lightroom-5-healing-brush-visualize-spotsWatch my video tutorial below for how to use all of the new features in the Spot Removal tool in the Lightroom 5 beta — including the new advanced healing brush with which you can click and drag to define a non-circular area andwhich is great for both removing objects and doing retouching, and for the new Visualize Spots feature. For me, these new tools alone will be worth upgrading for when Lightroom 5 officially comes out. I will also be making far fewer trips to Photoshop! [UPDATE: These features are available in newer versions of Lightroom as well.)

 

For best quality, after hitting Play, click on the sprocket wheel in the bottom right and choose 720/HD.

Summary of what is covered +  shortcuts for healing and cloning:

  • 2 types of spots available:
    • Circle spots – the preexisting functionality within Lightroom
    • Brush spots – can be used for arbitrary shapes (retouching: at low opacity)
  • Usage options:
    • Click + Drag – create brush spot
    • Single click – create a circle spot from auto-find source
    • Shift + Click – connect the selected spot with the new spot via a straight brush stroke
    • Cmd/Ctrl + Drag – Create a circle spot from user-defined source
    • Cmd/Ctrl + Option + Drag: Create a circle spot that scales from center
    • Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Drag: Create a circle spot that scales from anchor
    • Backslash (/) – select new source for existing circle or brush spot
    • Shift + Drag – Constrain brush spot to horizontal or vertical axis
  • •Deletion
    • Option/Alt + Click – delete spot
    • Option/Alt + Drag – Marquee batch-delete multiple spots
  • New visualization to help detect hidden spots (such as sensor dust)
    • A – Visualize spots (also checkbox in toolbar)
    • H – Hide spot overlays
  • • Using the shift-click to “connect the dots” will now automatically re-evaluate the source selection. In other words, the spot tool will now account for the fact that the user has extended an existing spot. Exception: if the user has previously manually set the source for a spot, then shift-clicking to extend that spot will not invoke the “auto find source” logic.
  • •Improved ability of spot tool to patch spots automatically
  • •Shift+Drag to constrain the brush to horizontal or vertical stroke
  • •A “Select New Source” command has been added to the contextual menu.
  • •Holding down Shift will constrain the brush stroke to the horizontal or vertical

Video on the Lightroom 4 Spot Removal Tool (covers all the basics of using the tool in LR 3-5 – some of these are not covered in the video above.):

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