Retouch a photo

Retouch Tools: what it does and when to use it

Retouch Tools brings three classic photo repair brushes to the browser. The clone stamp copies pixels from one spot you choose onto another, which is how you duplicate texture over a mark. Spot healing blends a small blemish, dust spot or crumb into the texture around it without you choosing a source. Smudge pushes pixels along your stroke, like a finger through wet paint.

Spot healing is the one to reach for most often: small marks on skin, dust on a scanned photo, a speck on a product. The clone stamp handles larger or more structured problems, such as repeating a brick pattern over a sign; pick a source with the same light and texture as the area you are covering. Work with a brush slightly larger than the mark, in short dabs.

Large areas take many small steps by hand. For removing whole objects such as people, bins or power lines, the AI Object Eraser is much faster. Retouching should correct distractions, not change how someone looks; our terms do not allow misleading edits of real people.