Part IV: Enhancing, Correcting, and Retouching 490 Using the Clone and Healing Brushes Together for Optimal Effect Now that you have a feel for how the Clone Stamp and Healing Brushes work, I show you a couple of examples of advanced techniques that are frequently used, so you can see not only the steps that make up the process, but how using the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools together create the best effects. I start with an old photograph that has missing areas and scratches and move on to arguably the hardest cloning technique, head swapping. Fixing damaged photos Most of us treasure old photos of long-gone loved ones. Being able to scan them and preserve them digitally is wonderful. Being able to correct them digitally is even better. Figure 15.31 shows an old photo with a scratch and a discolored area that need to be repaired. FIGURE 15.31 Old photos are a good test of the power of the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49022_584743-ch15.indd 490 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Chapter 15: Using Cloning and Healing to Restore Digital Images 491 I wanted to try out the Content-Aware fill and see how well it fixes the areas. I was surprised because it did a half-decent job and certainly looks much better than the original, as you can see in Figure 15.34. Let’s see if we can do a better job with the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools. On the Web Site Can you fix the worn and torn areas of this photo? Follow along by downloading Figure 15-31. n Follow these steps to repair this old photo: 1. Open the image from the Web site. 2. Zoom into the scratch over the window. It’s hard to make precise changes unless you can see what you’re doing. 3. Click the Clone Stamp tool to select it. 4. Choose a soft brush so the edges of your fix blend well. Size it so it covers just one seam of the curtain because you want to maintain control of individual areas. 5. Enable the Airbrush in the options bar. This allows you to hold down the mouse button long enough to fill in the pixels that will start out soft because of the soft brush. 6. Select the Clipped option in the Clone Source panel. Because you are cloning small areas, this should be adequate to see what you are doing without being distracting. 7. Alt/Option-click one of the seams created by the curtains. Because the area has so many seams, cloning takes several steps. The best areas to clone are either directly over or under the scratch. 8. Drag slowly over the scratch, being careful to keep the seams in line, so that the curtain runs continuously. Pause long enough in each area to fill in the pixels fully, as shown in Figure 15.32. 9. Repeat Steps 7 and 8 until you’ve filled in the area damaged by the scratch. Be sure to use a seam whenever possible so the lines stay consistent. Finish when your result looks like Figure 15.33. 10. Zoom back out, and then zoom in on the discolored area by the boys’ legs. 11. Repeat Steps 7 and 8 for this area as well. It doesn’t have as many seams, but making sure they line up makes your results look all the better. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49122_584743-ch15.indd 491 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Part IV: Enhancing, Correcting, and Retouching 492 FIGURE 15.32 Cloning in the seams makes the clone look realistic. FIGURE 15.33 The window area is repaired. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49222_584743-ch15.indd 492 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Chapter 15: Using Cloning and Healing to Restore Digital Images 493 12. When you are finished with these two areas, use the Spot Healing Brush to target white flecks and other areas of the photo that need a little cleanup. You may need to use the Clone Stamp in one or two areas that have seams, such as the siding. When you are finished, you should have a result similar to Figure 15.34. FIGURE 15.34 The Content-Aware fill worked much faster and did a fair job, but it couldn’t compete with the human touch! Using the Content-Aware fill Using the Clone Stamp and Healing tools Face swapping with multiple images With four boys, being able to swap faces is the only way we ever get a decent family picture. These days, face-swapping is used often to get the perfect shot. Some face swaps are easier than others. If the shots are nearly identical and the background is just right, it may just be a matter of replacing the expression on one face for another. But even when the circumstances seem ideal, as you see in this next exercise, it’s the little things like posture and the tilt of the head that can make this tech- nique complicated. Figure 15.35 shows two photos that were taken in the same photo shoot of the same kids with the same lighting and the same background. In this exercise, I am replacing the head of the boy in the second photo with his head in the first. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49322_584743-ch15.indd 493 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Part IV: Enhancing, Correcting, and Retouching 494 FIGURE 15.35 Ready for a head swap? Let’s take the head of the boy in the first image and clone it into the second. On the Web Site Follow along by opening Figure 15-35a and Figure 15-35b from the Web site. n Follow these steps to create the perfect head swap: 1. Open Figure 15-35a from the Web site. 2. Choose the Clone Stamp from the Toolbox. 