Spot Lifter

Table of Contents

Spot Lifter is the quickest and easiest way to remove small, low-contrast defects from images, while blending in the appearance of the surrounding image. It works great for cleaning up all sorts of skin blemishes, such as acne, freckles, moles, and shadows under the eyes. Spot Lifter also removes small water stains, mold spots, or any other softly-colored, low-contrast defect from a relatively smooth background texture.

Before

After

Note: If you can not get the results you want from Spot Lifter, use Scratch Remover or Smart Fill for more advanced object removal in Image Doctor.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Using Spot Lifter

1. Using the Lasso tool, select the area around the spot that you want to remove. Try to select an area as close as possible to the spot, but make sure you select the entire defect.

2. Run Spot Lifter.

3. Adjust the Contract or Expand Selection slider to make sure you are removing all of the defect, without unnecessarily removing any extra image detail around the selection.

4. Starting with a value of 100, adjust the Removal Strength slider. Try to use this slider only as much as necessary. Extremely high values can completely blur the authentic texture the filter-affected area.

5. Click OK.

Slider Descriptions

Contract or Expand Selection (pixels)

Use this slider to contract or expand your original selection from within the Image Doctor interface.
Range -20 – (20)

Why? If the initial preview reveals remnants of your original selection, you can expand your selection to knock out the leftovers. If you find that you are removing some nearby desirable image detail, you can contract your selection a couple of pixels to protect that area. It’s best to make a good, close selection before you run the filter, however.

Removal Strength

This slider controls the strength of defect removal in Spot Lifter. Starting from 100, you should lower Removal Strength value until you get the desired amount of blemish removal, while preserving a natural appearance that blends smoothly into the surrounding unaffected texture.
Range: 1 – 100.

Why not always use 100? The highest value of Removal Strength completely blurs the texture that replaces your defect, and may yield an unnaturally smooth or polished texture.

Feather Radius

Feather Radius creates an opacity drop off around the edge of the affected area of your image—helping blend the filtered area with the surrounding unaffected pixels.
Range: 0 - 4 pixels.

Feathering can cause an unnatural loss of detail at the edge of your selection if used in excess.

 

Tutorials

Removing Shadows and Bags Under Eyes

A great use for Spot Lifter in portrait photography is the reduction of shadows and bags under the eyes. Spot Lifter removes shadows and puffiness without removing the realistic texture of the skin. Use the following procedure to remove bags from your facial portraits.

1. Find a photo of somebody with a killer hangover, such as the poor guy from the beginning of the chapter.

2. Using the lasso tool, select the swollen area under the eye.

3. Launch Spot Lifter.

4. If you have not selected the entire area, increment the “Expand/Contract Selection” slider until you have removed the entire area.

Note: Be careful not to expand too far. You don’t want to affect anything outside of the bags under the eyes.

Conversely, if you have selected an inappropriately large area, decrease the slider until you have affected only the puffy area.

5. Experiment with the “Feather Radius” slider. In some cases, feathering isn’t necessary. In this tutorial, I achieved the best results with no feathering at all.

6. Click OK to apply the filter to the first selection.

7. Using the lasso tool, select the swollen area starting below the right corner of the left eye and work your way around the area.

8. Repeat steps 4 and 5.

9. Experiment with the “Feather Radius” slider. In some cases, feathering isn’t necessary. In this tutorial, I achieved the best results with no feathering at all.

10. Click OK to apply the filter. Here’s your result!

Tips and Tricks

Do Not Overuse Removal Strength

Overusing removal strength will yield a completely blurred selection, wiping out any realistic surface texture.

Removing Large Quantities of Similar Blemishes

When removing a large number similar facial blemishes or small defects from an image, use the following technique to speed up your work:

  • Run the filter on an individual blemish.
  • Select the remaining blemishes.
  • Use the filter 'redo' key (CTRL-F in Photoshop) to quickly remove the remaining spots.