Think past the Brush tool … custom brushes also work with the Clone Stamp tool, the Impressionist Brush tool, the Eraser tool, the Dodge tool, the Burn tool and the Sponge tool. Let’s try a quick trick using a custom brush with the Clone Stamp tool to create the look of a masked photo in a snap!

You’ll begin with two documents open in your work¬space — a layout in progress (or just a background paper for practice purposes) and a photo.

1. Click directly on the photo to make it the active document.

2. Select the Clone Stamp tool from the Toolbox.

3. From the Options bar click the Show selected brush presets drop-down menu.

4. Double click the brush of choice to load.

This example uses a brush from Katie Pertiet’s “Stamped Blocks Brushes -n- Stamps” (http://designerdigitals.com)

5. Position the cursor to cover the desired area of your photo.   (Resize the brush by pressing the [ or ] keys to increase or decrease the brush diameter )

6. Press ALT (OPTION on Mac) while clicking once on the photo to sample the image.

7. Switch to the document containing your layout in progress.

8. In the Layers palette, create a new blank layer above all other layers.

9. Position the brush and click the left mouse button once to “stamp” the image onto the new blank layer you created.

Looks fabulous doesn’t it? (We won’t tell anyone how easy it was if you don’t!)

This video from Save the Green shows you how you can save paper, trees and money through digital scrapbooking.  Please share the link with your friends and help us save the earth.

“Scrapbooking” is largely about capturing life’s little moments and preserving them for future enjoyment. Sometimes the photo images we choose are candid, and sometimes they are posed. Whichever the case may be, they can all contain elements that we’d rather leave behind. When such situations arise, the Clone Stamp tool can be of great help. Here are a couple of handy techniques for eliminating those unwanted elements. The techniques that I mention in this article are featured in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8; however, previous versions of PSE and Photoshop can be used equally as well.

In this photo, we see one of the beautiful buildings on the grounds of the V. Sattui Winery in Napa Valley. This image was used on the cover of a keepsake book that I put together for my wife and me from a recent trip. I didn’t know it would be the cover of my book when I shot it, but as I reviewed the photos, I decided that with a little “help,” it would be perfect.

Most obvious, the garbage cans needed to go. Then, looking a bit closer, I decided that there were some other distracting elements that took away from the image, such as the small rope fences in the foreground and the objects near the door and planter in the background. Finally, I felt that the gap in the bushes, revealing a lamp post and some other equipment, wasn’t exactly pleasing.

With the image open, I created a new layer. Before I start any retouching or enhancement project, I create a new layer so that A) I don’t damage my original image, and B) I can toggle my edits on or off throughout a project to reveal the original. I named this new layer “Pending Edits.”

Next, I selected the Paint Brush tool and a 5-pixel brush and circled the elements and areas that I wished to correct. This layer served as my checklist of things to do. You can certainly avoid this step in your projects, making a mental note of the edits that you wish to make, but I have found over the years that this checklist can make a big difference in the long run. There is nothing worse than printing a photo and then seeing something that you wished you had removed.

Time for the Clone Stamp Tool. If you’ve never used this tool before, you are in for a treat. Its effects can sometimes seem almost magical! What it does fundamentally is copy, or “clone,” a portion of your image from one place to another.

To use the Clone Stamp Tool, select it from the toolbox and choose a brush from the brush presets. Next, you must set a sampling point from the “good” area – the area from which you wish to clone. While holding the Option key (Mac) or Alt key (Win), click on this “good” area. Now, moving your cursor to the “bad” area – the area you wish to replace – paint or clone away! When doing so, you’ll notice that a small crosshair will appear where you set your sampling point. It will move in alignment (by default) as you clone. More on alignment in a moment.

To remove the garbage cans, I toggled the visibility of my Pending Edits layer off by clicking the eyeball to the left of the layer’s thumbnail. Next, I created another new layer and named it “Removed Elements.” This layer would contain my edits. An important addition to Photoshop Elements (and Photoshop) in recent years is the ability to Sample All Layers. This option, which is selected on the options bar, enables you to set a sampling point on all visible layers, and clone to a separate layer. The benefit here is the ability to maintain an edit-free version of your image, and see a before-and-after simply by turning the visibility of the layer on and off.

One additional feature that I’ve come to rely on is the Clone Overlay option. You can turn this option on by clicking on the icon to the right of “Sample All Layers” on the Options Bar. When the options appear, check the Clone Overlay and Clipped check boxes. Doing so will reveal a preview of your sampling point at the cursor. This enables you to see exactly what you are about to clone. A huge timesaver!

