area to be healed. 8.1.3. Cloning The Clone tool is simply a brush that copies edge-blended portions of an image from a designated source area to a designated target area. In fact, if you need to do this to a large area, see the "Copying Areas" later in this chapter. In the image in Figure 8-5, there was a pipe running the length of the creek, a tree trunk invading the left edge of the composition, and a blue plastic tarp. All of those elements made the scene look less idyllic and woodsy. So I used the Patch tool to remove the sections of the pipe that crossed the water and the Clone tool to "paint over" the tree trunk, tarp, and sections of the pipe that crossed the leaves. All of this was placed on a separate transparent layer, which I made by first selecting the entire section of the image that needed retouching, turning off all the other layers, and making sure the Clone Stamp had the Sample All Layers option turned on. This placed all the Clone Stamp's strokes on the duplicated layer as well. Figure 8-5. The pipe was healed out of the water and cloned out of the leaves and rocks. The tree trunk was cloned away, as was the blue tarp. When you clone, you have to make a choice in the Options bar as to whether the Anchor point will be Aligned (if checked) or not. If it's aligned, the anchor point travels with the brush. Imagine the pickup point as being at one end of a stick and the repro point as a brush at the other end of the stickwhatever gets "sucked up" at one end of the stick get s "sprayed on" at the other end. This is the way to reproduce a whole portion of an image in another section of the image. NOTE You can clone from one portion of the same layer to another portion, from one layer to another in the same image, or from an entirely different image whose window happens to be open at the same time. Just be sure to select the layer or image you want to clone from first, and then click the Anchor point. Next, select the image and layer you want to clone to and drag. If the Anchor point is not aligned, the Clone tool will keep copying the portion of the original image to the repro point that's the same size as the brush. 8.1.4. Clone Detail from Another Photo Maybe it would've been a great shot if your model had straight teeth, perfect forearms, or didn't blink. Or maybe you just really want the hat in one image to appear with the costume another as in Figure 8-6. Figure 8-6. The client wanted the hat in this picture to appear with the costume in another picture. Details in one photog raph can be painted in another with a Clone Stamp brush on a superimposed and transparent layer. There are several advantages to painting on a layer. First, you can blend that layer with the underlying layers by changing the Opacity or Blend Mode. Second, you can alter the exposure and color balance of the layer so that the painted-in detail matches the originals (or, if you have Adobe Photoshop CS, you can even replace the color by using the Replace Color brush). You can also use the Free Transform command (Cmd/Ctrl-T) to reshape or rotate the item so that it appears at the natural-looking angle, size, and perspective. Perhaps most important of all, you can use the Move tool to drag the contents of the new layer so that you're cloned object ends up in exactly the right place. This method is most likely to work if the object or characteristics that you are transferring from another photo are inside the silhouette of the same part of the subject. That is, it's much easier to add or subtract muscle tone from inside the silhouette of an arm, chest, or stomach. If you actually have to reshape the subject, see the "Punch out the paunch" section later in this chapter. Of course, you can combine both of these methods. Here's the typical workflow: 1. Scale or transform the area inside both images that you are cloning to and from to exactly the same size and orientation. As mentioned previously, it's best to cut and paste the information you're incorporating onto a new layer in the target image, temporarily reduce its layer transparency so that you can see through to the target image on the layer below, and then use the Free Transform command to scale the "incoming" image properly. Decide which parts of your image could be improved. Do you need a better- arching eyebrow, a more elaborate piece of jewelry? Make a list so that you can deliberately find or make the images to clone from. You'll need photos with the required detail photographed at the same camera angle and perspective, and with the same lighting and resolution. I f you don't have any, you'll have to shoot new photos. For example, if it's jewelry you want, put the piece on a mannequin and set up or find lighting that's the same as the original. 