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Removing Flaws

You can use the Repair Tool to remove flaws, such as:

Skin blemishes
Telephone wires and other unwanted objects
Flash flares from snowflakes or windows
Lens scratches and water drops

There are four options available for the Repair Tool: Smart Erase, the Healing Brush, Blended Cloning, and the Cloning Brush.

Heal: when you select the Healing Brush, the Repair Tool copies pixels from one area of a photo to another, but it analyzes the pixels in the source area before copying them. It also analyzes the pixels in the target area, and then blends the pixels of both source and target, to match the surrounding area. This ensures that the lighting and color of the replacement pixels integrate with the surrounding area. The Healing Brush works particularly well with photos that involve complicated textures, like skin or fur.

Clone: when you select the Cloning Brush, the Repair Tool copies the exact pixels from one area of a photo to another, creating an identical image area. The Cloning Brush is more effective for photos that have strong, simple textures or uniform colors, as it is more difficult to identify the copied pixels in the finished photo.

Blended Clone: when you select the Blended Clone tool, the Repair Tool copies the exact pixels from one area of a photo to another, but it analyzes the pixels in the target area and blends them with the copied pixels.

Smart Erase: for information on Smart Erase, see the Smart Erase section below.

You can save your settings as a preset for future use.

To Remove Flaws from a Photo:

In Edit mode, in the Enhance group, select Repair Tool.

You can also access the Repair Tool from the Filter drop-down menu or Filter toolbar.

Select one of the following:
- Heal: copies the pixels from the source area to the target area, and blends pixels into the surrounding image area.
- Clone: copies the pixels from the source area to the target area.
- Blended Clone: copies the pixels from the source area to the target area, then analyzes the pixels in the target area and blends them with the copied pixels.
- Smart Erase: analyzes pixels and fills in the brushed area based on what the image would most likely look like without the brushed object. See the Smart Erase section below.
Drag the Nib Width and Feathering sliders as described in the table below.
Right-click the image to set a source location. Pixels will be copied from this location and used in the target location.
Click and drag over the area that you want to cover. If you selected the healing brush, ACDSee Professional analyzes and replaces the pixels when you release the mouse button. If you selected the blended clone tool, ACDSee Professional analyzes, replaces, and blends the pixels when you release the mouse button.
Do one of the following:
- Click Done to apply your changes and close the tool.
- Click Cancel to discard all changes and close the tool.

Click Reset to reset the sliders. If you saved your changes, you cannot reset your settings. If you want to discard only the Edit settings, select File | Restore to Developed.

Scroll with your mouse to adjust the brush sizeas you work, or press the Shift key while you scroll to adjust feathering.

Drawing Straight Lines:

Hold the Shift key while using any of the repair tools to draw horizontal or vertical lines. For example, holding Shift, then clicking and dragging horizontally will lock the cursor into horizontal only so long as shift is being held. Release Shift to return to free hand brushing. You can even release Shift to return to free hand brushing, then press it again while still drawing the same line to unlock and re-lock the brush at will.

Drawing Diagonal Lines:

Using the any of the repair tools, you can create straight diagonal lines by placing two points on the image. Place the cursor where you want the line to begin, press and hold Shift, then Left-Click on the image to create a point. Let go of Shift, and move the brush to where the line will end, press and hold Shift, then Left-Click again to create a second point. A straight line will fill in between these two points.

Repair Tool Options

Nib Width	Sets the width of the brush. The maximum brush width is relative to the size of your image.
Feathering	Sets the amount to feather on the edge of the brush to prevent sharp transitions between the original and healed part of the photo. Feathering is set as a percentage of the nib width, not as a specific number of pixels. This means that you do not have to adjust the feathering when you reset the Nib Width, as it automatically adjusts to a percentage of the new nib width. This option is not available with the Blended Clone tool.
Pressure	After setting a source point for the Clone tool, adjust the slider to control the strength of the effect being applied.
Show preview in cursor	Check this checkbox to display a preview of your selected source point in the cursor.

You can right-click a slider to reset to the default value.

Smart Erase

You can remove unwanted objects from your images by brushing them and using the Smart Erase function. Smart Erase will analyze the image and predict how to best fill in the brushed area. This is based on what the image would most likely look like without the brushed objects.

In Edit mode, in the Enhance group, select Repair Tool.
Select Smart Erase.
Drag the Nib Width slider or adjust your mouse wheel to set the width of the brush.
Brush over the area you would like filled. When you release the mouse button, the fill will be applied. Repeat until your desired look is achieved.