| Adobe Photoshop Basics | |
In our last lesson we had an introduction to the pattern stamp tool. This tool shares the toolbox space with the clone stamp tool which is probably the most often used of the retouching tools. The stamp tools share the keyboard shortcut S and Shift-S toggles between the two. (Continued below...)
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Options include the paint mode, opacity, aligned option, and use all layers. Ordinarily you'll use the clone stamp with the aligned option checked. When it's unchecked, your cloning is reset to the source point each time you release and click again with the mouse.
Don't overlook the blend mode options. The lighten and darken blend modes can be extremely valuable in working with the clone stamp to avoid that obvious retouched appearance. Adjusting opacity can help, too.
To use the clone stamp you must first define the clone source. To set the clone source, you click in your image while holding the Alt/Option key. Your cursor will change to the stamp tool and when you click, the source is set. Next move your cursor to the area where you want to copy the clone source. As you click and drag you will see a crosshair that moves along with the brush cursor, indicating the center of the clone source. You can even clone from one image to another by setting the clone source in one image, then activating the destination image, and dragging the brush cursor. If you arrange each window so you can see the source and destination, it will be easier to work this way.
When using the clone stamp tool, you want to take care to align your source and destination brush carefully. It helps to find a horizon line of some sort and make sure the brush edges is aligned with it when you set the source point and when you make that initial click. As long as you have those first two clicks aligned, you know they will remain aligned until you reset the source point. You'll have a chance to practice this with many of the exercises coming up.
We've already worked with the history brush a little bit in the previous lesson and I don't believe it requires much more explanation here. The History brush shares the toolbox space with the Art History brush. The shortcut is Y and Shift Y toggles the two.
Remember to create snapshots often and you'll always be able to paint back portions of an image from a previous state using the History Brush. Snapshots aren't the only thing you can use a the source for the history brush, however. Any item listed in the history palette can also be used to paint from. So, for example, if you applied a filter but forgot to create a snapshot first, and you want to bring back the unfiltered state of the image in selected areas, set the source to the point in the history palette just before you applied the filter and begin painting. The opacity and mode options let you refine your techniques and create interesting effects as well. The history brush is one of the most revolutionary new tools to come to Photoshop. Learn it. Use it.
| Photoshop 5.5 and later only: |
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The Art History brush isn't exactly a retouching tool. It can be used to apply painterly effects to an image like an impressionist style painting. It grabs color from the underlying pixels and blends them in unusual ways according to the style you have selected in the options. You'll notice several new options for this tool:
This tool can be a lot of fun to experiment with. You'll find you can get the best results using it in conjunction with layers and the history brush to blend and combine art strokes with the original image for interesting effects. When it comes to art, we all have our own preferences, so feel free to spend some time experimenting with this tool on your own. It can also be useful for creating background textures and patterns. |
That about covers the retouching tools. Now let's get some practice working with them on real images. Download this zip file for all the images you need for these exercises: lesson8.zip [Approx. 2 MB]
Next > Exercise One & Two
