Retouch an image

You use the Retouch brushes to touch up imperfections in the image caused by sensor dust, image artifacts, and other environmental conditions. You can also copy an element of an image and paste it in another area for purely aesthetic reasons. Aperture provides two methods of retouching your images.

If the area you need to repair has a hard edge near the problem area, you use the “repair” method. You also use the repair method when you want to copy high-frequency texture from one area of the image (the source) and brush the texture over the destination area while maintaining the underlying color and shading of the destination area.

Figure. Image before and after a Repair adjustment.

The second method, “cloning,” is used when you simply want to copy pixels from one area and paste them on another area. Cloning is useful when you want to copy an element of an image as is (a cloud, for example) and paste it in another area.

Figure. Image before and after a Clone adjustment.

Note: Aperture provides two sets of retouching controls: Retouch and Spot & Patch. In the vast majority of cases, the Retouch controls will best serve your image-repair needs. The Spot & Patch controls are included in Aperture 3 to retain the integrity of images adjusted with earlier versions of Aperture. You can often improve image repairs by removing an existing Spot & Patch repair and replacing it with a Repair or Clone adjustment performed with the Retouch tool. In a few situations, Spot & Patch is the adjustment of choice. For example, an artifact on or very near a curved edge may be more effectively removed using the Angle parameter. For more information, see Spot and patch an image.

Retouch an image using the Repair brush

Select a photo.
To display the photo at full size, click the Zoom Viewer button in the tool strip or the full-screen view toolbar (or press Z).
Setting the photo to appear at full size (100 percent) prevents image scaling from obscuring details.
Choose Retouch from the Quick Brush pop-up menu in the tool strip or the full-screen view toolbar.
The pointer changes to a brush, and the Retouch HUD appears.
In the Retouch HUD, specify the following settings:
- To select the Repair brush: Click the Repair button.
- To set the radius of the brush: Drag the Radius slider, enter a value in the Radius value slider, or use the scroll gesture.
  Note: You can’t use the scroll gesture when the pointer is placed over the Retouch HUD.
- To set the softness of the brush: Drag the Softness slider or enter a value in the Softness value slider.
- To set the opacity of the brush: Drag the Opacity slider or enter a value in the Opacity value slider.
If you want the Retouch adjustment to preserve edge details in the image, select the “Detect edges” checkbox.
If you need to copy pixels from another area of the image, deselect the “Automatically choose source” checkbox, and Option-click the source area.
Brush over the area with the imperfection.

Retouch an image using the Clone brush

Select a photo.
To display the photo at full size, click the Zoom Viewer button in the tool strip or the full-screen view toolbar (or press Z).
Setting the photo to appear at full size (100 percent) prevents image scaling from obscuring details.
Choose Retouch from the Quick Brush pop-up menu in the tool strip or the full-screen view toolbar.
The pointer changes to a brush, and the Retouch HUD appears.
In the Retouch HUD, specify the following settings:
- To select the Clone brush: Click the Clone button.
- To set the radius of the brush: Drag the Radius slider or enter a value in the Radius value slider.
- To set the softness of the brush: Drag the Softness slider or enter a value in the Softness value slider.
- To set the opacity of the brush: Drag the Opacity slider or enter a value in the Opacity value slider.
Option-click the source area (the area where you want to copy the pixels).
Brush over the area with the imperfection.

Delete brush strokes

Because pixels in brush strokes are sampled sequentially, brush strokes can be deleted only in reverse order.

Do one of the following:

To delete single brush strokes: Repeatedly click the Delete button in the Retouch area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD until the brush stroke you want to remove is deleted.
To delete all brush strokes at once: Click the Reset button in the Retouch area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD.