Using Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

The latest addition to the Adobe Touch apps lineup, Adobe Photoshop Fix CC, is the next step in the process of bringing the power of Adobe Photoshop to smartphones and tablets. It never ceases to amaze how people who should know better wonder why there isn’t a version of Photoshop for devices. One reason is there is so much to Photoshop that, if Adobe were able to pull off this engineering feat, our devices would be melting in our hands. Instead, the wizards at Adobe are bringing the core competencies of Photoshop — Imaging and Compositing — to devices by splitting them and putting them in separate apps. The first step in this process was the compositing piece which appeared in Adobe Photoshop Mix CC. The other competency — Retouching/Imaging — has been added to the lineup with the release of Adobe Photoshop Fix CC.

There’s a lot to this app, so let’s get started.

How to Use the Adobe Photoshop Fix CC Interface

Though there is a lot under the hood the Fix interface is rather simple to use. Along the top are a series of menus. From left to right they are:

Layers: If the image is a multilayer document you can move between the layers.
Send To: The usual choices here. They are your Creative Cloud library, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, your Camera Roll, Facebook, Instagram or the image can be shared among a number of social media apps or the device.
Back/Forward: These two curved arrows, when tapped, move you backward or forward. Think of them as Undo and Redo.
Full Screen: Tap this and the interface “disappears” and the image is shown at full screen.

The Tools are shown along the bottom. Keep in mind these tools are more along the line of menu items. When you tap a tool, the menu bar changes to show you the various options for the chosen tool. The Tools, from left to right, are:

Crop: There is a bit more than simple cropping with this tool. It also allows you to rotate the image, flip the image or crop to a selected aspect ratio.
Adjust: This is is where color adjustments — Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Highlights, and Shadows — are made.
Liquify: Just like its Photoshop counterpart, this tool adds some interesting distortions — Warp, Swell, and Twirl — to the image
Healing: Use this tool to remove artifacts. The tool includes a number of brushes: Spot Healing, Patch, Clone Stamp, and Red Eye Removal.
Smooth: Tap this and you can Smooth or Sharpen areas in the image.
Light: Tap this and you can lighten or darken areas in the image.
Color: Tap this and you can increase or decrease the Saturation in the image.
Paint: Tap this and you get to use a brush to change the color of an object. Not only that there is an eyedropper tool in this area and you can choose whether or not to blend the color with the object being painted.
Defocus: Thinks of this as a Blur brush.
Vignette: Tap this and you can add and control a vignette for the image.

How to Remove Artifacts in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

In the above image, there is an air vent in the upper left corner that should be removed.

To accomplish this, we first tapped the Healing Brush to open the Healing Options. When they open you have a choice of brushes along the bottom and a Brush panel appears on the left. To use the Brush panel, press and hold on the Size icon and drag up and down to increase or decrease the size of the brush. The Hardness icon allows you to control the strength of the brush by dragging up and down and the icon at the bottom turns on a red overlay, much like the Quick Mask in Photoshop, to show you the area being affected.

We first selected the Spot Heal brush, set the brush size and opacity and carefully painted over the vent. Next, we selected the Clone Stamp tool and tapped once on the line separating the siding panels to set the source. Then we dragged across the area just healed to add the line.

This can be a bit tricky. If the cloned area is not exactly where it should be, tap the Undo arrow.

When finished, tap the Checkmark in the bottom right to accept the change. You tap the X to discard the change and start over.

How to Color Correct an Image in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

You have two choices when it comes to correcting color in Adobe Fix CC. You can correct globally and you can correct locally. Let’s see how global adjustments work.

To correct globally tap the Adjust icon. This will open the Adjustment options for Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Shadows, and Highlights. Along the bottom of the image is a slider. You tap an option and move the slider right or left to increase or decrease the effect of the selected option. As you make changes, the options applied will sport a blue underline.

At the same time, a new icon appears in the upper left corner of the image. Tap and hold and you can see the effect of the change by showing you a Before and After preview.

Once you are satisfied, tap the checkmark icon to accept the change.

How to Make Local Color Adjustments in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

Local changes to specific areas of the image are made in the Light Options. When it opens you will see three options: Lighten, Darken, and Restore. Use Lighten on the highlights, Darken on the shadows and Restore to remove a lighten or darken effect from an area that doesn’t need it. In the above image, we used Restore to remove the Darken option from the treetops.

When you are satisfied, tap the checkmark to accept the change or the X to start over.

The Color options are another way of making local changes. Tap the Color icon and you can choose to Saturate or Desaturate an area of the image or you can tap Pop to let Fix handle the chores. If there are areas that need to be restored to their original look, the Restore brush is the tool for this.

How to Crop an Image in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

The Crop Tool is pretty cool. When you tap the Crop icon you see a number of unexpected options.

Rotate: Does exactly what you expect. The Protractor under the image was unexpected. If your is a little “off-kilter”, use your finger to rotate the image. Just be aware that, as you rotate the image, the image scales with higher rotation values
Flip: Does exactly what you think.

The remaining icons are where a little magic is introduced into a simple crop. To establish a crop you move a handle. If the aspect ratio is absolutely critical tapping one of them will not only set the crop area to the selected ratio but will also scale the cropped image to fit the new ratio.

How to Change the Color of an Object in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

Fix contains a rather interesting Paint tool. When you tap the Paint icon, the Paint options open.

Along the bottom is the Brush, a Color Picker which will sample color in the image and a Blend switch. The brush panel contains the usual options including a system Color Picker.

In this example, we decided to change the color of the gloves to match the color of her jacket.

To accomplish this, we tapped Pick Color and then tapped on a darker blue in the jacket.

We then tapped Paint and set the Size, Hardness, and Opacity options. We also tapped the Blend switch the ensure the color blended in with the gloves. If you make a mistake, use the Restore brush. When satisfied, we tapped the Check Mark to accept the changes.

How to Add and Adjust a Vignette in Adobe Photoshop Fix CC

Vignettes pull the focus of an image to an area you choose by darkening the edges of the image. The neat thing about Photoshop Fix is the Vignette tool also contains a rather pleasant surprise.

When you tap Vignette, the Options open. What you will see are two circles and a gun sight over the image and a slider at the bottom. The slider changes the vignette area. Where the real power this tool comes into play is those circles with handles. Dragging the handles in or out allows you to customize the vignette and the gun sight can be moved to the part of the image where you want the viewer’s attention.

The pleasant surprise is the Color icon in the Options. Tap it and the Color Picker opens. You can then change the vignette color by either: