Select the Healing Brush tool.
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Retouch a large area with the Healing Brush tool
Last updated on
Oct 27, 2025
Learn how to use the Healing Brush tool in Adobe Photoshop to retouch and restore large areas in your image, blending them with the surrounding texture, lighting, and tone.
Set the brush's Size, Hardness, and Spacing from the brush options dropdown menu in the Options bar.
Configure the Healing Brush tool settings in the Options bar:
Mode
Select a blending mode for your healing strokes:
- Normal: Default setting, blends seamlessly with surrounding pixels.
- Replace: Preserves noise and texture on the brush edges.
- Multiply: Darkens by multiplying the base color with the blend color.
- Screen: Lightens by applying the blend color over the base color.
- Darken: Retains only the darker pixels in the blend.
- Lighten: Retains only the lighter pixels in the blend.
- Color: Blends hue and saturation while retaining luminosity from the base.
- Luminosity: Blends brightness while retaining hue and saturation from the base.
Source
Select where Photoshop samples the pixels from:
- Sampled ICON: Uses pixels from the current image.
- Pattern ICON: Uses a chosen pattern. Select the pattern from the panel that appears.
Aligned ICON
Toggle the Aligned checkbox to control how Photoshop continues sampling:
- On: Continuously samples pixels as you paint.
- Off: Reuses the initial sample point each time you start painting.
Sample
Determine which layers are used as the source:
- Current Layer: Samples only from the active layer.
- Current & Below: Samples from the active layer and visible layers beneath.
- All Layers: Samples from all visible layers.
- Ignore Adjustment Layers: Select the adjustment layer ICON to exclude adjustment layers from sampling.
Diffusion
Control how quickly the repaired area blends with the surroundings:
- Lower values: Best for detailed textures and edges.
- Higher values: Best for smooth, gradient-like areas.
Press Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and select the area you want to sample. This defines the source pixels for retouching.
Tip
For areas with strong edge contrasts, create a selection slightly larger than the area you’re retouching. This prevents colors from bleeding in from outside the target area.
If you’re sampling from one image and applying it to another, both must use the same color mode, unless one is grayscale.
Drag over the area you want to repair. The sampled pixels blend smoothly with the surrounding image.
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