If you make a selection of the ocean that’s near the shoreline, parts of the shoreline may be patched in where you’re trying to edit out the boat, making the image look irregular. For instance, say you’re trying to edit a boat out of an image of the ocean. In some cases, if you make a selection that’s near an irregular area of an image, the irregular area will end up being patched in even if it wasn’t actually selected. One of the downsides of using this tool is that the patch algorithm isn’t always perfect. This tool is also a great solution when you’re trying to remove unwanted objects or shadows from a landscape image. Using this tool, the natural variations in a person’s skin tone and texture are replicated. Skin isn’t completely smooth, and if you just use a skin tone color to paint over a blemish, it’s going to be pretty obvious.

The tool can be used to fix a variety of problem areas in a photograph, but it’s especially helpful when dealing with skin imperfections. Instead of having an irregular patch, Photoshop feathers out the patch and, hopefully, creates a seamless area where the selection overlays and naturally merges with the original image. Once you’ve made your selection, you can drag it over the area that you want to patch the selected area onto. This tool is similar to the Healing tool, but it uses a free-form selection instead of a brush to duplicate another area on an image.

Check out this quick overview of how this tool works and the best times to use it in your image editing. If you want to remove something distracting from the background of an image or even out an area that appears irregular, such as acne on a model’s face, you’re going to want to use this tool. The Patch tool is one of the most used and most helpful tools for photo editors.

Healing tools photoshop