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Everyday Photo Fixes: Straightening, Removing Objects, and Enhancing Details Non-Destructively

Capítulo 10

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Non-Destructive Mindset for Everyday Fixes

Everyday photo fixes are usually small, fast edits: straighten a horizon, remove a distracting object, clean sensor dust, and add a touch of crispness. The key is to keep everything reversible. In practice, that means: (1) crop/straighten without committing too early, (2) do retouching on dedicated layers, and (3) sharpen in a way you can dial back or mask to specific areas.

Straighten/crop: use the Crop tool and keep flexibility as long as possible.
Remove distractions: use healing/fill tools on separate “retouch” layers so the original pixels remain untouched.
Enhance details: sharpen with a duplicate layer and a mask so you can target only what needs it (often eyes, texture, or key edges).

Crop and Straighten (with Content-Aware)

When to do it

Straightening is often the first “structural” fix because it affects composition and can create empty triangles at the edges. Content-Aware Crop can help fill those gaps, but it’s not magic—busy patterns and strong lines may need manual cleanup afterward.

Step-by-step: Straighten a horizon cleanly

Select the Crop tool.
In the options bar, enable Straighten (the level icon) and drag along a line that should be horizontal/vertical (horizon, building edge, table line).
Adjust the crop box to keep important content in frame.
Enable Content-Aware in the Crop options (if available in your version) to fill the blank edges created by rotation.
Commit the crop.

Practical tips

Don’t over-rotate: small corrections usually look more natural than “perfect geometry,” especially in handheld shots.
Check edges at 100%: Content-Aware fills can create repeating textures or smears near borders; plan to retouch those areas on a separate layer if needed.
Keep options open: if you’re unsure about framing, do a conservative crop first and refine later.

Removing Distractions on Separate Retouch Layers

Set up a safe retouching structure

Before you remove anything, create one or more empty layers dedicated to retouching. This keeps your edits editable and lets you reduce opacity or mask them later if the result feels too strong.

Create a new empty layer named Retouch – Heal.
Create another new empty layer named Retouch – Patch/Fill (optional but helpful for organization).
For tools that support it, set them to sample from the underlying image using Sample: Current & Below (or equivalent).

Tool chooser: which one to use?

Problem	Best starting tool	Why
Small specks (sensor dust, tiny spots)	Spot Healing Brush	Fast, blends automatically
Skin blemish with nearby clean skin	Healing Brush	You choose the sample point for better control
Medium object with clear surrounding texture	Patch tool	Great for replacing an area with a nearby region
Larger distraction or complex area	Content-Aware Fill	More control over what Photoshop samples

Spot Healing Brush (quick cleanup)

Use this for tiny distractions: dust spots, small pimples, little bits of lint. It’s fast, but can struggle near edges or high-contrast details.

Select Spot Healing Brush.
Set Sample All Layers (or work on your retouch layer with sampling enabled).
Use a brush slightly larger than the spot.
Click once per spot (avoid painting long strokes unless necessary).

Healing Brush (controlled healing)

Use this when Spot Healing makes a smudge or repeats a pattern. Healing Brush lets you define the source texture.

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Select Healing Brush.
Set sampling to Current & Below (so you can work on an empty layer).
Alt/Option-click to sample a clean area with similar texture and lighting.
Paint over the blemish in short strokes.
Resample often if the lighting/texture changes across the face or surface.

Patch Tool (replace an area with another area)

Patch is ideal for removing a medium-sized distraction on textured surfaces (grass, pavement, skin areas without critical detail). Depending on your version, you may be able to patch to a new layer; if not, consider duplicating the background first or use Content-Aware Fill for a more layer-friendly approach.

Select the Patch Tool.
Draw a selection around the object to remove.
Drag the selection to a clean area that should replace it.
Deselect and evaluate at 100%.

Content-Aware Fill (bigger distractions with more control)

Content-Aware Fill is best when you need Photoshop to synthesize missing content. The main control is telling it what areas are allowed to be sampled.

Make a selection around the object (leave a small margin).
Open Content-Aware Fill.
Adjust the sampling area so it includes only appropriate textures (exclude faces, edges, or repeating patterns that would confuse the fill).
Set output to a new layer if the option is available.
Apply, then refine edges with Healing Brush on your retouch layer if needed.

