, all pictured in Figure 2-1, all work:

• Clone stamp: The Clone Stamp tool replicates pixels from one area in an image to another. This makes the Clone Stamp ideally suited for removing dust and repairing minor defects, as well as eliminating distracting background elements, as you'll see in the very next section.

• Pattern stamp: The Pattern Stamp tool paints with a repeating image tile selected from Photoshop's library of predefined patterns. You can also define your own pattern using Edit Define Pattern or Filter Pattern Maker. For more information, see the section "Applying Repeating Patterns" in the latter half of this chapter.

• Healing brush: The Healing Brush is an expanded version of the Clone Stamp tool that merges texture detail from one portion of an image with color and brightness values from another. This gives you more flexibility when retouching imperfections, particularly when you want to repair tricky defects, such as scratches and wrinkles . Like the Clone Stamp tool, the Healing Brush alternatively lets you retouch with a pattern.

• Spot Healing brush: Instead of having to sample content and set a source point, all you have to do is click the tool on top of the offending spot ” a small scratch, stain , blemish, or any other small area of unwanted content.

  Photoshop CS2  

  New in Photoshop CS2, the Spot Healing Brush works very much like the Healing Brush in terms of its results, but the mechanism is a bit different when it comes to your role in the process. This tool is so simple to use that its coverage is found in the standard edition of this book, rather than here in the Professional Edition.

• Patch tool: A variation on the Healing Brush, the Patch tool again merges the texture from one area of an image with colors and brightness values from another. The difference is that rather than brushing in changes, the Patch tool repairs entire selections at a time.

• Red Eye Removal tool: This simple tool, covered in detail in the Photoshop CS2 Bible, Standard Edition, is used to click on the offending glowing pupil and remove the glow, in favor of a relatively natural-looking pupil and iris. Works best on human eyes, still gives less-than -wonderful results on animals' eyes.

Figure 2-1: You can retouch an image using another portion of the same image, another open image, or a repeating pattern.

Obviously, these are but the skimpiest of introductions , but the rest of this chapter provides copious detail and comprehensive instructions. Keep reading to find out when, how, and why to use Photoshop's entire spectrum of retouching tools.