Toyha F. messaged me on FB and asked a great question I wanted to share with y’all:

Q. I have searched the net for how to erase blemishes using Photoshop Elements and can only find help on fullPhotoshop using the “patch” tool. I would like to know a way to remove a birthmark. I have tried a few things that work on smaller blemishes but not one that large.

A. Toyha, that’s a perfect question for me because I love squeezing every last ounce out of Photoshop Elements. Believe it or not, I haven’t taken the dive into the version which costs as much as a car so I’m right there with you all trying to figure out how to do amazing things in PSE.

Take a look at this:

PSE has tons of hidden tools you might not know are even there. In the toolbox (left) there are tools for adding text, drawing shapes, cropping and the band-aid icon is for healing. Right click on it and you’ll see ‘spot healing’ and ‘healing brush’. Spot healing is good for tiny things but when you want to paint over a whole area, use the healing brush.

Before I explain how to erase large things like the birth mark Toyha mentioned, I’ll just quickly tell you about the spot healing brush. It’s literally a one click solution for blemishes. You don’t even have to select the sample yourself. You just adjust the brush to the size you need and click click click the blemishes away. I used the spot healing brush on the image above in about 15 seconds.

So back to the question: after you click the healing brush, go up top to alter the brush size and the mode. For replace mode, you are literally replacing one area with another. If you choose ‘normal’, then PSE will try to be clever and actually heal the area using the sample you’ve taken (I’ll explain the ‘sample’ in a sec). Using the heal mode seldom works for me. I just use replace and try to select a perfectly matching sample.

Now about the sample. Before you can paint over the birth mark, you have to select an area of skin you’d rather have it look like. Make the selection from the absolutely nearest area to the birth mark so the skintone and lighting match perfectly. Hold down the alt key and click. Now you’ve selected the sample. You’ll see when you start to paint over the area that there’s a little cross-hair moving alongside your brush. That is showing you the area with which PSE is replacing the birth mark. If those crosshairs run over onto an area with something else on it (like the edge of the blemish or an area of skin which is a different colour) then your paintbrush will get mucked up with those other things. So do the process with little strokes, letting go of the mouse button once in a while.

If you need to start again, just ctrl+z to undo the steps you want to erase. I sure wish life could be that simple!

Thanks for your question, Toyha! And don’t y’all forget to keep sending me your questions. Leave them in the comments below, email them, tweet them or leave them on my wall.