Some days, I like to just walk around outside with my camera looking for things I could use as interesting textures for different photo effects. The brick wall in this photo below would work nicely, or at least it would if that darn wooden post wasn't in the way:

Let's see if the Spot Healing Brush is able to remove the wooden post from the photo. Again, this is beyond what the Spot Healing Brush was originally designed for, and if I was using Photoshop CS2, CS3 or CS4, I wouldn't even think of trying this. But can the new Content-Aware Healing feature in Photoshop CS5 actually change the way we use the tool? That's what we're here to find out!

First, I'll select the Proximity Match option in the Options Bar so we're using the old version of the Spot Healing Brush. Then, I'll press the left and right bracket keys on my keyboard to quickly change my brush size so it's just slightly larger than the width of the post and I'll paint along it from top to bottom:

When I reach the bottom, I'll release my mouse button. Remember how I said I wouldn't even think of trying this if I was using an earlier version of Photoshop? Here's why:

I think it's safe to say the Spot Healing Brush failed miserable here. It simply smeared the wooden post into a blurry mess. If I undid my last step by pressing Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) and tried again, I might be able to get something a little better, but let's see if the new Content-Aware Healing feature has better luck. I'll select Content-Aware in the Options Bar, then I'll once again paint over the wooden post from top to bottom:

I'll release my mouse button, and after waiting a few moments for Photoshop CS5 to analyze the contents of the image, we get the results:

Not only did the Spot Healing Brush not leave us with a blurry mess this time, it did an amazingly good job, especially when you consider what little effort I put into it. All I did was paint over the post and Photoshop CS5 did everything else own its own! Sure, a few of the bricks need to be aligned better and there's some white smearing that needs to be removed, but all I'm left with now is a quick clean up job with the Clone Stamp Tool rather than having to do it all manually from scratch!

This was just a quick look at the new Content-Aware Healing feature in Photoshop CS5, but as we saw with these examples, the Spot Healing Brush is now much more powerful and intelligent than it ever was in previous versions of Photoshop. No longer limited to selecting random textures from the area close to where you clicked on or painted over, the Content-Aware option now lets Photoshop scan and analyze your entire image as it tries to figure out what that area of the photo would have looked like if the object wasn’t there or the damaged area wasn’t damaged. It’s still not perfect, and you’ll still usually need to fine-tune the results with one of Photoshop’s other retouching tools (the standard Healing Brush, the Patch Tool or the Clone Stamp Tool). But there’s no denying that Content-Aware Healing takes the Spot Healing Brush to a whole new level. Adobe was right to select the new Content-Aware option by default in the Options Bar, because once you’ve seen it in action in Photoshop CS5, you’ll never select the old Proximity Match option again!

Be sure to check out our Removing Skin Blemishes With The Spot Healing Brush tutorial for more details on how the tool works in Photoshop CS2, CS3 or CS4. Or, check out another new feature in Photoshop CS5 - Content-Aware Fill!

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