How to Correct an Image With the Spot Healing Tool

How to Correct an Image With the Spot Healing Tool. Image editing software products like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP have a number of ways to correct artifacts and defects in a digital image. The spot healing brush in GIMP 2.6 is an easy-to-use tool for fixing most image artifact problems. Sure, you may be able to also use the airbrush tool or the clone tool to remove artifacts, but the healing tool actually takes into consideration the areas around the artifact in addition to the actual pixels selected. It is excellent for eliminating wrinkles in scanned prints, but also very good at correcting other image defects. Follow the easy steps in this article to learn how to use the healing tool.

Instructions

1

The first step, as always, is to open your image in GIMP. I chose a monochrome image to make the corrections easier to see in the example. The healing brush works with all image modes in GIMP. Click on the healing brush to open the palette of choices.

2

The spot healing palette offers a variety of choices. You can select the size of the brush, opacity and type of brush. You can also adjust the dynamics of the brush like pressure and velocity. You can select how you want the artifact corrected. You can also choose how you want adjacent pixels handled. You may want to use fade out or merge the samples if you are adjusting for a long scratch or wrinkle.

3

Identify the areas you want to correct, and zoom in on those areas. In this image there are three areas: a shinny nose, a dust artifact to the side of the nose and a blemish on the bridge of the nose.

4

To use the brush you need to first select the source area of pixels you want. You will basically be replacing pixels in the destination with pixels you select from the source. If you were using an airbrush you would first have to use a color picker and then select the airbrush. The clone tool allows you to select the source from any layer by using the CONTROL key while clicking on the image. This does not select a color or shade, but rather selects all of the image properties for the pixels that you select. In this way it is similar to the CLONE tool, but also takes into account adjacent pixels. You can select a source from any active layer.

5

Once you have selected the source, release the CONTROL key and move the brush to the destination and click while painting in a small, circular motion. The pixels are replaced for the areas in the destination layer as you paint. For each artifact, first select the adjacent area and then paint the destination area.

6

This is the final image after healing. The destination pixels have been replaced with pixels from the source. I probably could have done a second pass on the bridge of the nose, since you can still see the blemish slightly. However, this blemish is a pockmark on the model's face and not a real artifact, so I wanted it to be slightly visible. The healing brush is like the clone tool, but has more variables and also impacts the adjacent pixels to make a smoother transition.

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How to Correct an Image With the Spot Healing Tool. Image editing software products like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP have a number of ways to correct artifacts and defects in a digital image. The spot healing brush in GIMP 2.6 is an easy-to-use tool for fixing most image artifact problems. Sure, you may be able to also use the airbrush tool or the clone tool to remove artifacts, but the healing tool actually takes into consideration the areas around the artifact in addition to the actual pixels selected. It is excellent for eliminating wrinkles in scanned prints, but also very good at correcting other image defects. Follow the easy steps in this article to learn how to use the healing tool.

Instructions

1

The first step, as always, is to open your image in GIMP. I chose a monochrome image to make the corrections easier to see in the example. The healing brush works with all image modes in GIMP. Click on the healing brush to open the palette of choices.

2

The spot healing palette offers a variety of choices. You can select the size of the brush, opacity and type of brush. You can also adjust the dynamics of the brush like pressure and velocity. You can select how you want the artifact corrected. You can also choose how you want adjacent pixels handled. You may want to use fade out or merge the samples if you are adjusting for a long scratch or wrinkle.

3

Identify the areas you want to correct, and zoom in on those areas.

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. In this image there are three areas: a shinny nose, a dust artifact to the side of the nose and a blemish on the bridge of the nose.
4

To use the brush you need to first select the source area of pixels you want. You will basically be replacing pixels in the destination with pixels you select from the source. If you were using an airbrush you would first have to use a color picker and then select the airbrush. The clone tool allows you to select the source from any layer by using the CONTROL key while clicking on the image. This does not select a color or shade, but rather selects all of the image properties for the pixels that you select. In this way it is similar to the CLONE tool, but also takes into account adjacent pixels. You can select a source from any active layer.

5

Once you have selected the source, release the CONTROL key and move the brush to the destination and click while painting in a small, circular motion. The pixels are replaced for the areas in the destination layer as you paint. For each artifact, first select the adjacent area and then paint the destination area.

6

This is the final image after healing. The destination pixels have been replaced with pixels from the source. I probably could have done a second pass on the bridge of the nose, since you can still see the blemish slightly. However, this blemish is a pockmark on the model's face and not a real artifact, so I wanted it to be slightly visible. The healing brush is like the clone tool, but has more variables and also impacts the adjacent pixels to make a smoother transition.

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