2. Open both photos side by side. Copy the photo you're going to clone from (the source) to a new layer in the photo you're going to clone to (the destination). To do this, press Cmd/Ctrl-A to select all, then Cmd/Ctrl-C to copy to the clipboard. Activate the target image's window and press Cmd/Ctrl-V to paste the photo to a new layer. In the Layers palette, place the new layer (from the source image) above the target image layer. 3. Use the layer palette's Opacity slider to make the new layer blend with the target image, and use the Eraser tool to brush away any unneeded portions of the imported layer. The biggest problem with this method is matching the texture of the original with the texture of the image you borrow from. This is typically not an issue with eyes or clothing accessories, but skin is another matter altogether. If you have to transfer a tattoo, or some muscle tone, or a different nose, use transparency in the new layer. If you're using Photoshop CS, it's also a good idea to use the Healing brush and anchor it on the original layer, then stroke around the parts of the transfer that show bare skin. The Healing brush will transfer the texture from the anchor point without transferring the original details. Don't try this on the focal area you've transferred because the Healing brush will blur it; instead, do it only on the surrounding skin. If that approach doesn't work for your particular image, try using the Eraser tool on the new layer to reveal the skin in the original layer. Be sure to feather your Eraser brush and set its opacity low enough that your strokes will blend the new layer with the target image. 8.1.5. Recalling History There's so much going on in Photoshop that it's easy to overlook some features that you could probably use many more times a day than you actually do. For me, one of the most useful features that I tend to overlook until it's too late is History. History, as referred to in Photoshop, is really two features: the History palette and the History brush. The History palette lets you record any state of an image so that you can recall it at any time that you screw up. I often workaround this by making backup copies of various states of an image. I'm getting over that habit, slowly but surely. The problem with too many backup versions is that over time it becomes harder and harder to find the right ima geeven if you've labeled them conscientiously. I'd rather keep lots of layers in the same image. You can't save a Snapshot, but a Snapshot is nothing more than a flattened version of the image the way it looked at the moment the snapshot was taken. Snapshots are useful for keeping a temporary image from which to "paint" an effect. For instance, imagine what you could do in an image by seriously oversharpening it and using the History brush to paint over small details that you really wanted to make pop, e.g., the edge of a blade, the iris of a model's eye and her lashes, or the collar of a fur coat. Just run your favorite sharpening command or filter, take a Snapshot, and press Cmd/Ctrl-Z to undo or go back to a History state before you did the sharpening. Now you can paint in the details you wanted on a clear layer above the image. If the client later wants a little less sharpening effect or wants to use a Blend Modeno problem. Apply the client's request to the layer onto which you painted the History information. You can use the same technique to brush in localized adjustments. For instance, you could make the whole image much lighter and higher contrast and then use the History brush to paint in shadow details or small details on objects that would otherwise have been lost. Figure 8-7 is an example of such an image. Figure 8-7. In the righthand image, notice the area around the hair, eyelashes, and fur that were painted in from the History snapshot after sharpening the image on the left. Since it would have been bad to teach you to oversharpen the image, you'll have to look very carefully to see the difference in the sharpening of an image this sizebut it would certainly be important in a full-page ad. Here's the step-by-step routine I used to make Figure 8-7: 1. I ran the Workflow Layers Action so I could burn, dodge, and heal nondestructively. 2. I then duplicated the Background and Retouch layers, placed them above the original layers, selected them both, and then chose Merge Layers from the Layers palette menu. 3. I selected the new merged layer and named it High Key Curve & Sharpen. I then gave it a curves adjustment that dramatically brightened the entire image as well as dramatically increasing contrast. 4. I ran Smart Sharpen and really cranked up the sharpening levels. 