Retouching with the Clone Stamp Tool in Adobe Photoshop CS5
Note: This excerpt does not include the lesson files. The lesson files are available with purchase of the book.
From the book
From the book
From the book
The Clone Stamp tool uses pixels from one area of an image to replace the pixels in another part of the image. Using this tool, you can not only remove unwanted objects from your images, but you can also fill in missing areas in photographs you scan from damaged originals.
You’ll start by replacing a bright white area of the wall—a hot spot—with cloned bricks from another area of the picture.
- Select the Clone Stamp tool (
) in the Tools panel.
- In the options bar, open the Brush pop-up menu, and set the size to 21 and the Hardness to 0%. Then, make sure that the Aligned option is selected.
- Choose Window > Clone Source to open the Clone Source panel. This panel gives you greater control over the area you’re cloning from (in this case, the bricks).
- Select Show Overlay and Clipped in the Clone Source panel. Then, make sure Opacity is set to 100%. The overlay lets you see what you’re cloning before you stamp it.
- Move the Clone Stamp tool over the darker bricks just to the right of the hot spot on the wall. (You may want to zoom in to see the area better.)
- Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) to start sampling that part of the image. (When you press Alt or Option, the pointer appears as target cross-hairs.)
- Starting at the area just to the right of the girl’s hat, drag the Clone Stamp tool to the right, over the hot spot on the bricks. The clone overlay lets you see what will appear there. This is particularly useful for keeping the bricks in a straight line.
- Release the mouse button and move the pointer to another area in the hot spot, and then start dragging again.
Each time you click the Clone Stamp tool, it begins again with a new source point, in the same relationship to the tool as the first stroke you made. That is, if you begin painting further right, it samples from bricks that are further right than the original source point. That’s because Aligned is selected in the options bar.
- Continue cloning the bricks until the entire hot spot is filled in.
If necessary to help make the bricks appear to blend in naturally with the rest of the image, you can adjust your cloning by resetting the sample area (as you did in step 6) and recloning. Or, you can try deselecting the Aligned option and cloning again.
- When you’re satisfied with the appearance of the bricks, close the Clone Source panel, and choose File > Save.
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