How to Remove Acne in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements

Removing a couple of zits in Photoshop Elements is usually no big deal. But what about major breakouts and a whole face full of acne? This gets a little more complicated than simply using the Band-Aid tool. So in this tutorial I will be demonstrating how to remove zits and improve the look of reddish skin around those nasty little red nodules.

Step One: Take Care of the Strays

Your first task is to open up the picture, select the Band-Aid tool in Photoshop on the Spot Healing Brush mode, and clean up any lone zits that are sticking out. Simply one or two clicks with the healing brush should take care of the reddest zits, and especially the acne scabs.

Step Two: Define a Source

Instead of using the Spot Healing Brush on the Band-Aid tool, at the top of Photoshop in the Band-Aid selection, pick "Healing Brush Tool." You will be prompted to define a source from which to mimic the desired result. Make sure the brush size isn't too big, or it will define a source including the subject's eyes, nose, and perhaps teeth. Make sure it's about 10-20 pixels large, and near a clean area of skin.

Step Three: Clean Up the Skin

Now that you have a skin source, you can start healing up your subject. If you are trying to clean up a portion of skin that is devoid of bangs, hair, or eyebrows, you can use a slightly bigger pixel size for the Healing Brush Tool. Simply click a few times to begin with and make sure the skin is indeed improving in color and texture. If so, you can begin to drag the tool across the skin to clear up a lot of acne all at once. If not, define a new source for the tool to work from and start over. Make sure you hit the "undo" or "control + z" on your keyboard if you made any irreparable changes to the subject's face.

Step Four: The Tiny Spots

Inevitably, you will run into portions of skin that are partially covered with eyebrows or hair that are much harder to work around. To combat this problem, simply zoom into the picture and decrease the size of the brush tool. This time, don't drag the tool, but individually click it over smaller portions of skin. It's not necessarily easy, and it takes a while, but it's worth it to remove anything unwanted.

Additionally, you can also use the clone stamp tool around the forehead area of a subject with bangs to copy hair over top of spots. You'll still want to clean up what you can, but once that's done, you can click on the Clone Stamp tool, define a source with a larger pixel size of hair or bangs, and drag it over top of the affected skin to create more bangs. You might find that at first you get some pretty weird textures, but if you play with the "alt" source enough, you'll be able to find a pretty good match for hair.

Step Five: Save Your Work

You should save your work periodically during this process, but you might not want to overwrite the first picture, in case you mess it up. Simply "save as copy," rename the picture, and work on it this way. Make sure the picture meets up with the subject's standards as much as possible, and label it as the final photo.

This technique also works with moles, freckles, acne scars, cold sores, and other facial imperfections.