Participating Frequently

Question

Using the healing brush tool undestructively

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
October 6, 2021
7 replies
564 views

Hey, I have a question about undestructive editing.

Let's say I open an image on photoshop, then use camera raw on a smart object copy of the image.
Then I open a new layer and use the spot healing brush tool in it.
I then go on with my editing but then realize that the image would be better if the color grading was different.
So I reopen camera raw and change the color grading only to realise that the healing brush tool layer is not linked to camera raw and therefore the spots i've "healed" in my picture are not color graded.

Do I have no choice but to redo the healing brush tool layer (which was pretty long to do in my exemple) or is there a way to do a undestructive layer of healing brush tool ?

Thanks in advance

This topic has been closed for replies.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Create a new layer, and turn on Samplee All layers. Use the Healing Brush in the new layer and the original layer is unaffected. I expect this is what JJ was suggesting.

M

MA.BCAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thanks you all for participating, this helped a lot, I'll use your tips based on circumstances !

Earth Oliver

Legend

so, the way that you would need to do this is by healing inside of the SO that you originally created, not on top of it.
Anyway, the process goes like this: Convert layer to SO. Open the SO. Add a healing layer and heal. Close/Save the SO and then any ACR filter will apply to both the base layer and the healing.

I'm not sure why the folks here aren't understanding your question or the workflow.

jane-e

Community Expert

@Earth Oliver wrote:
I'm not sure why the folks here aren't understanding your question or the workflow.

@Earth Oliver He already has the SO and the healing brush layer. Is there something wrong with what I said earlier about moving the healing brush layer into the existing SO?

~ Jane

JJMack

Community Expert

JJMack

Earth Oliver

Legend

that's not helpful...

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Whenever possible, use the healing in ACR.

You could try setting the healing layer to luminosity blend mode, however the colour grading has likely affected tone as well as colour.

You may have to undo the colour edits in ACR, then perform the colour grading in Photoshop instead to preserve the healing.

M

MA.BCAuthor

Participating Frequently

But the healing in ACR is much less effective 😞

I tried the luminosity but it doesn't always work (it worked on one project but not the other one)

And the color grading tool in ACR, I find it very well made. If I have no other choice I'll learn to color grade in photoshop, but even so the same problem applies if I want to sharpen via camera Raw, or reduce noise etc

Thanks

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi @MA.BC

You said you did a lot of work on the healing brush layer, but how much work did you do on the "color grading" of the SO? Would it work to make a SO of the healing brush layer and repeat the "color grading"?

In actual ACR you can copy and paste the settings. I'm not sure if you can do that when you are using ACR on a layer. You may get other responses, possibly from scripters.

~ Jane

M

MA.BCAuthor

Participating Frequently

That's a great idea but since the healing brush layer is using the "camera rawed" layer below, copying all the camera raw settings will make them apply twice on the healing layer.

So I'll have to copy only de color grading. And then having 2 camera raw filters to modify whenever I wanna make one acr change kinda ruins the undestructive appeal of photoshop to me since there's not only color grading that I may want to change in the future 😞

Not to mention the fact that i won't be able to modify the "basics" category and other stuff I changed in the first place without adding the "difference" to the other layer etc

Although it's the best way to do it i've found yet, and I thank you for that, I wonder if there isn't more convenient way, and I wonder why no one complain about it ? Am I doing something wrong ?

And yes you can copy and paste the settings of ACR in a layer.

jane-e

Community Expert

@MA.BC wrote:

Although it's the best way to do it i've found yet, and I thank you for that, I wonder if there isn't more convenient way, and I wonder why no one complain about it ?

You're welcome, Mohamed, and I have two other possible ideas:

I'm not sure what you are doing in the Camera Raw SO, but would it work for you if the healing brush layer was inside the SO layer? If you open the SO, you can drag the healing brush layer into the .psb (use Shift before you release the mouse to center it), then save and close the psb.

You can also make SOs out of multiple SOs if you need to do that.

Again, other volunteers may chime in with other ideas.

~ Jane

Nancy OShea

Community Expert

To be on the safe side, make a copy of the original image to edit in Photoshop.

Copy the layer with Ctrl+J before applying Healing Brush.

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert

M

MA.BCAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes I always keep the background layer to be sure. I use the camera raw filter on a SO copy of it

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