Mini-Exercises (Structured Practice)

Exercise 1: Remove a power line across the sky

Goal: remove a thin line while keeping gradients smooth and avoiding obvious repetition.

Create an empty layer named Retouch – Power Line.
Zoom to 100–200%.
Start with Spot Healing Brush using a brush slightly larger than the line thickness.
Paint in short segments (a few centimeters at a time) rather than one long stroke.
If you see smearing or repeating patterns, switch to Healing Brush and sample from nearby clean sky frequently.
Near edges (trees, rooftops), use shorter strokes and sample from the correct side of the edge to avoid pulling texture across boundaries.

Checkpoint: toggle the retouch layer visibility on/off. If the sky looks “plastic” or blotchy, undo the worst segments and redo them with smaller strokes and more frequent resampling.

Exercise 2: Clean sensor dust spots on a bright background

Goal: remove multiple small spots efficiently without damaging detail.

Create an empty layer named Retouch – Dust.
Use Spot Healing Brush with sampling enabled.
Click each dust spot once; avoid scrubbing.
Work systematically (top-left to bottom-right) so you don’t miss any.
If a spot is near a sharp edge (horizon, building line), use Healing Brush and sample from the correct side of the edge.

Checkpoint: view at 100% and also briefly zoom out to fit-on-screen; dust you missed often becomes visible when you stop staring closely.

Exercise 3: Fix a blemish while keeping skin texture natural

Goal: reduce a temporary blemish without flattening pores or changing facial structure.

Create an empty layer named Retouch – Blemish.
Use Healing Brush (more control than Spot Healing for skin).
Sample from nearby skin with similar tone (avoid sampling from highlight to shadow or vice versa).
Use a brush just slightly larger than the blemish.
Paint with one or two short strokes; stop as soon as it looks clean.
If the result looks too perfect, reduce the retouch layer opacity slightly so it blends naturally.

Checkpoint: if you can’t tell whether you removed too much, you probably did. Toggle the layer visibility; the “after” should look like the same person on a good day, not a different texture.

Exercise 4: Sharpen only the eyes (High Pass + mask)

Goal: add crispness to irises/lashes without sharpening skin, noise, or makeup texture.

Duplicate the current visible result to a new layer (name it Sharpen – Eyes).
Apply High Pass with a small radius (start low; you want edges, not thick halos).
Set the layer blend mode to Overlay or Soft Light (Soft Light is gentler).
Add a mask to the sharpening layer and fill it so the sharpening is hidden.
Paint on the mask with a soft brush to reveal sharpening only on: irises, eyelashes, and the sharp edge of the eyelids.
Fine-tune by lowering the sharpening layer opacity until it looks natural.

Checkpoint: at 100%, look for bright/dark outlines around the eyelid or iris edge (halos). If you see them, reduce High Pass radius and/or lower opacity, and keep the mask tighter.

Guardrails: Keep Results Natural and Reversible

Avoid over-sharpening

Halos are the warning sign: bright/dark outlines along edges mean the effect is too strong.
Sharpen less than you think: especially on high-resolution files; you can always add more.
Don’t sharpen noise: if the background or shadows look gritty, tighten the mask so sharpening hits only true detail.

Keep retouching believable

Remove distractions, not identity: temporary blemishes and dust are fair game; permanent features should be treated carefully.
Work in passes: do a light cleanup first, then reassess. Over-editing often happens when you try to finish everything in one go.
Use layer opacity as a realism dial: if the fix looks too clean, back it off slightly.

Use masks to limit effects

Sharpening: mask it to eyes and key edges; avoid skin and smooth gradients like sky.
Content-Aware results: if the fill is good but imperfect at the edges, mask the filled layer to blend only the best parts.
Retouch layers: if a healed area looks slightly off, mask just that portion rather than redoing everything.

Now answer the exercise about the content:

You want to remove several dust spots from a photo while keeping the edit reversible and the original pixels untouched. What is the best workflow?

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Working on an empty retouch layer with sampling from underlying layers keeps edits non-destructive. For dust, the Spot Healing Brush is efficient: click once per spot and avoid scrubbing to prevent smears.