How to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop

How to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop? It's a very clever little tool, that probably doesn't get as much attention as the clone tool, but it should. Great for fixing flyaway hairs, really deep creases in faces, small skin imperfection, but also power lines in landscapes, sensor spots and so much more.

Where to find the Spot Healing Brush Tool?

In the Tool Panel on the left-hand side (usually) you can find it under the Healing Tool or Spot Healing Tool section, you will also find the Patch Tool and such. Hold the small triangle on the bottom corner for the menu to fly out, you can then select the Spot Healing Tool from there. Make sure you select the correct one, as the Healing Brush Tool acts slightly differently than the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

How to use it?

Once you have the Spot Healing Tool selected, you can right-click to change the softness and size of the tool. Make sure the mode is set to normal and Content Aware is selected. Then just draw carefully over the area to be fixed. Sometimes you may have to draw over an area more than once. The magic of Adobe's AI power and the content-aware dynamics will select suitable pixels to replace the ones selected. OK, so sometimes it's not perfect, undo (Ctrl +Z) and try again. But I find it a super hand tool. There is a keyboard shortcut for it, which is 'J'.

Other uses for the Spot Healing Tool

Stray hairs are my favourite, but power lines, sensor spots and more. It is only limited to your imagination.

Perfect for fixing those pesky sensor spots

So next time you need to fix a little area in a photo, don't just head for the Clone Tool. There is another option with the Spot Healing Brush Tool, especially if you use a graphics pen and tablet...just wonderful.