Retouch

Retouch paints pixels from one of your original photos (a source frame) into the stacked result. Use it when a thin detail is sharp in one photo but soft in the stack. Typical fixes are antennae, translucent wing edges, stray hairs and petal edges.

To open it, click Retouch in the Editor header, or press T. For dust spots and small blemishes, use Spot Correct instead.

Renamed: this tool was called Source Cloning before. The name Retouch used to belong to the dust brush, which is now Spot Correct.

Opening Retouch

Retouch works once a stack has finished. The button is grayed out for a single-frame edit. It’s also grayed out for a stack made before version 2026.5.27.

When the source frames have moved

Retouch reads your original photos from disk. Say you reopen a saved DNG, and the photos have moved, been renamed, or are on a drive that isn’t connected. The button stays on, and its tooltip says the source frames weren’t found.

Click it to find them:

1. Macro Studio asks whether you want to locate the frames.
2. Pick the folder they’re in now.
3. If Macro Studio finds all of them by filename, it reconnects the image and opens Retouch.

If only some turn up, it lists what’s still missing. Retouch needs all of them, so pick the right folder and try again. Finding them also turns the Look slider back on for that image.

A DNG you save before finding the frames can still be reconnected later. If you move the photos or their folder inside Macro Studio, the image reconnects on its own once it can find every frame.

The editor layout

• The source pane on the left shows the source frame you’re copying from.
• The result pane on the right is the stack you paint on.
• The toolbar sits below the panes. It holds the brush settings.
• The source filmstrip along the bottom shows every source frame. It takes the place of the results strip while Retouch is open. Above it are the Source frames / Editor images buttons, the frame arrows, and next to them the controls for stacking a slab.

The right-hand panel hides while Retouch is open.

To see only the result, as large as your screen, use full screen. The source pane folds away until you leave it.

Macro Studio matches each source frame to the result: lined up, with the same Look, brightness and grain. So painted pixels blend in instead of showing as a brighter or grainier patch.

Drag the divider between the panes to give one side more room. Double-click it to even up the panes. If they’re already even, a double-click hides the source pane, and another brings it back.

The two panes zoom and pan together, so your brush points at the same pixel on both sides. Retouch opens at the zoom you were using in the Editor. Click the zoom readout in a pane’s bottom-left corner to pick a magnification.

To check the whole picture while you work, press Z or tap Space. The panes go to Fit. Press it again to go back to the same spot at the same zoom.

Picking a source frame

Step through the frames with the arrows above the filmstrip, or the left and right arrow keys. The label shows the position and the file name, like Frame 12 of 40 — DSC_0451.NEF.

The quickest way around is the source filmstrip. Click any thumbnail to jump to that frame. A small badge on each thumbnail shows whether that frame is loaded or loading.

A frame you haven’t visited yet shows Loading… for a moment. Macro Studio prepares frames in the background and keeps them. So the longer a stack is open, the more of it opens straight away. After you change the Look, the frames are prepared again.

Pick the frame where the feature you want is sharpest.

Hold S to see the selected source frame full-size in the result pane. Let go to switch back. While you hold it, step through frames to compare them at full size. You can’t paint while S is held.

Find focus (F)

Point the brush at the spot you want to fix and press F. The source pane jumps to the frame that’s in focus there. On a deep stack, this is much faster than hunting by hand.

A small dot in the middle of the brush marks the exact spot F checks. On a very small brush there’s no dot, and the ring is the mark.

The line under the source pane gives one of three answers:

• Sharpest here: frame 42: the spot has detail, and frame 42 is where it’s in focus.
• Nearest sharp detail: frame 42: the spot is smooth background, which is out of focus in every frame. You get the frame of the closest sharp edge instead. That’s usually the right frame for cleaning up a halo around a hair or stem.
• No sharp detail found near this spot (even if it may appear sharp): nothing nearby has enough detail to judge by. Point closer to an edge, a shape or a hair.

Good to know:

• F still works after you reopen a saved DNG. A file from an older version, or a stack with no focus data, shows No focus data for this image.
• On a very low-contrast subject, F may decline in some areas rather than guess.
• F works on this stack’s own frames only, not on Editor images.

