Exingo,
The best thing to do is to go to the Adobe Expert Center and look at some of the tutorials for these features. A picture is worth a thousand words.
You can also google "healing brush photoshop tutorial" and that’ll keep ya busy.
I retouch photos, so I use them day in and day out. People who create work from scratch may not, I dunno.
1. Just curious, are these tools really created for newbies like me or
do the seasoned professionals also use these tools, or do you use the clone stamp tool to accomplish the same thing?
I use whatever works best. As for pros vs. newbies, these tools are good for either skill level.
2. What is the difference between the Patch tool and Healing brush? Don’t they do the same thing?
Sort of, but in different ways.
I use the patch tool mostly. The healing brush it a little quirky to me. But, I do don’t think they are for newbies. If you have a badly damaged Photo you need to restore these tools can save you hours if not days.
With being able to do it an empty layer in Photoshop CS it should be even more useful.
Robert