# Struggling with the Spot Removal tool in LR5



## Glenn NK (Jul 9, 2013)

In LR4.4, I could choose any area that I wanted to use for the "fix" of a blemish, or to remove a fence post (for example).

In LR5, the tool seems to have a mind of its own; it chooses where the "fix" comes from, and as often as not, it's a complete balls-up.

Working on an image with a vertical pole stuck in the sand on a beach (I couldn't get across the river to remove the pole physically):

In LR4, I can easily get rid of the pole with judicious selections from various areas of the sand beach.

LR5 picks areas to clone/heal from that simply don't work at all.

Is this normal?


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## Mark Sirota (Jul 9, 2013)

The spot removal tool in LR5 is a bit different -- spots no longer need to be circular. So in the pole example, you could clean it up with one motion, by just clicking and dragging over the pole.

To do what you used to do, click to create a circular spot and drag to select a source, hold down the Control key while you click and drag (Command key on Mac).


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## Glenn NK (Jul 9, 2013)

Thanks Mark - that's what I needed - the CTRL key.


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