The concept of cloning can be taken to a more sophisticated level through the use of the Clone Source palette, which allows you to specify, numerically if you choose, multiple clone sources. By using the Clone Source palette, you can establish and repeatedly use up to five clone sources. And you can even clone between images. And you can control transparency and blending mode as well. Here is an image-enhancement project to show you how to take advantage of this powerful tool.
Say that a client needs an image of her cabin, which she rents out during the summer, to place on her website. Let’s say you don’t particularly like the sky in the original photo and can’t wait for the sky to cooperate, so you’ll use the Clone Source palette to try several cloud images as clone sources to help you find the one you’ll ultimately use. The first move, after making a working duplicate copy of the cabin image of course, is to remove the cabin sky by selecting the light sky and deleting it. This is done so that the original sky will have minimal interaction with any other sky image that might be used to clone with. When you make the selection to delete the sky, be sure to feather the edge of your selection as described in the previous section. This feathered edge provides a good gradational transition for blending in the borrowed sky image that you will be cloning in. As a result, your selection edge will not be apparent when printing your final image.
When you create a selection edge such as this, you will want to be cognizant of the results on the final edge. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, you can use minimal or slight selections to control the selection process. And remember that any replacement or cloning process like this can be performed on a separate layer to protect the original contents and allow you to easily and quickly return to an initial or previous image state. The Clone Source palette was used with just one image here, but four cloud images were used in this same way during the cloud image selection process. And yes, it sure helps to have a wide, flat plane display with plenty of display pixels to work with (and of course we’re working on copies!).
Here is how this works: The images were placed side by side on a wide monitor, with the clone source sky image on the right. By the way, it is a good idea to resize the images so the clone source area is at least close to the dimensions of the areas in which you will be cloning it. Aperfect fit is not required, as you will see. Next, I created a new layer named Sky in the cabin image document. It’s always a good idea to work in a layer so that re-dos and editing are much easier. The next step is to activate the Clone Source palette (Windows -->Clone Source).
Note that if you use this palette often, you may want to assign a keyboard shortcut to access this palette (Edit -->Keyboard Shortcuts).
At the top of the Clone Source palette, you will notice five Clone Stamp tool icons. For the clone sources, you must click on one of these icons and then click in the clone source image to establish the starting point of the clone source. Where you click is recorded as the (0,0) XY position. After you establish your starting clone source positions, you only need to click the clone source icon that relates to that image in order to access it. You do not need to activate the clone source image; this is an enormous time- (and frustration-) saver. Having access to the clone source image in this manner also means that you can undo and redo your cloning process as many times as your heart desires without having to physically reacquire the clone source. This allows you to concentrate on your cloning process rather then worry about the mechanics of cloning.
Before you start cloning, select the Show Overlay check box in the lower-left corner of the Clone Source palette. This allows you to see the dimensions of the clonable area of the clone source image in relationship to the clone target image. This clone overlay appears by default as a 25% screen on top of your clone target image. Before you click the target cabin image to start your cloning, you will see the dimensions of the clone source screen overlayed on top of the cabin image. If you simply move your mouse around over the target image without clicking, the clone source screen will move with the cursor. This allows you to initially place your cloned image more precisely on your target image. Of course, because you have placed your cloned image on its own layer, it will be easy to reposition it later, if you so choose. Now you can control the appearance of the overlay screen by configuring its Opacity and Mode settings. Click the Invert check box (located directly under the Show Overlay check box) to control whether to view the cloned image or an inverted (negative) version of it.
As you can see here, a large clone brush was chosen so that the image could be cloned quickly. Doing so allows you to rapidly clone in large sky areas and quickly test the clouds from multiple images. And as you will see, precision is not as important in this case as it might be in others. Next, the clone process began by clicking the far left side of the cabin image’s sky and dragging the big clone brush across it. Note that as soon as you click with your clone brush, the screened overlay is set in the target image. The (0,0) point you established in the clone source image is set wherever you initially click in the clone target image.
Using the screen overlay, the clone image was positioned so that the clouds would be cloned in as close as possible to the desired location in the image. Note that if accurate placement is necessary, you can zoom in to set the clone start location more precisely. To complete the clone, click and drag the clone brush across the sky area of the image paints in the cloned sky. The Show Overlay check box is now deselected.
You will notice that, because of sloppy cloning with a big brush, part of the cloned sky covers the top of the cabin—no worries! By clicking the blending mode in the Layers palette and selecting Darken, the cabin shows through and the sky is where it should be !
One more step and we are done. You will note that the cloned sky does not completely cover the cabin sky. Again no worries! By typing F/Ctrl+T to activate the Transform tool (or choose Edit --> Transform --> Scale), a transform rectangle forms around the cloned-in sky image. Hold down the Shift key (to keep the scaling proportional) and drag the lower-right corner of the transform box down and to the right until the cloned sky fills the cabin sky. Voilà —now that is an enhanced sky.
