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Clone Source panel and clone overlays

The Clone Source panel was first introduced in Photoshop CS3 and was mainly implemented with video editors in mind. This is because it can sometimes be desirable to store multiple clone sources when cloning in exact registration from one frame to another across several frame images in a sequence. The current version offers an improved overlay cursor view where if the ‘Show Overlay’ and ‘Clipped’ options are both checked, a preview of the clone source can be seen inside the cursor area. Earlier, on page 417, I made a reference to the Clone Source panel, saying this was just the kind of retouching task that would benefit from having an overlay inside the cursor to help guide where to click when setting the destination point for the clone stamp. Figure 8.3 shows a detail view of the clone stamp being applied using the settings shown in Figure 8.2, where the ‘Show Overlay’ and ‘Clipped’ options were both enabled. You could choose to have the ‘Show Overlay’ option switched on all of the time, but there is usually a slight time delay while the cursor updates its new position and this can at times become distracting. I therefore suggest you only enable it when you really need to.

Figure 8.3 This shows how the clone stamp (or healing brush) cursor looks when using the Clone Source panel options shown in Figure 8.2, with the ‘Show Overlay’ and ‘Clipped’ options checked.

Figure 8.2 The Clone Source panel, shown here with the Show Overlay and Clipped options checked.

Upside-down cloning

Here is a further example of how the Clone Source panel can help with tricky retouching jobs. In the following steps I used the Clone Source panel's ability to rotate the clone stamp or healing brush alignment through 180 °. The improved cursor overlay display now makes it easier to use the Clone Source panel in this way to retouch a photo.

Overlay blend modes

You can adjust the opacity of the Clone Source overlay and change the blend mode. In some instances you may find it useful to work with the Difference blend mode at 100%, as the Difference blend mode shows a solid black preview when identical pixels are in register.

1.

Here is a photograph in which I wished to remove the trash bin in the bottom left section of the image. The tricky thing here is that the bin was just in front of a circular alcove, and this would normally make it less easy to remove, but not so when I had access to the Clone Source panel controls.

2.

To start with, I wanted to remove the bottom of the bin. This could normally be done by placing the source point for the clone stamp on the edge of the black line and ‘estimating’ where to click with the clone stamp. One would then continue painting along the line ‘in register’. By using the Clone Source panel, I was able to switch on the ‘Show Overlay’ and ‘Clipped’ options (circled above) so that I could easily align the pixels while moving the cursor into position, before clicking to apply the cloned pixels at the correct destination point. This took away all the guesswork and made it much easier to paint with the clone stamp in perfect alignment with the underlying image.

3.

I now switched tools and selected the healing brush. This time I went to the Clone Source panel and set the clone source angle to 180 ° relative to the destination. This meant that when I sampled using the pixels from the top right corner of the circular alcove, the preview showed a 180 ° rotated preview of where the pixels would be painted at the destination point. Again, the cursor overlay allowed me to precisely align the preview, so that the edge of the circle could be aligned precisely.

4.

Here is a screen shot showing the healing brush in action. Note that it did not matter that the preview showed the cloned pixels as being lighter than the ones I was painting on top of. The healing brush would blend the correct blended luminosity afterwards as soon as I had finished painting.

5.

Here