Digital Diversity

This tutorial is about 3 very powerful tools you can use in Photoshop. These are the cloning stamp, the Healing brush and the Spot healing tool. They all work in a similar way but achieve different results and have different uses.

Cloning stamp

The cloning stamp does pretty much what the name suggests. It clones things. What it essentially does is sample your image from one area and copy it to another. This has 2 main uses. Firstly to duplicate things. The sample below shows how to duplicate the dog but it can also be used to add copies of any subjects into a scene. The other use is to get rid of parts of an image such as unwanted people or maybe a piece of rubbish on the floor. You do this by cloning the surrounding area over the subject you want removed.

Open up the image blow in Photoshop (elements or CS)

Now select the clone stamp

Take note of the available options at the top. Firstly you will want to use a soft brush. Change its hardness to between 0-20%. Click on the drop down menu called Sample. This allows you to choose how the cloning stamp will work. Current layer means it will only clone from the layer selected. Current & Below is the selected layer plus the layer below that and All layers is fairly self explanatory. Personally I tend to use Current & Below. I then create a layer above what I want to clone and do all my work on that. This way i can just delete any mistakes without ruining the starting image.

Move your mouse over the area you want cloned. Hold down the Alt key. Your cursor will change to look like a target. Where ever you click with this is where the clone stamp will start to sample from. So click on the dogs head then release the alt key. Choose where you want the clone to be and work out where its head should be. Then hold down the left mouse button and start painting the clone onto the page. The position you targeted will move in unison with your strokes from the first time you click so don’t worry if you let go of the mouse button by accident. When you finish you should end up with a copy of what you targeted.

So to simplify. When you hold down alt and click you are choosing where you want to copy from. When you don’t have the alt key held down you are choose where to copy too.

As you can see from the image above my clone is on the new layer. I had sample set to current & below and had the new layer selected.

Spot healing

This little tool is very handy for cleaning up small errors or unwanted elements on your image. What it does is sample colour from within its brush area and tries to make everything match. It sort of clones within a very small area. What you need to do is choose a brush size that’s larger than the area you want to clone over. Then simply click on the spot you want removed, making sure its in the center of the brush. The tool should then clone over it, matching it to its surroundings.

For example

In this image there are some objects floating in the water in the top left that I would rather not have there.

Select the spot healing tool. Set to a brush size that will completely cover the bits you want to get rid of. Then place the brush fully over it and click once. The object should disappear. Repeat this with all the blots you want to get rid of till completely satisfied.

Healing brush

The healing brush sits somewhere between the clone stamp and the spot healing tool. You select a point from which you wish to clone from but the tool also tries to match the lighting and colour depth of the area which you clone on to. What this means is that it isn’t particularly suitable for normal cloning but it is fantastic for cleaning up an area which has already had the clone stamp used on it. For example cloning out an unwanted subject may leave a slightly false look, the healing brush can help fix that. Its also great for cleaning up smaller areas such as creases and damage in a scanned image.

Open up the following image in Photoshop.

Select the healing brush

Then try and use it like you would the clone tool.

Hold alt to select where to clone from and then release alt to start cloning. In this instance, sample an area of grass near the coot in the picture to try and remove the coot from the image by cloning over it.

As you do it you will notice that the ground looks slightly discoloured. This is because the healing brush is trying to match the surrounding colours of the coot itself as the spot healing tool would.

You will notice that the final result looks OK but the healing brush has left a slightly dark area where the coot once was. This gives away that the image has been altered.

Go back to before you started using the healing brush and try it again but using the clone tool instead.

The result this time should be more satisfying as there is no discolouration. If you look you will notice that there are obvious cloned elements. Well now its time for the healing brush to shine. Selecting different points from the images grass use the healing brush to give the  area a more natural look. The healing brush will be matching the colours surrounding the area so you don’t have to worry about cloning from areas of grass that might be slightly darker or lighter.

The final result should be a bit more satisfying.

So that’s all 3 tools and how they work. The key is know when and how to use each tool most effectively.

The spot healing is fantastic for cleaning small blotches or colour spots off your images.

The cloning tool is for direct cloning and hiding unwanted elements.

The healing brush I tend to just use in conjunction with the cloning tool when I’m using it to remove subjects from an image. The clone tool gets rid of the subject and the healing tool will heal the area that I cloned by blending it in better.

In the image above I want to get rid of the blanket and objects on it. First use the clone tool to clone grass over it. This will remove it from the image. Next use the healing brush to clone different areas of grass from the image onto the area you previously cloned. This will give the image a more natural look and hide obvious clone markings.

This technique can be used for many things, including touching up portraits. It can be used to get rid of skin blemishes or stray hairs. Try it out on some of your own photo’s and see what you can do.