Correct Skin Flaws with Paint Shop Pro’s Blemish Remover

The Blemish Remover in Paint Shop Pro is a special type of cloning tool that gets rid of skin flaws, such as freckles and blemishes, by replacing that area of the digital photo with the “healthy” skin tones that surround it and blending these areas together so they appear seamless to the viewer.

When describing how to use this tool, we’ll use the same photograph from Part 1 of this series. However, instead of starting over from scratch, we’ll continue from the point where changes were made to whiten the teeth and brighten the eyes. This way, we’ll get to see how the photo progresses with each change we make in this series covering Paint Shop Pro’s makeover tools.

(Click any image for a larger view.)

Step 1: First, zoom into the area of the photo with the blemish. There will be several that we want to correct in this particular photograph, but for now we’ll just pick one of the more prominent ones.

Step 2: Select the Makeover icon from Paint Shop Pro’s side toolbar.

Step 3: Select the Blemish Remover from the Makeover toolbar that now appears underneath Paint Shop Pro’s main toolbar.

Step 4: Adjust the Size and Strength for the particular blemish you’d like to remove. When deciding on a Size, note that the inner area of the smaller circle will be replaced by tones that are between the two circles. Larger values for the Size setting correspond to larger circles.

The Strength setting basically determines how well you want to hide the blemish. Higher Strength values will result in a more complete “erasing” of the flawed area.

Step 5: Position the Blemish Remover over the flaw you want to correct and click the mouse.

Do this for each skin flaw in the photograph. You may have to readjust the size of the Blemish Remover for different correction areas. If some areas have unusual shapes, you may have to click and move the Blemish Remover around a few times to completely get rid of them.

Below is our final image after removing several blemishes.

One thing that I’d like to point out is that the blemish remover can be used for many things other than just fixing minor skin problems. If you have any small flaws at all in your digital photographs, this tool can be a great way to fix them quickly and easily. In fact, it can even be used to remove blemishes caused by camera lens dust. For an example of this, see How to Get Rid of a Photo Blemish.

In Part 3 of this series, we’ll continue this editing project and show how the Suntan tool can be used to adjust the entire skin tone of a person in a digital photograph. If you’re interested in other tips and tricks, check out the full collection of Paint Shop Pro tutorials available here on Bright Hub’s Digital Photography Channel.