5. I chose Window History to open the History palette, scrolled up so I could see the Snapshot bars, and clicked the Snapshot icon at the bottom of the palette to record the change that I made in the merge layer. Then I clicked the box next to the Snapshot I just took so that the History Brush icon appeared in it. This lets you know which Snapshot the History Brush will paint from. 6. Back in the Layers palette, I turned off the merged layer, clicked on the Retouch layer and then used the History brush to paint over the model's hair, fur, the iris of her eyes, brows, and lashes. NOTE Be sure not to throw away or add any layers before you use the History brush. Otherwise, the cursor will appear as a "no" icon and a dialog tells you that a corresponding layer is missing. Also, make sure you don't click the Image icon in the Snapshot bar. The whole image will change to a Snapshot and you'll lose all your layers. You'll probably be really upset if that happens. 8.1.6. Copying Areas Sometimes, cloning large areas just takes too long unless you use a very large brush. Very large brushes are more likely to accidentally pick up details you don't want. Also, you can transform (resize, stretch, o r rotate) Clone tool strokes. So you can't make the pattern disappear off into perspective. The solution is to select a large area that you want to use to cover another portion of the image, feather the selection so that it will blend, and lift the contents of the selection to a new layer (press Cmd/Ctrl-J). Choose the Move tool and drag the new layer into the exact position where you want it. If appropriate, you can transform the contents of that layer to resize, rotate, or give it perspective with the Transform tool. You can also mask the layer if you need to shape it to fit a boundary. Just switch to the layer that contains the boundary, use the tool that seems most appropriate to select it, select the new texture layer, and click the Mask icon in the Layers palette. In Figure 8-8, it was more efficient to do a combination of copying areas and cloning. After the major areas were copied, their layers were merged and the Clone Stamp was used to blend any seams leftover from merging. The pier was extended one section at a time by copying the same lifted layer over and over again. Figure 8-8. Note the layer stack at far right. Several of these layers were merged from other layers to allow cloning over seams and from merged layers. 8.1.7. Changing an Object's Color You can recolor objects simply by selecting them and then filling the selection (Edit Fill) with the Foreground Color. Of course, you have to choose the color you want from the Color Picker before you issue the Fill command. The New Color Replacement Brush If the object you want to recolor has areas of color intermingled with the color you want to replace, such as a garment that shows through between strands of hair, it's a good idea to use Photoshop CS2's new Color Replacement brush with Contiguous selected in the Options bar. Place the cursor in the area of color that you want to replace and scrub to paint. As long as you've set the Tolerance low enough, you won't recolor colors that are different from the color you clicked on. You may have to experiment a bit with the Tolerance setting. If you see the Color Replacement Brush recoloring areas you don't want recolored, press Opt/Alt and click to choose the color of the object you accidentally colored and re-color it. Rather than just selecting the item, as I mentioned, it's a good idea to lift the object whose color you want to change to a new layer. By doing this you preserve the precolored original on the background layer and isolate the object so that you don't accidentally recolor the surrounding objects. In fact, in catalog photography it's often a good idea to make copies of that layer so that you can have a different color object on each layer. Then when you need to output a file that shows the object in that color, you turn off the other laye rs instead of having to color over and over again. Figure 8-9 shows a dress by Kashi Stone Designs that comes only in an off-white natural hemp. However, we wanted to see what some of the items might look like if they were dyed different colors. Since we'd already shot the entire line in the style shown at left, I simply used the Extract filter to knockout the model so that there was no change of overlapping the background. We didn't need to isolate the skin or hair, since they weren't the same color as the dress. We simply set the Color Replacement brush in Contiguous mode, lowered the Tolerance to about 20 percent and painted away. It took less than 10 minutes to recolor the dress. Figure 8-9. The dress on the right was recolored using the Replace Color brush. . characteristics that you are transferring from another photo are inside the silhouette of the same part of the subject. That is, it's much easier to add or subtract muscle tone from inside. exactly the same size and orientation. As mentioned previously, it's best to cut and paste the information you're incorporating onto a new layer in the target image, temporarily reduce. use the Free Transform command to scale the "incoming" image properly. Decide which parts of your image could be improved. Do you need a better- arching eyebrow, a more elaborate piece