Tips for Modeled Product Photography - The Healing Tool & Why You Will Love It.

This post is brought to you from Melanie of Violet's Buds. Melanie has Bachelors of Science in Photography and provides product photography advice and services to entrepreneurs.

Few things are more frustrating than concluding a photo shoot and noticing you had a dust spot on your lens, stray fuzzball on your product, or that the model had a smudge on her face.
 
Similar to the cloning tool (which you can read about here), the healing tool can be a lifesaver for product photos - especially modeled product photos!  The healing tool works by sampling the surrounding pixels to blend the imperfection away, which is why it will work on textured areas such as skin or hair, textiles, beads and yarn too.  

Please Note: It is never okay to edit out actual blemishes on your product like stains, discolorations, or rips. This tutorial is intended solely to help you remove fuzz, floating dust spots, skin blemishes, or stray fibers that floated into your product photo shoot. You should always use a lint remover on products before photographing items, which reduces the need to edit!  

My model friend has allowed me to use her arm as an example to remove blemishes and freckles for this tutorial. This tool seriously changed my life when I discovered it!


Start by opening your favorite photo editing program. For this tutorial, I used Adobe Photoshop, but both Pixlr and PicMonkey are free editing programs that also have this feature available.

 
Select the healing tool, which resembles a little bandage. Next, (depending on your program) you may need to define a source point. This is where the editing program will select pixels from. Do so by holding down the ALT key while clicking.


Zoom in on the photo, and begin clicking around to "erase" the blemishes. If necessary, you can change the size and shape of the healing tool brush. Remember, that if you make mistakes you can always go back in the image history or click Edit>Undo (or press CTRL+Z to quickly undo your last step). 


The healing tool can take a little time getting used to, but is a great option to fix minor issues & have beautiful product photos!


And it's that easy! What do you think? Do you see yourself using this handy tool often? 

4 comments:

  1. In newer versions of Potoshop you don't have to select a source, it averages the pixels around the outside of the brush.

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  2. This (actually a similar tool) has been a total life safer for me as well! I've done some things with it that always make me laugh after, like once removing an awful bruise I had that was distracting the whole picture. I generally use the clone tool though, so I'm wondering if you happen to know the advantage of one over the other? (I know, I can surely Google that, but personal experience is always super helpful : ).

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    1. The clone tool I found is good for spots on flat- looking surfaces, but if you have a textured area (like skin) the healing tool makes it look more natural. Either tool works though!

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    2. Oh cool, thanks for your feedback! I'll definitely give the healing tool a shot my next time I go to reach for the clone tool.

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