Adobe Photoshop is used by millions of photographers worldwide, and it has plenty of features that can help you create high-quality edits. Sometimes, you’ll want to go into significant depth with adjusting your files. But in other cases, you’ll only need to make a few changes.

If you’re looking for ways to quickly enhance your pictures in Photoshop, you’re in the right place. This article will show you seven of our favorite tools for quickly retouching images in the app, with a walkthrough for each.

1. Healing

You might notice blemishes and other annoyances when you see the image files from your camera, such as spots on your lens. The good news is that while these can seem a little irritating at first, adjusting them isn’t too difficult.

You can easily remove blemishes in Photoshop with the Healing tool. This is slightly different from Spot Healing, which we’ll discuss in a little more detail later. Follow these steps to achieve your desired results:

  1. Open Photoshop on your computer.
  2. In the left-hand toolbar, go to the Healing Brush tool option.
    Healing Brush Photoshop Screenshot
  3. Find the part of the picture you’d like to use for healing the other areas. Then, hold onto Alt (or Option) and click simultaneously.
  4. Once the option to change your brush size appears, customize everything as you feel is necessary. After that, start drawing on the parts of your image you want to repair.
    Change Brush Size for Healing in Photoshop Screenshot

2. Spot Healing

While Healing is a useful tool for removing blemishes and other unwanted objects in Photoshop, it’s not your only choice. Spot Healing is another popular feature, and you might find it more convenient to make simple edits.

The main difference between Healing and Spot Healing is that with Spot Healing, you don’t need to draw on your picture. Instead, all you need to do is choose a part of the photo that you’d like to mend.

Using Spot Healing is pretty simple, and the instructions below will help you achieve your desired result.

  1. Go to the left-hand toolbar in Photoshop.
  2. Select Spot Healing, which is just above Healing.
    Spot Healing in Photoshop Screenshot
  3. After choosing the Spot Healing tool, click on the parts of your picture for which you’d like to use this feature. After doing so, your changes will take immediate effect.

3. Changing Input and Output Levels

It’s pretty common for photographers to make initial edits in Lightroom before moving over to Photoshop for the rest. The main reason is that Photoshop offers many handy additional tools, and changing output levels is one of those.

This feature lets you change the input for your shadows, midtones, and highlights. You can choose whether you want to brighten or darken these parts of your picture, which works similarly to dragging the histogram in Lightroom Classic.

However, you will notice some key differences between Levels and the histogram in Lightroom. When dragging the histogram, you will adjust specific sliders—such as exposure. That is not the case with Levels in Photoshop. You can also change your output levels with a separate slider.

To use this feature in Photoshop, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the menu at the top of your screen. When you’re there, select Adjustments > Levels.
    Adjustments and Levels in Photoshop Screenshot
  2. When the next window appears, drag the sliders however you feel is necessary.
    Levels in Photoshop Screenshot
  3. Once you’ve made all the required adjustments, click on the OK button.

4. Clone Stamp

One of the simplest retouches you can make to Photoshop images is clone stamping one part of the picture to another. This is, you should note, slightly different Spot Healing—as you’re not necessarily looking to fix parts of your image.

To use the Clone Stamp tool, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the left-hand toolbar in Photoshop and select the Clone Stamp tool.
    Clone Stamp Photoshop Screenshot
  2. If you need to change the size of your clone stamp, you’ll find an option at the top of your screen.
    Clone Stamp Spot Size Screenshot
  3. While holding the Alt (or Option) key, select the part of your image that you want to clone stamp elsewhere.
  4. When you find a place where you’d like to add your clone stamp, click on it, and your changes will take effect.

5. Dodge

As useful as sliders can be, you might find that they’re too general. Sometimes, it makes much more sense to only adjust specific parts of your image. If you don’t want to create layers, you’ll find one tool to help you achieve what you’re looking for: Dodge.

The Dodge tool lets you add lights to parts of photos without too much effort. You can draw freehand on the areas within your picture where you’d like to do this.

To use the Dodge tool:

  1. Go to the left-hand toolbar and select the magnifying glass icon, which you’ll see toward the bottom of your page.
    Dodge Tool in Photoshop Screenshot
  2. Start drawing over the areas in your picture that you want to brighten.

6. Automatic Adjustments

Another easy way to retouch your pictures in Photoshop is by making automatic adjustments. Making these changes won’t always give you the result that you 100% desire, but it’s worth trying them anyway. If you don’t like the adjustments, you can always undo them and add your own creative flair.

In Photoshop, you can automatically change parts of your pictures with three tools:

  • Auto Tone
  • Auto Contrast
  • Auto Color

You will find each of these in the same part of the app. Here's how to get there:

  1. In Photoshop, go to the Image tab.
  2. Expand the Image section before selecting whichever option you want to use.
    Auto Photoshop Options Screenshot
  3. If you want to undo these changes, go to Edit > Undo Auto Contrast / Auto Tone / Auto Color.

7. Blur

Adding blur is one of the most popular techniques in photography, especially with portraits. You’ll often see bokeh effects added to shots—but you don’t need to use your camera to add blur. In Photoshop, you’ll find a tool to do this.

To find the Blur tool in Photoshop:

  1. Go to the drop icon and select it.
    Blur Tool Photoshop Screenshot
  2. Change the size of your brush at the top of your screen.
    Blur Sizing Photoshop Screenshot
  3. Draw over the parts of your image to which you’d like to add blur.

Enhance Your Photos With These Quick Touch-Ups

Adobe Photoshop has several tools that will allow you to quickly retouch your images. You might use these after performing deeper edits, but in other cases, you might feel like they’re the only things you need to change.

You can quickly remove blemishes, add brightness to parts of your image, and clone stamp different areas of your picture. On top of that, you can make automatic adjustments in no time.