Cloning with the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop

Tell Dolly the sheep to move over and make room. The Clone Stamp tool, also known as the Rubber Stamp, one of Photoshop’s more popular tools, always arouses a “Wow,” “Cool,” or similar remark of approval when demonstrated. The Clone Stamp tool takes sampled pixels from one area and clones (or copies) them onto another area. Believe it or not, you can also reach for this tool when retouching imperfections, such as scratches, scars, bruises, and other minor flaws. In fact, that used to be one of its major functions. In some retouching instances it does a great job, although the advent of the new Healing Brush and Patch tools has relegated the Clone Stamp tool more to the pure cloning functions and less to the hard-core retouching jobs.

Using the Clone Stamp tool
Cloning is often better than making a selection, copying, and pasting it because cloning allows you to retain soft edges on details such as shadows, giving you a more realistic duplicate image. Follow these steps to clone an element without any genetic engineering:
1. Open an image and select the Clone Stamp tool from the Tools palette.
Press the S key on the keyboard. You have several options to choose from on the Options bar.
2. Select a brush and change its size or shape in the Brush Preset picker drop-down palette.
3. You can specify the Clone Stamp tool’s brush size to control the area that you’re cloning.
I recommend having your Clone Stamp tool cursor display your Brush Size so you can judge the amount of the area you are cloning. To do so, choose Edit-->Preferences-->Display & Cursors (Photoshop➪Preferences➪Display & Cursors on Mac OS X). Select the Brush Size radio button from the Painting Cursors area of the dialog box. I used a 65-pixel, feathered brush.
4. Choose the blend mode of your choice.
Selecting a mode such as Difference, Multiply, or Color can produce some interesting special effects.
5. To make the clone more or less opaque, use the Opacity slider or text box on the Options bar.
I left the opacity at 100 percent.
6. Specify how fast the Clone Stamp tool applies the clone by adjusting the Flow rate percentage.
Again I left my option at 100 percent.
7. Click the Airbrush option for Airbrushing capabilities if so desired.
8. Select or deselect the Aligned option depending on your preference.
With Aligned selected, the clone source moves when you move your cursor to a different location. If you want to clone multiple times from the same location, leave the Aligned option deselected. I left mine selected.
9. Select the Use All Layers option to clone part of an image with multiple layers.
This tool samples pixels in all the visible layers for the clone. If you leave it deselected, the Clone Stamp tool clones only from the active layer.
10. Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) the area of your image that you want to clone. By doing this you are defining the source.
11. Click or drag along the area where you want the clone to appear.
As you drag, Photoshop displays a crosshair icon along with your Clone Stamp cursor. The crosshair represents the source you are cloning from while the Clone Stamp cursor shows where the clone is being painted. As you move the mouse, the crosshair moves as well. This provides a continuous reference to the area of your image that you’re cloning. Make sure and keep an eye on the crosshair, otherwise you may clone something you don’t want. Try to clone your entire object in one fell swoop so it doesn’t get fragmented. When you successfully complete the cloning process, you have two identical objects.
12. Save the image and close it.

Tips for excellent cloning results
Here are a few useful tidbits regarding the Clone Stamp tool:
- Use the Clone Stamp tool for fixing simple flaws: To clean up a flaw that is pretty straight, such as a stray hair or scratch, Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) with the tool to define the source. Then click at one end of the straight flaw and Shift+click at the other end. The cloned source pixels then cover up the flaw.
- Vary the origin point for sampling often: If you keep sampling from the same point without ever varying it, the area you’re cloning starts to look like ugly shag carpeting. Or at best, starts to appear blotchy and over-retouched. Zooming out once in awhile to get an idea of how your overall image is looking is also good. This helps you avoid those funky telltale clone stamp repetitive patterns and blotches.
- Clone a selection and put it in a separate image: To clone between two images, Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) inside one image to define the source in image number one and drag inside image number two where you want the object to appear.
- Clone patterns: To use the Pattern Stamp tool, which shares the flyout menu with the Clone Stamp tool, select a custom pattern from the Pattern picker drop-down palette in the Options bar. Drag with the Pattern Stamp tool, and you see the pattern appear.