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Heal tool

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magician john

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I have tried using the healing tool and often with good results.
I have used it again and it just leaves a smudgy mark which only deals with lets say 50% of the item that I want to remove. The brush is set to 100%.
I don't think you can go over it again so how do I remove the area in my photo that I can't crop out but distracts from the damselfly that I have taken. The twig comes out from the bottom area around my photo.
 
Anyway, this is how to do it. It works with DNG, I never tried it with a proprietary raw file. Open the raw file as smart object in Photoshop. In Photoshop, choose to save the smart object as linked file. You'll get a 'Save as' dialog asking you to save the embedded raw file. Navigate to the folder where the original raw file resides and click Save. You will be asked if you want to overwrite the existing raw file. Say Yes. Lightroom won't notice that the original raw file was overwritten by the linked smart object (which is identical so it doesn't matter), so the saved linked object is now the same as what Lightroom considers being the original raw file.

(I think you might mean 'Convert to Linked', in the properties panel of the SO layer??)
I have tried that before, but was afraid to overwrite the original DNG most times. Are you sure it is identical - AND won't cause any issues regarding saving metadata, keywords OR develop settings? ... Of course doing the 'save metadata' in LR, which I do after every session anyways (wish there was a script to do that, rather than doing the switch to smart collection, ctrl-a, ctrl-s shuffle every time).

I thought there was one time where the filesize turned out to be different, but just tried it with a junker image file, and it DID turn out to be the exact same size, down to the byte.. So maybe it really IS identical..??

... And are there any special setting that should be used regarding the Camera Raw preferences? Especially for the 'Save image settings in' - database or sidecar. (Solely using DNG here.) It would be nice if one could alter the file in cam-raw and do a 'read metadata' in LR to share develop settings and snapshots both ways - rather than strictly from LR to cam-raw/PS.
 
Yeah, I wrote it on my iPad with no option to check the exact text of the dialogs. I am as sure as I can be, which is of course not 100%. The file you just sent to Photoshop and which you now use to overwrite the original, is (a copy of) the original.

In Camera RAW you should use 'Save image settings in sidecar files', so that any changes you make in ACR end up in the linked object and not in a database that Lightroom doesn't access. Then in Lightroom you have to use 'Read metadata from file' to get those changes.

If you are afraid that the images may be different, you could also save the linked object with a slightly different name and then use Synchronize folder to import it in Lightroom. Then you can check first if everything is OK, and if you find no problems you can delete the original in order not to have three copies.

One final remark: You have to think about how practical this really is. As demonstrated it can be done, but whether it is practical and not prone to making mistakes, is quite another matter.
 
now you have me wondering; is that a LR6/cc thing? :confused:

I'm pretty sure that this is, indeed, a LR6/CC thing. In LR 5 and LR 4 I found it impossible to use the clone/heal tool on a spot that already had a cloned/healed area. In LR 6/CC it can be done if Tool Overlay is off.
 
I'm pretty sure that this is, indeed, a LR6/CC thing. In LR 5 and LR 4 I found it impossible to use the clone/heal tool on a spot that already had a cloned/healed area. In LR 6/CC it can be done if Tool Overlay is off.
Thanks for the info. Something else to look forward too when I get game enough to get CC or 6

This was all done in LR 5 :shock: lol
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I was having big computer dramas at the time (actually LR dramas :cry:) and I hadn't re-installed PS, so just for fun I gave it a go to see what could be done with the then new improved spot removal tool. It was for a mate too BTW; but I do like those side by sides
 

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Why didn't you remove the shadows (of those things that you removed) as well, Ian? :grin:
 
I'm pretty sure that this is, indeed, a LR6/CC thing. In LR 5 and LR 4 I found it impossible to use the clone/heal tool on a spot that already had a cloned/healed area. In LR 6/CC it can be done if Tool Overlay is off.

Thanks for that. I had struggled with this in 4 and 5, and pretty much given up. Never thought to have another go in 6!

Dave
 
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