problem with healing and patch tool

In photo shop 7 I am working on a photo that got wet and disfigured. When using the healing or patch tool, the tools work the first time I use them on an area, if I try to heal or patch an area that I have already worked on the tools will not work. Dealing with the hair of the person in the photo, I will patch or heal an area, when I want to come back to the area and rework that area some more the tools will appear to work, but once I let go of the mouse button the area goes back to the way it was before healing.

Thank you for your help,
Mike

You're not using the tools properly. The patch and heal tools are for "texture" more than "image". You need to use the clone tool to create the "image" and the healing and patch tools to "smooth" the texture to match the original image.Although you may get some effect the first time across, any subsequent usage will rupture, because the source pixel levels have changed.

Read your Help files (or Read The Furnished Materials)for a clearer explanation. It's too early in the morning with Daylight Savings time...

Thanks, I've been told the correct method to use the patch tool is to draw a marquee around the area you want to replace, then drag the selected area to the area you want to use to replace the selected area. Is this wrong?

Mike

wrote in message

In photo shop 7 I am working on a photo that got wet and disfigured. When

using the healing or patch tool, the tools work the first time I use them on an area, if I try to heal or patch an area that I have already worked on the tools will not work. Dealing with the hair of the person in the photo, I will patch or heal an area, when I want to come back to the area and rework that area some more the tools will appear to work, but once I let go of the mouse button the area goes back to the way it was before healing.

Thank you for your help,
Mike

Not the tool wrong , the wrong tool. Try the clone tool set at about 40-60 percent opacity , depending on very bright , very dark. This gives good coverage and blending in one step. Hair is very difficult. Try a single dot brush on the clone tool , or make a custom brush of five or six single pixels .

This has worked for me very well on picture restoration as opposed to retouch.