Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [189]
Source and Destination modes
In Source mode you drag the patch tool selection area to a new destination point to replace the pixels in the original source selection area with those sampled from the new destination area. In Destination mode you drag the patch tool selection area to a new destination point to copy the pixels from the original source selection area and clone them to the new destination area.
Use Pattern option
The Use Pattern button in the Options bar lets you fill a selected area with a pattern preset using a healing type blend.
1.
The patch tool works in a way that is similar to the healing brush. In the picture opposite, I was able to use the patch tool in Source mode to cover up the tattoo on this model's body. When you select the patch tool you can use it just like the lasso tool to draw around the outline of the area you wish to ‘patch’, and loosely define a selection area. However, as was mentioned in the main text you can use any selection tool method you like to define the selection as you prepare an image for patching.
2.
Having defined the area I wanted to patch, I made sure that the patch tool was selected (and was in Source mode) and dragged inside the selection to locate an area of the image that could be used to ‘patch over’ the original area (i.e. remove the tattoo). As I dragged the patch selection this created a second selection area which I could use to define the area to clone from. Meanwhile, I was able to see a live preview in the original patch selection, indicating which pixels would be cloned to this selection area.
3.
As I released the mouse, Photoshop began calculating a healing blend, analyzing the pixels from the source area (that I had just defined) and used these to merge them seamlessly with the pixels in the original selection area. The result of this patch transformation was pretty impressive. It managed to remove the tattoo, but you'll notice that a dark shadow remained in the middle of the patch area.
4.
This is something that is only to be expected and simply means that the patch tool action wasn't completely successful at removing the tattoo in one single step. The original patch tool selection was still active, so all I had to do was carry out a further patch tool action by repeating Step 2. This screen shot shows what the model's body looked like after applying the patch tool twice. As you can see, all traces of the tattoo were now gone.
Spot healing in Content-Aware mode
When working with the spot healing brush in the default Proximity Match mode you have to be careful not to work too close alongside sharply contrasting areas in case this cause the edges to bleed (as was shown on page 425). The spot healing brush now features a new Content-Aware mode which intelligently works out how best to fill the areas you retouch when you use the spot healing brush.
Cache limit
The content-aware healing does make use of the image cache levels set in the Photoshop performance preferences to help speed up the healing computations. If you have the Cache limit set to 4 or fewer levels, this can compromise the performance of the spot healing brush in Content-Aware mode when carrying out big heals. It is therefore recommended that you raise the cache limit to 6 or higher.
Let's now look at what the spot healing brush is capable of when used in this mode. In the Figure 8.11 example there were a lot of electric cables and wires in the original photograph that spoiled the view. By using the spot healing brush in Content-Aware mode I was able to carefully remove all of these to produce the finished photo shown below it. Although the end result was quite effective I should point out that you do still have to apply a certain amount of skill in your brush work and choice of settings in order to use this tool effectively. To start with I found