I first sampled from a grassy area to the left of the garbage cans. Then I painted, or “cloned,” over the bottom of the cans. This worked well, until I reached the line that separated the grass from the bushes in the shadows behind the cans. My sampling point left me with a smudged line between them. To match this separation, I set a new sampling point on the edge of the grass and the shadows, again to the left of the cans, then I simply cloned to the right, carrying the line straight across. The Clone Overlay was really helpful here, enabling me to line up the transition between the grass in the sun and the bushes in the shadows. I repeated this process of setting sampling points and cloning away the rope fences, objects by the door, and miscellaneous debris.

To finish up the cover, I added some text for the title. This book sits on our coffee table and is a great reminder of those sunny days in Napa.

Tips for Improving Cloning

Turn up the Pressure. The brush that you use can make a big difference in the result of your cloning process. I used a soft-edged brush in this project, which gave me a feathered or faded edge. This works well when blending soft areas of an image. When you encounter highcontrast areas, you may find a hardedged brush to be more appropriate. (You can adjust the hardness of a brush by holding the Shift key and tapping your left and right bracket keys. You’ll see a difference in the brush preset preview on the options bar.)

If you are using a Wacom pen tablet, you can take advantage of the Clone Stamp tool’s pressure-sensitive control by using a brush preset designed for pen pressure. (The majority of the default hard-and soft-edge brushes are designed for pen pressure.) Varying the amount of physical pressure that you apply to the tablet can adjust the size of your brush. This is extremely helpful when getting into tight areas (around the rope fences in this image, for example).

Keeping Your Clone Aligned. By default, when cloning from your sampling point, each stroke is aligned or exactly offset, meaning that once you have established your sampling point, wherever you begin to clone, the results of each stroke will be directly aligned with your sampling point. For larger areas, you may opt to uncheck Aligned on the options bar to maintain the original sampling point. Now, each time you begin a new stroke, you are sampling from the start of your sampling point (vs. exactly offset). Such was the case in this image: I unchecked Align to clone from the same sampling point to close up the opening in the bushes. A word of caution: Watch out for repeating patterns. It’s easy to get caught up in cloning and mistakenly create a repeating pattern or patch on your image. Resample, or set a new sampling point as often as necessary to blend in your corrections.

Note: All images Copyright © 2010 Weston Maggio.
All Rights Reserved. Article instructions were created on a Mac. PC equivalent keystrokes noted where applicable.

When the subject of using a computer to create scrapbook layouts comes up, scrappers come from several different schools of thought. There are those who choose to lay entire pages out digitally on their computer, some who like to combine both digital and traditional designs and embellishments, and then there are others who have little or no interest in using the computer to scrapbook at all. Regardless of what school you’re from, we all share something in common: the desire to take better-looking photos. Let’s face it…even the best layout design will fall flat if the images you use look bad.

Beginning with this issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond (and in issues to come), we’ll be exploring the many ways to improve your photos to better enhance all of your scrapbooking, cardmaking, and other paper crafting projects.

By far, the most common issue I am asked to help with is about “exposure,” especially in those cases where an image is too dark or too underexposed. This occurs when there is not enough light focused on your subject. Alternatively, if there is too much light on the subject, it becomes overexposed. So how do we fix this age-old problem? Like many things “digital,” we can deal with this issue in numerous ways, but we are going to focus on a feature that yields the highest percentage of success and is found in most all image-editing applications called Levels. Levels enable us to adjust not only exposure, but also contrast other things. Additionally, when you combine levels with adjustment layers and blend modes, they become an even more powerful tool. If all this sounds a bit frightening, please do not be alarmed. This stuff need NOT be difficult, and in fact, can be a lot of fun!

In the photo above, my boys were hamming it up in the driveway as we prepared to go to my mother’s on Easter Sunday. I absolutely loved this photo, but despite the abundance of sun, they happened to be in the shade, making their faces look a bit dark and lacking contrast. Enter, Levels.

Levels

I’m using Photoshop Elements 6.0 in this example, but as I said, Levels can be found in most imageediting applications. To access Levels, go to Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels. (Alternatively, you may use keyboard shortcut: Command on a Mac, Control + L in Windows.)

When the Levels dialog box appears, you are presented with what’s called a histogram: a mountainous landscape-looking representation of the pixel values in your image. Dark values or colors are on the left, and light values are on the right. In the case of an underexposed image (where the scene is primarily dark) the majority of the “mountain” or curve will be heavy on the left, whereas images that are on the lighter side will have a curve that is heavy on the right. A well-exposed image typically has a curve that covers the entire width of the histogram. See the Histogram Example for reference.

