Removing Blemishes in Adobe Photoshop

This post originally appeared in the Multimedia Tips and Tricks blog (SMDC), which was reorganized into Research Tech Tips as of September 2025. The services described in this article are still available through the Research Data and Design Commons (RDDC).

Text and video by Jonathan Famiglietti, Student Multimedia Design Center 

One of the most popular uses of Photoshop in professional photography is covering up and masking blemishes on portrait-style photographs.  

Tools like the Spot Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp have been an integral part of the software for decades due to their powerful ability to quickly remove blemishes, such as acne and scars, from the skin without leaving many digital artifacts to the untrained eye. 

Learn how and when to use these tools in the video below. 

If you’re interested in using Adobe Photoshop to remove blemishes in your portrait photography, visit the Student Multimedia Design Center in Morris Library, where you can book time in our studio spaces or use our Mac classroom equipped with the full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite.