I'm trying to retouch portrait photos with the healing brush in Lightroom, but when I use the spot removal tool, it leaves weird marks or it's not subtle enough. It feels like my corrections are way too obvious. Is there a technique or a good feathering value I should be using?
Don't click just once on a spot - it always creates weird halos. Instead, use several light clicks with reduced opacity (like 50-60%) rather than 100%, it blends way better. For feathering, set it pretty high (around 80-90) so the edges are soft, and adjust your brush size to match the area well. If you're really struggling with marks, try the Heal tool instead of Clone - it analyzes the texture around it better and it's usually more subtle.
It's true that lowering opacity helps, but I'd say the real trick is using the healing brush in "Healing" mode rather than "Clone" - it blends into the skin so much better. Then mess with the feathering, set it pretty high (like 80-90) so the edges of your correction fade out gradually. And honestly, I do multiple light passes instead of one big one, it doesn't leave those weird halos you notice right away. Bonus: uncheck "Auto Mask" so you have more control over the area it's correcting.
The real problem is often feathering set too low - using feathering at like 80-90% instead of 20-30% creates a way more natural transition with the surrounding skin. Combine that with the reduced opacity we mentioned, and use Healing mode of course, but most importantly pay attention to the source you pick - it needs to be from a skin texture zone that's similar, not just next to it. One thing people forget: zoom at 100% to work, nothing tighter, or you'll see flaws that don't really exist and end up over-correcting.
The thing people often forget is that the source point (the point Lightroom will copy the texture from) needs to be placed really carefully. If you click anywhere to fix a spot, it's going to grab an area that might have a slight shadow or a different texture, and it'll look weird even with good feathering. Before you start, examine where you're going to take the "source" from - look for a smooth, well-lit area of skin right next to the spot, at the same angle as the face.
After that, also play around with your brush size. A lot of people use a brush that's way too big for small spots, which creates a correction area that's too wide and therefore too visible. A brush smaller than the spot itself lets you be more precise and make several light passes instead of one big correction that kills the natural texture of the skin. Combine that with opacity around 70-80% and you'll see it's way more subtle - you keep just enough of the original texture so it stays realistic.
You using Lightroom Classic or the Cloud version? The sliders can vary a bit depending on which one you're using.
To keep it invisible you really need to master spot removal in thin layers rather than trying to fix everything at once. What really makes the difference is checking your sampling source - like if you have a blemish on your left cheek, it's better to grab your texture from a similar area of the face (same skin texture, same lighting angle) rather than just next to it where the lighting might be different. Sounds obvious but that's where weird halos come from.
For the settings, building on what others have mentioned plus one essential thing: play with high feathering (like 75-85%) but also lower your opacity to 40-50% for your first pass, then add light layers after if needed. It's less "perfect" at first glance but way more natural. And one thing people forget is sometimes you need to use the tool directly on the healing brush rather than switching back and forth every time - it gives you more control and you see the preview in real time.
There's also a difference between fixing acne (healing is better) and a scar (clone might work better). What type of blemishes are you actually retouching?
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