healing brush: how to avoid color bleeding on edge

[ronfya]

Hi there,

How do you use the healing brush properly along one side of a straight edge ?

I mean, say you have 2 very contrasted textured areas with a sharp straight edge as a boundary. One blue and one yellow for example.

I want to heal the blue area without losing texture so at some point, I need my healing brush.

Problem is, if I make a selection of the blue area to work only on that one, when I am trying to heal around the edge, I have yellow bleeding into my bluea area.

Any fix ?

Thanks

[Tony W]

You might try making a selection of the area to be healed first i.e. using one of the selection tools rectangle, oval etc. This way the healing will be confined to the area you defined.

[ronfya]

Hello Tony,

This is exactly what I am doing.

I select the blue area to be healed with the marquee tool. The selection follows the edge nicely.

Then I take my healing brush, sample some blue and start healing along the edge but then I always have some yellow bleeding in the blue.

I don't know why ...

[tal_ninio]

The Healing brush doesn't know how to handle high contrast areas. It is meant to blend color and maintain texture, so it blends colors

You will have to use the Clone Stamp Tool for these areas.
Best used on a separate layer. Try using 75% opacity of this tool. It will take you longer but will work better.

[Der_W]

Put your sample point on the edge itself and heal going from the edge to the area you want to heal.
This way Photoshop will now it's an edge and not bleed into it.

Other solutions would be (asymmetric) frequency separation, but imho this would be completely overkill if it's just about minor bleeding.

[julianmarsalis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUt5...layer_embedded

[ronfya]

haaaa that's good
thanks mate !

[ray12]

Hi ronfya,

For me the "spot healing brush" seems to go out to random places from the healing point... and tries to collect random texture samples and bring them back to the heal point...so I often end up with smudges in the heal point if I am physically near a hard boundry (Healing near the hair line or eyebrows for example would give me smudged samples of hair on the nearby skin). In that case I hit the "undo" command to clear out and erase that particular sample... and then I click in that same place again... to get a new random sample point from the tool. I might have to hit a heal point over and over again 4 or 5 times to come up with a non-contaminated, non smudged heal. This is the strength/weakness of this particular tool.

If im working in a known troublesome boundry area... I usually drop down to the "healing brush" instead of the "spot healing" brush. With the healing brush its not so automatic. I have to choose the sample point myself manually by clicking the alt/option key. This is good... because I am going to choose a good and intelligent sample point to heal from...not a random, uncontrolled, sample point like the spot healing brush does.

The ultimate tool for healing for me is the clone stamp tool. Why? Because you get to choose the sample point manually...and you can sample the heal based on what texture you want in it... as well as sample some lighter or darker colors and mix your samples to get a nice skin color blending as well as texture healing. The reason I use this tool the most is because it is the only tool of the 3 that has an "opacity" setting so I can control the strength of the heal...that gives me great visual freedom and power. Healing at 100 percent opacity is often too strong and coarse for sensitive areas. Id rather set the opacity at 30% and have to click the heal point 3 times to get a full heal...I get better visual control and blending that way.

So for me, the casual rule is...I use the "spot healing" tool for the first pass in clear open areas... like near the cheeks and nose and forehead ...areas that are not near strong hard edges. If I get a smudge...I immediately undo and try several times again till I get rid of it. If it is still troublesome, I drop back to the "healing brush" tool and sample my own points for more control... and I may also use the other tools to do some skin color blending as well as spot healing. My most powerful choice is the old "clone/stamp" tool. I get to control the sample point and also the density of the heal...sometimes that is absolutely essential.

Final thing. I always heal on a clear transparent layer above the image by creating a "new transparent layer". To do this I have to remember to check the "sample from all layers" check box on the heal tools. Otherwise it wont let me heal on a new clear layer. This way my blemishes are on a separate layer. If I need to erase or fade down a certain small part later...no problem. Ill also sometimes do another clear layer for wrinkle management, and maybe another clear layer for hair cloning. Using new transparent layers as a rule... gives me ultimate creative flexibility.

I will also closely watch that "aligned" checkbox on the tools too. Sometimes I dont want the sample point to move with me...sometimes I want to have the sample point to be the same place for several heal clicks. And if I click and drag with my mouse to heal...the sample point moves with the drag...so I will often click, click, click to do the heal... because I want the exact sample point...and not a swath of samples.

Cheers,

[dmrdm]

Originally Posted by julianmarsalis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUt5...layer_embedded

Great video. TFS

[brodiebutler]

Originally Posted by Der_W

Put your sample point on the edge itself and heal going from the edge to the area you want to heal.
This way Photoshop will now it's an edge and not bleed into it.

Other solutions would be (asymmetric) frequency separation, but imho this would be completely overkill if it's just about minor bleeding.

Hrmm I dont think your frequency seperation would be overkill. You can setup an action to do it in a matter of seconds, and its worth it. Being able to heal/clone texture independant of the tones is a great advantage. Dont have to worry about any bleeding on contrasty edges. I use it even if Im not doing high-end retouches. It comes in handy a lot

its all personal preference.

[julianmarsalis]

Originally Posted by brodiebutler

Hrmm I dont think your frequency seperation would be overkill. You can setup an action to do it in a matter of seconds, and its worth it. Being able to heal/clone texture independant of the tones is a great advantage. Dont have to worry about any bleeding on contrasty edges. I use it even if Im not doing high-end retouches. It comes in handy a lot

its all personal preference.

+1

People have created some awesome actions and I now never start an edit without em lol....
http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?th...1#post14858179

[Der_W]

Don't get me wrong, I do frequency separation on almost all of the images I work on :-).

But if it's just about one single color bleed that you have problems with, I don't think it's necessary to do it (though if you do, you should do it for all/most of the clean up as it'll be much faster - just for one healing attempt it's too much).

[Nienna]

Frequency seperation would solve this problem. That way when you heal on the high frequency you dont have to worry about color blending.
you can then even work on the low frequency to match color if you want.

[enaamorado]

Originally Posted by Nienna

Frequency seperation would solve this problem. That way when you heal on the high frequency you dont have to worry about color blending.
you can then even work on the low frequency to match color if you want.

Can you explain what is HIGH Frequency???

[Der_W]

Look at this thread here, it should help: http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?th...=1#post9585669

[mushmush]

I would say make the selection a layer- then copy that layer
Working on the top layer- load the layer as a selection- then use the healing tool
The necessity of two layers is from the healing brush will actually affect the opacity at the edge of that top layer

[Pari Retouch]

Originally Posted by Nienna

Frequency seperation would solve this problem. That way when you heal on the high frequency you dont have to worry about color blending.
you can then even work on the low frequency to match color if you want.

+1
I do it all the time healing with Frequency separation is a great solution