Project 7

Cloning Tools

Project 7 focused on the cloning techniques found in Photoshop. The tools used were the healing and spot healing brushes, the patch tool and the clone stamp tool.

This photo took a very long time but was quite rewarding to be able to restore an old family photo. The patch tool was used extensively in this photo on the discolored facial areas. The spot healing brush came in handy for the cracks in this old photograph. I used the clone stamp to repeat the texture on the eyebrow. When I was done touching up, I put a layer adjustment gradient over the background and reduced the opacity in order to keep some of the original flavor.
Move cursor over photo to see the "before" images


I discovered a wonderful new friend called the spot healing brush. I used it extensively to ease the wrinkles on the forehead. I also used the edit>fade command to retain some of the character, or the photo would not have looked like the same person. I found a tool in the levels options that lightens shadows, that is how the detail in the face was revealed. I also applied a layer adjustment gradient to the background and later blurred it a bit to make the face more prominent.

The original photo intruiged me because, well first of all, I have no idea what that flame-like structure is. It was also taken through a window screen and I wanted to see if I could save the screen's texture without it looking too distorted (I think it worked). I mostly used the clone stamp tool from the surrounding areas to block the "flame." I isolated the three main trees in the background and did hue/saturation adjustment layers on them. I also did that for the pool and the fence and background with different colors for each. I used the clone and healing brush tools to subdue that distracting reflection and shadow towards the right side of the photo.

I like this photo, but it was taken in bright sunlight (Hawaii, go figure) and there were some distracting shadows on the faces. Again the healing brush worked wonders. I made several adjustment layers both on the figures and background. I evened out the shadows and highlights in the people and gave them a sepia photo filter. I also gave the background a photo filter and blurred it. I gave the people another photo filter called, warming 85 to bring some flesh tones into the washed out highlights.

I cropped this from a larger photo of two sisters, the other had her arm around this one's shoulder. The face was lost in shadow, so again I hightlighted the shadows. She had a scar from an operation on her neck and I thought it would be complimentary to her appearance to remove it. There was a lot of weird coloring on the neck too, that didn't help. I used the patch tool to smooth out the differences. Taking out the other sister was a challenge. The clone stamp tool brought in the soji screen detail. I had to do a lot of blurring and fading to get the photo to look natural, as there was a sort of cut-out look to it. I didn't want it to look photoshopped! I applied 2 adjustment layers to the soji screen, one a warm photo filter and the other a gradient layer.