Remove blemishes and red eye

Remove spots with the Spot Healing Brush

It needs no source point: you paint over the blemish and Pictius rebuilds it from the area around.

1. Open the photo with File ▸ Open… (Ctrl+O) and zoom in with the Zoom tool (Z) or Ctrl+1 for 100%, so you can see each blemish clearly.
2. Duplicate the layer with Layer ▸ Duplicate Layer. Hiding the copy shows the original, so you can compare at any time.
3. Press J for the Spot Healing Brush. Pressing J again cycles through Healing Brush, Patch and Red Eye.
4. Make the brush a little larger than the spot with [ and ] (hold Shift for bigger steps).
5. Click on the spot, or paint along a longer mark. When you release, the area is rebuilt from its surroundings.
6. If a result repeats a texture or smudges an edge, press Ctrl+Z and try a shorter stroke or another Type in the Properties panel.

The four Spot Healing types

• Content-Aware, the default: the same engine as Edit ▸ Fill, which builds the area from patches of its surroundings. The best general choice.
• AI: uses the AI Fill model. The first time, Pictius asks before downloading it (about 28 MB); it then runs on your device.
• Create Texture: blends the edges of the stroke and adds fine detail from nearby, which suits skin and fabric.
• Proximity Match: fills from the pixels right around the stroke, quick for small specks on smooth backgrounds.

Healing Brush, Patch and Clone Stamp

For larger areas, or when you want to choose where the replacement comes from:

• Healing Brush: Alt+click a clean area with a similar texture to set the source, then paint over the blemish. The texture comes from the source and the color and brightness from the spot you paint, so it blends in.
• Patch: draw around the blemish as with a lasso, then drag the selection to a clean area. On release, the selected area is rebuilt with the texture from there. Good for lines under the eyes or a stain on a wall.
• Clone Stamp (S): Alt+click to set the source, then paint to copy those pixels exactly. The distance to the source is kept for later strokes until you Alt+click again. Use it next to straight edges and patterns, which healing would soften.

Fix red eye

Choose Red Eye by pressing J until it is selected, or right-click the healing tools in the toolbar and pick it from the list. Click on each red pupil, or drag a box around the eye. Pupil Size changes how much of the pupil is corrected and Darken Amount how dark it becomes. If the click does not land on a round red pupil, nothing changes and a notice in the Properties panel explains why.