Clone Tool Tutorial

This isn't so much a tutorial as it is a demonstration of just how powerful the clone tool is, when used properly.

http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana...nk/sub_raw.jpg
Here is the raw photo I took. Look at all the imperfections. I want to project the image of the "American Dream" here, so all these flaws won't work.

http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana..._touchedup.jpg
And Here is the image after using the clone tool a few times. Notice the power line is taken out from the top of the photo, the steel pole taken out of my neighbours yard, and concrete cleaned up.

It's best to duplicate the layer you're working on before doing any kind of touch-up work on it.

Select the clone tool and use a something around a 21px brush, the smooth one not the solid edge.

Pick out the area you want to touch up, and select something nearby to copy from (using the ALT key). Try to find something with a similar lighting on it. For instance if you're taking a scar off someones face, you don't want to select a dark part of the face, if the scar is on a lighter section.

Dive right in and brush directly over the object.

Now you're likely left with some nasty edges. Just reselect something even closer to your painted over object and brush out those edges by just barely letting the clone tool go over them (use the edges of the brush, if that makes sense) This is kind of a tedious lengthy process of selecting and reselecting areas to clone from, but it's worth it in the end. Just keep reselecting to follow your brushing.

On Some occasions you'll have to totally change the area around your clone to get it to a point where it blends. But as long as the end product doesn't look like an obvious clone then I wouldn't worry about it.

Sometimes that will be enough, other times you'll need to go back over the clone with a white/black brush to correct lighting issues. Just use a regular brush and set the opacity to around 5% and start painting until it matches the surroundings. The Burn and Dodge tools could also be used for this, but I don't like the way they affect saturation.

Hopefully that's enough to get you started using the clone tool, seeing just how powerful and useful it can be for photo touch-ups. If you have any questions or comments I'd be happy to answer them.


http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana.../sub_final.jpg
This is my final image. With some lighting changes.

:blink: Actualy , I don't realy see the use of the Clone Tool over here , could be just me

very nice tut man. this is a great tool, but not many people know about it.

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Originally posted by Shigeko@Apr 19 2005, 09:12 AM
:blink: Actualy , I don't realy see the use of the Clone Tool over here , could be just me

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http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana...k/sub_raw2.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana...touchedup2.jpg

The pebbles on the road are kind of hard to make out, I used a smaller resolution than my actual final product was, to try and spare some bandwith, even though it's still a huge image file. lol. sorry! The most obvious touch up is probably the pole and the weeds on the side of the sidewalk.

What the diffrence?

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Originally posted by TripelX@Apr 19 2005, 11:15 AM
What the diffrence?

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Wow, really? Nobody sees the huge clumps of weeds sticking out of the sidewalk, or the big pole in the yard, or the power line across the top? It's all circled.

yea seriously, theres a freakin diff there, you may not recognize it, you may need a more drastic change to better demonstrate the clone stamp :\

Well this tool is good for a professinal graphics artists but not for an average user.

Owh yeas , now I see. It's little hard too discover but much things are changed , looks good !

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Originally posted by bigfatguy6969@Apr 19 2005, 08:35 PM
Well this tool is good for a professinal graphics artists but not for an average user.

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oh i beg to differ. i have used this to get rid of stuff on renders, and fixed up things. this is a great tool for whatever you may be doing.

hh sry but i dont see it 2 .... only some lightning changes :huh:

:blink: :blink:

Okay one last time. Here's a super close-up of one of the changes. You'll see some imperfections in the cloning, but this image was never meant to be viewed at this size.

http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana...inaltoucha.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/adamcavana...inaltouchb.jpg

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Originally posted by Shigeko@Apr 19 2005, 10:12 AM
:blink: Actualy , I don't realy see the use of the Clone Tool over here , could be just me

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It also works if you want to take a date/time out of a photograph..usually at the bottom in one of the corners..so it can be used for many things.. ;)

thats really good man

I noticed a difference only cuz I use the clone stamp tool fairly often, the healing brush tool works like the same way too, I find it better than the clone stamp. You can patch& replace colour wit it.

I'm not a fan of the healing brush, I think it makes a lot of misjudgements when dealing with color correction. I'd rather do it by hand.

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Originally posted by unit_number_43@Apr 19 2005, 12:39 PM
Wow, really? Nobody sees the huge clumps of weeds sticking out of the sidewalk, or the big pole in the yard, or the power line across the top? It's all circled.

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I see it and it is really cool, i might use i some time.

whoever doesnt see the diff, save the both pics on ur pc and select them to a slideshow(fullscreen) and press the arrows a couple times, ull see it if ur not blind :blink:

the outcome looks like a frikin paradise compared to the original one :blink: great tut!
gotto try this sometime ;)

Wow, its was hard for me to find what was changed :P But I see it now and its looks just fin , nice work


http://img181.echo.cx/img181/4232/sig6ps.jpg

I saw 'em and i think that this was a really good way to show the power of the clone tool!

If you had chosen another picture, the improvement would maybe have been more obvious?

Anyway, nice little demonstration :)

Yeah I could have picked something alittle more obvious to do. But i liked this example, because it was a more real world example.

i ahdnt seen this but i was using the clone tool before and it is sooo cool :)

really nice to see that you like to play with details unit number 43
well done

just so you know i've been useing this tut alot lately.

that the point...ur not suppose to notice a difference i guess with the clone stamp tool hahaha :P

Wow i didnt know the clone tool was that powerful, thx for that tutorial so to speak.

Never Used It Much Myself ..But I Agree The Fact U Cant Notice It Is The Thing That Makes It Work So Well.. Nice Tut 43 :)

I dont know many people who use the clone tool... it's useful though ^^ I was like.... what differences? I guess I need really big red circles to notice things. ... o___O;;

hm, i can see the difference, but that spiderweb(?) is not much work, but the color changes are good :)