As I have written before, I find myself still discovering cool hidden features of Lightroom. This one I picked up from Sean McCormack’s new Craft & Vision e-book, Essential Development (which as I wrote in my last post, you should definitely check out).

The traditional way to set the size of the spot removal circle is to use the slider in the spot removal options panel. However, I have always found it to be faster and more convenient to use the scroll wheel on my mouse to set the size. Here’s an even faster way, to both set the size and apply your fix at the same time:

  • Select the spot removal tool.
  • Hold down the Ctl key on a PC or the Cmd key on a Mac.
  • Click and drag in your image to define the circular area you want to fix.
lightroom-spot-removal-tip-ctl/cmd-drag

Removing the Crow: Ctl/Cmd-Click and Drag to Define the Circular Area to Remove

 

  • Let go of the Ctl or Cmd key and the mouse button.
  • Adjust the source circle as needed.

lightroom-spot-removal-tip-adjust-source

 

For those of you who need more of a foundation in using the spot removal tool, or who are looking for more great tips for getting the most out of it, watch below the Lightroom 4 version of my video on using the spot removal tool. This is one of the 55 videos in my  Lightroom 4: The Fundamentals & Beyond series, available now on DVD or by download. (UPDATE: This lesson also applies to Lightroom 5, 6 and CC, except that you can now also click and drag to define a non-circular area to fix.)

(For best quality, once you hit the play button, click on the sprocket wheel in the bottom right, and choose 720 HD.)

Read More About Lightroom 4: The Fundamentals & Beyond and newer versions of this series – now over 15 1/2 hours of training on 76 videos!.

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