When part of a frame is shaded

On a deep stack, the first and last frames often don’t cover the whole picture once they’re lined up. This is normal: the magnification changes slightly as the focus moves.

Macro Studio shades the parts the current frame doesn’t reach with a dark hatched wash. You see it on the source pane, and on the result pane while you hold S. The line above the toolbar adds Shaded: not covered by this frame.

The brush won’t clone from a shaded area. The cursor turns to a “not allowed” sign, and clicking paints nothing. Your stacked result is fine. Only this one source frame stops short.

To clone there, step toward the reference frame, which always covers the whole picture. It’s usually the middle frame of the stack.

Painting

1. Set Size a little wider than the feature. Too wide, and you overwrite nearby pixels that were already right.
2. If you like, set Feather and Strength. Feather adds a soft edge outside the brush circle. The circle itself always clones at full strength. Strength sets how strong a stroke is: 100% replaces the pixels outright, and lower values blend the source in.
3. Click or drag on the result pane (right side). The pixels under the brush are replaced with the matching pixels from the source frame.

Macro Studio remembers all three sliders between sessions, separately from its other brushes.

You can switch source frames as you go. Earlier strokes stay, and the next stroke copies from the frame now shown.

Tick Preview in brush to fill the brush circle with the source frame as you hover. It shows what a stroke would leave behind, including Feather, Strength and Match tone. It pauses while you paint.

Painting in straight lines

For a straight feature, like an antenna, a leg or a stray hair, hold Shift and click twice:

1. Shift-click one end. A marker shows where the line starts. Nothing is painted yet.
2. Move the mouse. A band shows the line at the width your brush paints.
3. Shift-click the other end. The whole line is painted as one stroke.

To cancel, let go of Shift before the second click. Holding S or switching to another app cancels it too.

One Undo removes the whole line. To trace a bent feature, Shift-click the joint again to start the next part.

Match tone

Sometimes a patch shows as a slightly lighter or darker square, most often on a smooth background. Turn on Match tone to fix it. It keeps the source frame’s detail but takes the brightness and color from around the brush. It also paints out the bright or dark halos that can follow a high-contrast edge.

Match tone starts off on a new install, and Macro Studio remembers the setting. Each stroke records whether Match tone was on, and a reopened DNG replays it the same way.

When to leave it off: Match tone copies the brightness it finds. So it can’t paint out a problem that is only about brightness, like a dark blotch with no texture. For that, untick Match tone, and the brush clones the source as it is.

Paint on Subject or Background

Paint lets a stroke paint only on the subject, or only around it. It uses the Subject mask from Masks, including any changes you made with Refine Mask.

• All paints everywhere the brush touches.
• Subject paints only on the subject. The background around it stays as it is.
• Background paints only around the subject. The subject stays as it is.

Background is the one for halos. A halo is a pale or dark band beside a thin part, like an antenna, left by frames where the subject moved. Pick a frame where the background beside the antenna is clean, choose Background, and paint over the halo with a big brush. The antenna doesn’t change.

Subject does the opposite. Use it to bring in a sharper part from another frame without bringing that frame’s background with it.

Seeing the mask

The first time you pick Subject or Background, the part you picked turns magenta, like the mask overlay in the Editor. On All nothing is protected, so there’s no overlay. Press O, or click the eye next to Paint, to show or hide it. Preview in brush also shows what a stroke will leave, with the protected part unchanged.

Press Shift+O to step through All, Subject and Background.

Good to know

• The mask edge is soft. A pixel that is half subject gets half the stroke, so there’s no hard line.
• Fine hairs that stick out past the subject’s outline are often not in the mask, so Background paints over them. Check the overlay first. To protect them, add them with Refine Mask in the Editor, then come back to Retouch.
• The mask covers the main subject. Other sharp things, like the leaf an insect sits on, count as background.
• Background copies the source frame’s background as it is. If another part of the subject is badly out of focus in that frame, its blur comes along. Find focus on the edge you’re cleaning usually gives the right frame.
• If the mask isn’t ready yet, the line under the source pane says Building mask… and the brush waits. This usually takes a few seconds.
• Each time you open Retouch, Paint starts on All.
• Changing the mask later doesn’t change strokes you’ve already painted. Reopened files and Look changes repaint them the same way.