To make a Levels adjustment to an image that is underexposed (or too dark), slide the rightmost triangle, or White Point slider, under the histogram to the left until it reaches the rightmost part of the curve. With the Preview box checked, you will see that the image will begin to lighten as you drag the slider.

To make a Levels adjustment to an image that is overexposed (or too light), slide the leftmost triangle, or Black Point slider, to the right until it reaches the leftmost part of the curve.

By adjusting the white and/or black points of an image, you are forcing the colors to spread out over the entire width of the histogram. Positive results sometimes require a bit of experimentation. Look for different effects in the image as you drag the sliders. Go beyond the edge of the curve and see what happens. If the image is still a bit dark or light, move the center slider back and forth, which adjusts the midtones of an image. A little bit goes a long way with the midtone slider. When you reach an adjustment that you like, click OK. Note: If you slide the white or black point slider too far to the left or right, you can lose all detail in the highlights and shadows. How far is too far? Every image is different – it all depends on how poorly exposed the image is. Some images are just too dark, and some too light. Adjusting the Levels of these types of images produces noise and high, unsightly contrast.

Adjustment Layers

The steps that I described above apply to making a global Levels adjustment, meaning the effect is applied to the entire image or layer. More times than not, however, an image’s exposure is not entirely bad – in which case it’s more appropriate to “selectively” apply an adjustment. Such is the case in my example. I want to bring my boys out of the shadows and in contrast to the background. To do so, I used a Levels Adjustment Layer.

Adjustment Layers enable us to apply adjustments on a separate layer with the added benefit of incorporating a Layer Mask. The Mask gives us the ability to selectively apply the adjustment only in the areas that we want. To create a Levels Adjustment Layer, go under Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. When the Levels dialog box appears, make the adjustments to the histogram as previously described and click OK.

In the Layers palette, you will see a layer with a thumbnail resembling a histogram and a white thumbnail to its right. This white thumbnail is the Layer Mask. When working with Layer Masks, white “reveals” the contents of the layer (or in this case the adjustment). Alternatively, black “conceals” what is on the layer.

Now we must fill the layer mask with black to conceal the adjustment. To do so, go to Edit > Fill Layer… > Contents > Use = Black. The adjustment will seemingly be removed, when in fact it has been “masked” out by the black fill. When we paint on the layer mask with the Brush tool, with white set as the foreground color, the adjustment will appear!

Users of a Wacom pen tablet can gain an even greater level of control by adjusting the opacity of the brush based on the amount of physical pressure they apply to the tablet with their pen.

To use pressure sensitivity, select a soft round airbrush, such as those found towards the center of the list of brush presets.

Next, on the Options Bar, in between the airbrush icon and the paintbrush (or Brush Dynamics) icon is a small, down-facing arrow. Clicking on this arrow will reveal Brush Tablet Options. Check Opacity, and uncheck all other options. Now you can gently brush on the amount of the adjustment “selectively” with as much intensity or opacity as you wish.

Blend Modes

Want to speed things up a bit? Perform the steps to create a Levels Adjustment Layer, stopping when the Levels adjustment dialog box appears. Click OK without making any adjustments to the histogram. Now, change the Blend Mode of the Adjustment Layer (in the Layers palette) to either “Screen” to lighten an image, or “Multiply” to darken the image. Fill the layer mask with black and paint in the adjustment as we did in the previous technique. This process can take the guesswork out of making manual adjustments to the histogram. If ever the amount of the adjustment is too intense, simply lower the opacity of the layer.

While adjusting Levels can save a fair share of images that would otherwise be set aside, it is ideal to get exposure right in the camera. I offer the following tips to help you avoid exposure problems before it is time to put them on the page.

Turn on a light! If there isn’t enough light in a room, turn on a lamp, open a door, do whatever you can to brighten the scene.

Keep the sun or light source at your back. If you can’t see the sun, chances are, your subject can. Doing so will keep your camera from thinking there is too much light when exposing the image.

Turn on your flash – even when it’s sunny. Your flash can be used to add “fill” light to your subject, balancing foreground and background contrast.

Get closer to your subject. Flashes on smaller cameras tend to travel about 10 feet. Move a little closer – if you can.

Turn OFF your flash. It might seem counter-intuitive o the suggestions that I made above, but sometimes natural light looks better than that in-your-face flash that can overly lighten your subject and black out its surroundings.

Check your camera settings. Knowing your camera can help immensely in keeping exposure in check. Take out the manual (gasp) and pick up a tip or two on the various modes available. Happy shooting!

Weston Maggio is a traditionally-trained illustrator and photographer who turned digital in 1993. Today, Wes works for Wacom Technology as an Application Specialist where he frequently speaks and instructs on how to enhance creative workflows using a pen tablet.