Photoshop Tip: Using the clone stamp tool to duplicate pixels.
This is the original photo of a treasure hunter on St Augustine Beach in Florida. Only minor curves and color adjustments have been made.
Here is the photo with the person cloned out using the clone stamp tool in Photoshop CS3. The toughest part was removing the book from the shadow and also taking the long shaft of the metal detector out while trying to retain the integrity of the shadow.
The Magic of the Clone Stamp
Now You See it, Now Your Don't: The Magic and Fun of the Clone Stamp
If
I was stranded on a desert island and had to choose just a handful of
Photoshop tools to bring along with me (assuming this desert island had
laptop computers and digital cameras), the cloning stamp tool would
definitely be on the short list. As mystical and magical as I find
almost everything about digital-image editing, I am most enchanted by
the ability to "clone" pixels from one part of an image (or an entirely
different image) to another. Essentially what the clone stamp does is
replicate, exactly, the pixels you tell it to copy and then places them
wherever you want them. Just how cool is that?
There
are a lot of practical applications for using a clone stamp and the
more you use the tool, the more uses you'll find and the more your
admiration of this profoundly helpful tool will grow. One of the most
common uses for cloning is to "erase" things that you don't want in a
shot. If, for example, you've taken a great and very pristine-looking
shot of a saguaro cactus in Tucson only to find on closer examination
that you've inadvertently included someone's discarded coffee cup, you
can literally erase it from the photograph and no one will ever know it
was there (and don't you wish we could clean up the planet as easily). Product photographers also use the clone tool to remove things like fingerprints on silverware or unwanted shadows that pop up in still life photos. I've even seen advertising photographers who leave an assistant's hand in a photo (holding a reflector, for example), knowing that they can close it out quickly in editing.
You
can also use the clone to erase larger things that you no longer want
in your photos--like taking dear old Auntie Maude, who wrote you out of
the big will at the last minute, out of your holiday photos. She never
smiled anyway, the old hag, banish her. In the photo here, for
instance, I was able to completely eliminate the treasure hunter from
this Florida beach. Not that I have anything against my fellow treasure
hunters, but it makes a good demonstration point. And just so you don't
think that I waited until he left the scene and shot a second picture,
when I cloned him out, I carefully left his shadow. I repeat: How cool
is that?
Using
the clone stamp is a lot easier (and even more fun) than you might
think. If you were sitting here next to me, I could have you erasing
select relatives in a matter of moments. Basically what you do is
decide which part of the image you want to hide and what you want to
hide it with. You then "sample" the replacement material (again, you're
just copying pixels from one area to another) by clicking on that area
(Option-click on a Mac, Alt-click on a PC) and then use the cursor to
paint those pixels over the area that you're covering.
The
only real choices you'll have to make are what size brush to use when
cloning and what level of hardness to use. It takes some experience to
know which size brushes work best with certain subjects and what level
of hardness makes the cloned areas most invisible, but you will quickly
see what works and what doesn't. I suggest always working with the
image at around 100% enlargement so that you can work in greater detail
but with a larger image, that way when you shrink it back to it's
printing size you are far less likely to spot any minor flaws. Also,
work slowly and with a smaller brush; this takes more patience and
makes the work go more slowly, but the results are usually more precise.
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An Ambitious Dogs Production In Association with Boo Boo & Mama Cat Films Please also visit my Photo Tip of the Day blog.
