Hey Guys! This is Melanie here for your intro!

Several weeks back, Josh and I connected in a Michigan Photographer's Facebook networking group and we discovered that we are both in the editing/retouching biz! Shortly after "meeting", we did a little collaborating and I invited him to create a guest post on my blog. I knew this wedding season would be insanely busy, leaving me much less time to create constant and useful content for you guys so I asked Josh to give us a quick tip or tutorial in his guest post! So let's take a look at his hilarious, yet practical, take on the clone stamping tool in Photoshop and why you are going to love it and possibly need it! - ❤️, Melanie

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Clone Stamping in Photoshop

Did you know the clone stamp tool can make your ex disappear? Hi, I’m Josh, and I’m here to help you rid the unwanted people from your life. Well, at least from your photos. Throughout my five years in this industry, I’ve become extremely familiar with the clone stamp tool, and without it, it would have been nearly impossible to complete several jobs for my clients.

Why use the clone stamp tool?

The clone stamp tool allows you to copy one area of an image to another area, essentially “stamping” the “bad” part of the image you want covered with the area you want revealed. The clone stamp is easy to control. With some practice, you can start removing pretty much anything from an image! Here is an example of some work I recently completed for a client to show the power of the clone stamp tool:

Notice the difference in the floor and how much cleaner the image on the right is!

Where is the tool?

In order to learn the tool, open any image in Photoshop, then select the clone stamp tool from the toolbox, or hit the “S” keyboard shortcut on your keyboard.

SELECTING BRUSH OPTIONS

Once you’ve selected the clone stamp tool, locate the brush options panel on the top of your screen. Here you’ll notice you have a few options: opacity, flow, and blending modes.
I typically do not like to adjust opacity in any of my brush settings. I feel adjusting the flow setting gives a smoother build of paint being used when I clone from a source, or paint with the regular paint brush.
Also, I always leave my blending mode on “Normal” in the brush options panel. When you clone, make sure to do it on a new layer, that way you can adjust the blending mode from the layers dialog box.
Finally, you can select your brush size from this box, or simply adjust using the left and right bracket keys, or hold Control+Option (Mac), Control+Alt (PC), click and drag to the left to decrease your brush size, or to the right to increase the brush size. Holding these keys and moving the brush up and down will also change the hardness and softness of the brush. This tip will work with all of your brushes (paint brush, healing and spot healing brush, etc).

START COPYING

Once you have your settings the way you like them, simply Alt-click (Windows), or Option-click (Mac) the exact area you’re wanting to clone. A crosshair symbol will appear while you’re holding the key down; this is to show you that you will take a sample from one area of the image to paint onto another.

Move your cursor to the area you would like to cover, click, and start painting.

One of the best tips I can give you is make sure you have “Show Overlay” checked in your clone source dialog box.

In the video example below, I’m going to give a visual demonstration of how cloning looks on an image. Lets say my client wanted me to remove this bridesmaid from her wedding photo. Here’s how I would begin working on it: (watch in HD for best quality)

In this short video, I demonstrate how the cross-hairs will look, as well as how to begin cloning from one part of an image to cover another. Obviously, this is not how I would leave the finished product, as there are too many broken patterns on the wall so I will fix that once I have the bridesmaid fully removed from the wall.

NOW, PRACTICE!

Now that you’ve learned the ins and outs of this tool, you can use it to practice removing objects/people, extending backgrounds, fixing incomplete images, and more! The best way for you to learn the tool is to use it as much as possible.

Good luck and have fun using this awesome tool in Photoshop. (Let me know if it works in real life, too.)

- Josh Doering of Doering Photo Retouch

www.doeringphotoretouch.com

https://www.instagram.com/doeringphotoretouch/

Thanks so much to Josh for sharing his clone stamping magic with us! But really, if anyone does figure out how to make this work in real life... you let us know asap! - ❤️, Melanie