Photoshop Elements’ Spot Healing Brush can lift most dust specks and light scratches from a scan in a few clicks, blending in the surrounding detail automatically.
What you need
- The scanned photo or negative, opened in Photoshop Elements
- A mouse or trackpad – precise clicks matter more than speed here
- About ten to twenty minutes, depending on how much damage there is
Work on a duplicate layer
Work on a copy, not your only saved version of the scan. Duplicate the layer first, so you can always get back to the untouched original.
How to remove dust and scratches
- Open the scan in Elements and go to Layer > Duplicate Layer, so your original stays safe underneath.
- Select the Spot Healing Brush from the tool panel.
- Set the brush size just a little larger than the dust speck or scratch you’re fixing.
- Click on a speck, or drag gently along a scratch – Elements blends in nearby texture automatically.
- Zoom to 100% and work across the whole photo, then save as a new file when you’re done.
Check at full zoom
View the photo at 100% zoom across the full frame. Dust and scratches should be gone, with no obvious smudging or repeated patterns where the tool has blended.
If the scratches are heavy
For heavy scratch damage across a large area, the Clone Stamp tool gives more control, though it takes longer to use well. If you don’t have Photoshop Elements, the free program GIMP has a similar Heal tool that works the same way.
Next step
Once the surface damage is fixed, check whether the colour has faded too – see Correct a yellow colour cast on an ageing print.
Sources and date checked
Adobe Photoshop Elements Help, checked 22 September 2026.