We discuss the use of high-resolution spectroscopy for studying inhomogeneities on stellar surfaces. Examples of such inhomogeneities include chemical and temperature spots, pulsation waves and magnetic fields. Presence of surface structures reflects important physical processes occurring in much deeper layers than can be observed and, therefore, they contain valuable information for theoretical modelling of stars. A number of techniques have been developed and successfully applied to recover the information about surface structures. We present a few examples of methods based in high-resolution spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry and argue that in several cases using infrared region provides significant advantages for mapping stellar magnetic fields and surface structures.