3. Choose a soft brush and set it to a size you are comfortable with. 4. Select the First Clone Source icon in the Clone Source panel. 5. Alt/Option-click directly above the boy’s nose. 6. Open Figure 15.35b from the Web site. 7. Create a new layer by clicking the New Layer icon in the Layers panel. Use this layer to clone into. 8. Deselect Clipped in the Clone Source panel. This displays the entire image as an overlay. Right away, you can see that the source is too big to paint into the second image. If the opacity of your overlay is too high, reduce it so that you can see through to the underlying image. 9. Reset the scale of the clone source to 89 percent. 10. Line up the ears of the overlay with the ears of the original image. Click once to lock the clone in place. 11. Select Clipped in the Clone Source panel. This allows you to clearly see the areas that have been changed and the areas that still need work. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49422_584743-ch15.indd 494 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Chapter 15: Using Cloning and Healing to Restore Digital Images 495 12. Drag over the boy’s face to change it. Be sure there are no soft areas where the pixels aren’t filled in completely. Do the best you can with the edges so the two photos blend seamlessly wherever possible. Don’t worry; your results right now will be far from perfect, as demonstrated in Figure 15.36. FIGURE 15.36 The first pass with the Clone Stamp leaves several areas that need to be changed back. 13. Use either the History Brush or the Eraser tool to change any areas back to the orig- inal photo that you shouldn’t have cloned over. In Figure 15.36, the dog’s ear is starting to look transparent, and the boy seems to have two collars on the other side. Note The History Brush can be softened so the changes blend in. This isn’t always the best option; the dog’s ear, for instance, needs to have a hard line drawn back in, but as you change areas with the wall as the background, a soft brush works best. The Eraser works only if you are using a second layer, and you can’t make it soft. n 14. Repeat Steps 12 and 13, paying attention to each area to note any aberrations. Doing your best, you won’t end up with a perfect result, as you can see in Figure 15.37. There is no easy way to get rid of the two collars or line up the shirt so that it matches. 15. Click the second Clone Source icon in the Clone Source panel. You want to keep the original clone in place so you can use it for repairs. 22_584743-ch15.indd 49522_584743-ch15.indd 495 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Part IV: Enhancing, Correcting, and Retouching 496 FIGURE 15.37 Even finding the right balance between the images leaves areas that need detail work. Caution It is so easy to forget to change between the two clone sources. If you accidentally reset the first clone source, you can’t recover it; you have to reset it again as closely as possible to use it again to make changes, so be cautious. n 16. Use the second Clone Source to make small repairs. Alt/Option-click on the shoulder line on the right side and clone it over the second collar. Be sure to fix the inside of the shirt too, blending the collar and shirt line so it looks natu- ral. Use all the tricks I’ve shown you so far. Double-check and triple-check areas you have cloned for seams that are out of place, smudges, or unnatural areas. When you are finished, your results should resemble Figure 15.38. Tip To create a clean seam for the shoulder, I cloned the boy’s arm and rotated the source to replace the seam in the shoulder area. n 22_584743-ch15.indd 49622_584743-ch15.indd 496 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM Chapter 15: Using Cloning and Healing to Restore Digital Images 497 FIGURE 15.38 The powerful Clone Stamp worked its magic, and it’s hard to tell that this isn’t the origi- nal image. Summary In this chapter, you learned how to use the Healing Brushes and Clone Stamp to correct and modify your images. You read about the new Content Aware tools. Using the Clone Source panel, you should be able to make adjustments that make your clone source fit the image you are working with. At this point, you should be familiar with these tools: l The Spot Healing Brush l The Healing Brush l The Patch tool l The Content-Aware fill l The Red Eye tool l The Clone Stamp 22_584743-ch15.indd 49722_584743-ch15.indd 497 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM 22_584743-ch15.indd 49822_584743-ch15.indd 498 5/3/10 10:36 AM5/3/10 10:36 AM . Part IV: Enhancing, Correcting, and Retouching 490 Using the Clone and Healing Brushes Together. Healing Brush tools. On the Web Site Can you fix the worn and torn areas of this photo? Follow along by downloading Figure 15-31. n Follow these steps to repair this old photo: 1. Open the image from. see what you are doing without being distracting. 7. Alt/Option-click one of the seams created by the curtains. Because the area has so many seams, cloning takes several steps. The best areas