Remove an object from an image

Use the Repair tool to remove anything from small imperfections, like specks of dust or blemishes, to entire objects from an image. The Repair tool is brush-based, so you brush over an object to remove it. When you paint over an area with the Repair tool, it takes parts of the surrounding areas and intelligently stitches them together, matching the colors, textures, and lighting, to seamlessly recreate the area of the image left behind after removing an object.

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Choose Tools > Retouch > Repair from the Tools menu at the top of your screen.

    • Press R on your keyboard.

  2. In the Tool Options pane, customize the Repair tool:

    1. Brush Size: Drag the Brush Size slider to adjust the size of the Repair tool brush.

    2. Sample All Layers: Select Sample All Layers to repair areas using every layer in your image. This option is useful when you want to repair an area nondestructively. In that case, you’d need to add a new, empty layer, select Sample All Layers and paint on the empty layer. Another use is when you have several images on separate layers and you’d like to repair the image as if it was one layer.

  3. Paint over the object in your image you’d like to remove.

Repair a selection

If you’d like to repair a very precise part of an image, you can make a selection and then use the Repair Selection option of the Repair tool.

  1. Make a selection using any of the selection tools.

  2. In the Tool Options pane, click Repair Selection.

Show before and after or reset effects

Show Original: Click the Show Original button to see what the image looked like before.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard.

Click Reset to discard all the current changes.

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