Photoshop How To

Adobe updates their software frequently, with powerful new headline-grabbing features and tools. That’s a good thing for all of us, with one exception: sometimes we get so excited about all the new stuff that we forget about tools we used with great success in the past.

The tutorial below discusses one such “forgotten” tool, reminds how to use it, and encourages you to reinstate it in your current Lightroom workflow. This powerful tool is so easy to use that it only takes three minutes to explain.

According to instructor Anthony Morganti, an expert on all things Adobe, “This tool has been available in Lightroom for as long as I can remember, but if you’re like me you probably no longer use it.” As you’ll see, it’s time for you and Morganti to reconsider, because what you’ll learn comes in very handy for removing ugly sensor spots from photos.

To illustrate how this trick works Morganti pulls up a great-looking seaside shot; that is, until you zoom in on the image. Once you do that you’ll notice a bunch of unwanted artifacts, some of which are more obvious than others. As Morganti says, once you print the image all of the sensor spots jump off the page.

So what is the magic tool that helps you find and remove all of these sensor spots, whether they’re obvious or not? Simply open Lightroom’s Healing Tools panel and click on any of the options (it doesn’t matter which one). Then look at the thin toolbar that appears just beneath your image. If it’s not there, simply hit the “T” key on your keyboard that toggles it on or off.

Now it’s time to get to work by clicking on the “Visualize Spots” checkbox in the Toolbar. Once you do that, your color photo temporarily turns into a very graphic b&w image. Now you’ll notice that this makes it significantly easier to see all of the sensors spots that need to be removed. There’s even a slider for adjusting sensitivity, and Morganti recommends setting a high value.

Of course locating these distracting elements is only half the battle, and Morganti demonstrates how to use the Content Aware Remove tool to banish the spots in seconds. Once you’re finished, just uncheck the Visualize Spots box and move on.

Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel is full of easy tips and tricks like this, so be sure to pay a visit.

We also suggest you watch the earlier tutorial we posted from another image-editing expert, demonstrating a simple Lightroom hack that delivers super-fast and precise masks.