The Content Aware Brush and Patch tools both share the same key feature: while filling the spot you want to retouch, they only use the perceived structure of the transposed part, and let the colors and lighting of it adapt to the underlying part of the image. And they both require a source.

The difference between the Brush and Patch is that the Brush needs to be aligned with that Alt-key (just like the good-old Clone Stamp tool) to indicate its source, and the Patch uses a selected area to drag around (and you can choose whether you want to search for either the goal or a source).

This makes it easy to find e.g. a piece of skin to retouch another skin part with, which has the right structure (pores, freckles) but not necessarily the exact same color or luminosity. It blends in far better than the Clone Stamp tool, and you get more control over the content filling the spot, then with the super-automatic click-and-presto Healing Brush.


Oorspronkelijk geplaatst op Quora: How do I use patch effectively on Photoshop where you drag over another part of the image to fill the hole you have created to substitute?"