Adobe Photoshop Basics

Lesson 8 - Exercise 4-5: Clone Stamp & Blur Tools

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 8. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

Scroll down to begin exercise #4...

Adobe Photoshop Basics • Read This First! • Course Outline • Retouching Tools Intro • Blur, Sharpen, Smudge • Dodge, Burn, Sponge • Clone Stamp, History Brushes • Ex: 1&2 3 4&5 6&7 8 9 10

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Exercise Four - Clone & Blur Tool

Practice Image: scratch.jpg

Roll your mouse over this image to see the original untouched photo.

This little girl has a scratch on her face. We can't have that!

Set up two windows using the New View trick so you can zoom in and check your work at 100%.

Start with the clone stamp set to lighten and set your source directly under the scratch. Drag across the scratch. This should eliminate most of it.

If you need to, switch to normal mode, drop opacity down to about 50 and clone out any remaining scratch.

Smooth out any lingering evidence of the scratch using the blur tool.

Exercise Five - Clone Tool

Practice Image: clonepractice2.jpg

A little something different with the clone tool this time. We're going to create a seamless tile from this water texture.

Open the image and make a elliptical selection almost the full height of the image. Feather the selection by about 20 pixels and copy it to the clipboard.

Deselect <-- this is important.

Go to Filter > Other > Offset and set the Horizontal to 300 pixels, Vertical to 250 pixels and wrap around.

This turns your image inside out and brings the seams in to the middle of the image.

Paste the section you copied. This should conceal the major seam down the center. Now you just have to clone out the seams on the sides.

Use a large, soft brush to clone out any remaining seams. Don't go off the edges or you will create a new seam.

Go to Layer > Flatten Image.

Run the offset filter again. If you find any remaining seams in the image clone them out.

When you finish, you should have a completely seamless water texture. Use it as your desktop wallpaper if you like.

Next > Exercise Six & Seven