Your adjustments while you retouch

Both panes show the image with your Adjustments and masks applied, so you retouch the picture you’ll save. Your strokes still paint the pixels underneath, so your sliders keep working afterwards.

Untick Adjustments, or press A, to see the plain pixels. This helps you judge detail without strong Clarity or Sharpness. It also speeds up the panes on a slow machine. Spot Correct and Defringe each have their own setting.

Cloning from another Editor image

Say you stacked the same shot twice, and the second run got one area right. You can paint the good part of one into the other.

The two buttons at the left of the bottom strip pick what you copy from:

• Source frames: this stack’s own frames (the default).
• Editor images: the other stacks in this session. It’s grayed out until there’s at least one.

Click a thumbnail to copy from that image. Everything else works the same way.

Lining the two images up

If both results came from the same frames, they line up on their own. The frame label says aligned to this stack.

Otherwise, an amber bar says your images need to be aligned. Anything you paint before you line them up lands in the wrong place. It takes two clicks:

1. ⌥-click / Alt-click a small, clear feature in the source pane (left). An amber crosshair marks it.
2. ⌥-click / Alt-click the same feature in the result pane (right).

The source slides so the two points meet. Repeat to refine it. Pick something small, like the tip of an antenna, since the result is only as accurate as your clicks.

To fine-tune, click Align automatically. It works best after a rough two-click placement. If it can’t match the images, it says so and leaves the image where it was. It isn’t thrown by a different Look or brightness.

Neither method handles a change in scale or rotation. Two stacks shot at different magnifications won’t line up.

How it’s saved

A stroke cloned from another Editor image stores the pixels it used inside the DNG. The file needs nothing else to reopen, and the Look toggle keeps working.

A cloned stroke reaches a Raw DNG only when the image you clone from:

• was stacked in camera-raw mode in this session (a Raw DNG you reopened doesn’t count),
• came from the same camera, and
• still holds its raw data. Only your several most recent camera-raw stacks keep it.

Otherwise the stroke is in your TIFF and Macro Studio DNG, but left out of the Raw DNG. If you just applied or undid a repair on the image you clone from, wait a few seconds before cloning. Its raw copy takes a moment to catch up.

There’s no practical limit on how much you clone or how long you work. Painting a lot just makes the DNG larger. Past about a whole frame’s worth, the stroke still applies, but the Look toggle turns off for that image and an amber bar tells you.

On a camera-raw stack, an amber bar also warns you at Apply if your repairs can’t reach the Raw DNG. Missing source frames are reported when you save instead. Your TIFF, JPEG and Macro Studio DNG still carry the work.

Stacking a slab from a few frames

Sometimes no single frame has a feature sharp from end to end. An antenna that points toward the camera is the usual case. A slab fixes that: Macro Studio stacks just the frames you pick into one image, and you clone from it like any other source.

1. In the source filmstrip, ⌘-click / Ctrl-click the frames you want. To pick a run, click one frame and Shift-click another, or press ⇧← / ⇧→ (Shift+arrow).
2. Click Stack slab in the bar above the filmstrip, just right of the frame arrows. Until you pick frames, that spot says Select frames to create a slab.

Or right-click a frame and choose Stack slab: this frame ± 2. That stacks it with the two frames on each side.

While it stacks, the bar shows how far along it is, with a Cancel button. You can keep painting. When it’s done, the slab appears under Editor images, named after its frames (like Slab 21–25), and Retouch switches to it.

Clicking one of the frames you picked shows it and keeps your selection. Clicking any other frame, or Clear, drops the selection.

