Learning Center

by Weston Maggio

“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.