Say that a client needs an image of her cabin, which she rents out during the summer, to place on her website. Let’s say you don’t particularly like the sky in the original photo and can’t wait for the sky to cooperate, so you’ll use the Clone Source palette to try several cloud images as clone sources to help you find the one you’ll ultimately use. The first move, after making a working duplicate copy of the cabin image of course, is to remove the cabin sky by selecting the light sky and deleting it. This is done so that the original sky will have minimal interaction with any other sky image that might be used to clone with. When you make the selection to delete the sky, be sure to feather the edge of your selection as described in the previous section. This feathered edge provides a good gradational transition for blending in the borrowed sky image that you will be cloning in. As a result, your selection edge will not be apparent when printing your final image.
When you create a selection edge such as this, you will want to be cognizant of the results on the final edge. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, you can use minimal or slight selections to control the selection process. And remember that any replacement or cloning process like this can be performed on a separate layer to protect the original contents and allow you to easily and quickly return to an initial or previous image state. The Clone Source palette was used with just one image here, but four cloud images were used in this same way during the cloud image selection process. And yes, it sure helps to have a wide, flat plane display with plenty of display pixels to work with (and of course we’re working on copies!).
Here is how this works: The images were placed side by side on a wide monitor, with the clone source sky image on the right. By the way, it is a good idea to resize the images so the clone source area is at least close to the dimensions of the areas in which you will be cloning it. Aperfect fit is not required, as you will see. Next, I created a new layer named Sky in the cabin image document. It’s always a good idea to work in a layer so that re-dos and editing are much easier. The next step is to activate the Clone Source palette (Windows -->Clone Source).
Note that if you use this palette often, you may want to assign a keyboard shortcut to access this palette (Edit -->Keyboard Shortcuts).
At the top of the Clone Source palette, you will notice five Clone Stamp tool icons. For the clone sources, you must click on one of these icons and then click in the clone source image to establish the starting point of the clone source. Where you click is recorded as the (0,0) XY position. After you establish your starting clone source positions, you only need to click the clone source icon that relates to that image in order to access it. You do not need to activate the clone source image; this is an enormous time- (and frustration-) saver. Having access to the clone source image in this manner also means that you can undo and redo your cloning process as many times as your heart desires without having to physically reacquire the clone source. This allows you to concentrate on your cloning process rather then worry about the mechanics of cloning.
Before you start cloning, select the Show Overlay check box in the lower-left corner of the Clone Source palette. This allows you to see the dimensions of the clonable area of the clone source image in relationship to the clone target image. This clone overlay appears by default as a 25% screen on top of your clone target image. Before you click the target cabin image to start your cloning, you will see the dimensions of the clone source screen overlayed on top of the cabin image. If you simply move your mouse around over the target image without clicking, the clone source screen will move with the cursor. This allows you to initially place your cloned image more precisely on your target image. Of course, because you have placed your cloned image on its own layer, it will be easy to reposition it later, if you so choose. Now you can control the appearance of the overlay screen by configuring its Opacity and Mode settings. Click the Invert check box (located directly under the Show Overlay check box) to control whether to view the cloned image or an inverted (negative) version of it.
As you can see here, a large clone brush was chosen so that the image could be cloned quickly. Doing so allows you to rapidly clone in large sky areas and quickly test the clouds from multiple images. And as you will see, precision is not as important in this case as it might be in others. Next, the clone process began by clicking the far left side of the cabin image’s sky and dragging the big clone brush across it. Note that as soon as you click with your clone brush, the screened overlay is set in the target image. The (0,0) point you established in the clone source image is set wherever you initially click in the clone target image.
Using the screen overlay, the clone image was positioned so that the clouds would be cloned in as close as possible to the desired location in the image. Note that if accurate placement is necessary, you can zoom in to set the clone start location more precisely. To complete the clone, click and drag the clone brush across the sky area of the image paints in the cloned sky. The Show Overlay check box is now deselected.
You will notice that, because of sloppy cloning with a big brush, part of the cloned sky covers the top of the cabin—no worries! By clicking the blending mode in the Layers palette and selecting Darken, the cabin shows through and the sky is where it should be !
One more step and we are done. You will note that the cloned sky does not completely cover the cabin sky. Again no worries! By typing F/Ctrl+T to activate the Transform tool (or choose Edit --> Transform --> Scale), a transform rectangle forms around the cloned-in sky image. Hold down the Shift key (to keep the scaling proportional) and drag the lower-right corner of the transform box down and to the right until the cloned sky fills the cabin sky. Voilà —now that is an enhanced sky.
Cloning between Images
![Cloning between Images]()
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