Good to know

• A slab lines up with your stack exactly, because it’s made from the same lined-up frames. There’s nothing to align.
• A slab gives each frame much more weight than a full stack does. So if alignment put one frame in the wrong place, or the subject moved between shots, the slab can show a double edge where the full stack shows only a faint ghost. Macro Studio checks each frame against the one before it as it stacks. If one doesn’t line up, a bar at the top names it, with a link to stack the slab again without it. If the frames split into two groups, the bar says where the jump is. Pick frames from one side of it instead.
• It’s stacked with your stack’s own settings, from frames that already have its Look. It’s a little softer than a full stack of the same frames, and much sharper than any one of them.
• A slab takes 2 to 30 frames. You can’t start one while a stack is running in the Editor.
• Frames far from the reference frame may not reach the edges of the picture (see When part of a frame is shaded). A slab only covers the area all of its frames share. The rest is shaded, and the brush won’t clone from it.
• Each image keeps its five newest slabs while Macro Studio is open. They show only in Retouch, not in the results strip.
• Strokes from a slab are saved like strokes from any Editor image. They don’t reach a Raw DNG.

Apply and undo

Undo and Redo work one stroke at a time. Cancel closes the editor and drops all your strokes.

Apply puts the painted pixels into the result and adds one step per stroke to the edit history. So you can still undo each stroke after you leave the editor. Each session keeps your last 30 strokes as separate steps. If one session had more, the older ones join into one row you can’t step past.

Toolbar controls

Control	What it does
◀ / ▶	Previous / next source frame. Above the filmstrip.
Frame n of m	The source frame shown on the left, and its file name. Above the filmstrip.
Size	Brush radius, 1-400 image pixels. It doesn’t change when you zoom. A Size of 100 covers 200 pixels across.
Feather	Soft band outside the brush, 0-100% (default 100%). At 0% the edge is hard.
Strength	How strong a stroke is, 5-100% (default 100%). Painting over the same spot again builds it up.
↩ / ↪	Undo / Redo, one stroke at a time.
Preview in brush (P)	Shows what a stroke would leave, inside the brush circle.
Match tone (M)	Keeps the source detail but matches the surrounding brightness and color. See Match tone.
Adjustments (A)	Shows both panes with your Adjustments applied. On by default.
Paint: (⇧O)	Where a stroke paints: All, only on the Subject, or only on the Background. See Paint on Subject or Background.
Eye (O)	Shows or hides, in magenta, the part Paint applies to. Grayed out on All.
Source frames / Editor images	Copy from this stack’s frames, or from another stack.
Stack slab / Clear	Stack the selected frames into a slab, or drop the selection. Above the filmstrip, while frames are selected.
Cancel	Close and drop all strokes.
Apply	Put the strokes into the result.

The P, M and A keys can be changed in Preferences.

Keys and mouse

Action	Result
Click or drag	Paint.
Shift-click twice	Paint a straight line.
Scroll / pinch	Zoom both panes.
Space + drag, right-drag or middle-drag	Pan both panes.
Double-click	Zoom to fit.
Z or Space	Switch between Fit and the zoom you were at.
Double-click the divider	Even up the panes, or hide the source pane.
← / → or ⇧ + scroll	Previous / next source frame.
S (hold)	Show the source frame in the result pane.
F	Find focus.
O	Show or hide the Subject mask.
⇧O / Shift+O	Step Paint through All, Subject and Background.
[ / ], or ⌘ / Ctrl + scroll	Brush size.
{ / }, or ⌘⇧ / Ctrl+Shift + scroll	Feather.
, / . (5% steps), 0-9, or ⌥⌘ / Alt+Ctrl + scroll	Strength.
⌥-click / Alt-click	Line up an Editor image (source pane, then result pane).
⌘-click / Ctrl-click a thumbnail	Select frames for a slab. Shift-click or ⇧← / ⇧→ selects a run.
Right-click a thumbnail	Stack a slab of that frame and two on each side.
⌘Z / Ctrl+Z	Undo the last stroke.
⌘⇧Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo.
Esc	Leave Retouch. If you’ve painted anything, Macro Studio asks whether to apply or discard it.

You can change the pan key in Preferences, and what a scroll does in Wheel gestures, per screen.

Tips

• Zoom in to at least 100%. At fit-to-window zoom the brush is too big.
• Keep strokes short. Each stroke is one Undo.
• If the brush feels slow, zoom in or drag more slowly.
• Retouch first, then use Masks. Masks still cover painted pixels correctly after you Apply.

See also

• Spot Correct: for dust spots and small blemishes.
• Edit History: step back through your applied strokes.
• Look: source frames match the result’s current Look.
• Saving: your painted pixels are in the saved file.