Cloning in CS5

[purple_jewels]

Is this very diffitcult to learn to do? Will I need to know anything before I set out to teach myself this? I mean should I know how to layer first? I know very little of cs5 adjust curves, crop, add an action, play with saturation and exposure, and throw a color filter on that's about it. I was thinking about getting a book any suggestions youtube is what I have been using, but think a book might work better to really learn this software that I have and really don't take advantage of. Thanks for any help!!

 

[KmH]

Yes, there is a lot to learn so you can clone effectively/efficiently, and there are other tools that are also useful for the same kind of editing, like the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, Patch Tools, the various Selection tools and CS5's masking functions. A very handy CS 5 feature found as part of several tools and functions is Content - Aware.
Adobe TV
Adobe TV
Adobe TV

On the Applications bar you can click on Help > Photoshop Help to access Adobe Community Help which has a variety of resources, but it's even easier to just press the F1 key on your keyboard.

Each tool has an Options bar, and for Cloning there is another handy aid - the Clone Source Window.

When cloning, you can use the selection tools and masking functions to make portions of the image unavailable for editing. For instance, you want to clone away a background object that is partially obscured by a person's arm.
You can select the person's arm using one of the selection tools, and then invert the selection so the arm is no longer an editable part of the image. That way you can clone right up to the edge of the arm.
To invert the selection, up on the Applications bar you can click on Select > Invert (keyboard shortcut: Shift -CTRL-I). a good habit to develop is to save any selections you make (Select > Save Selection) as soon as you have finalized them.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/photoshop-20th-anniversary/getting-started-03-retouching-blemishes/

An excellent book to have for CS 5 reference is Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

 

[KenC]

Once you learn how to do this, I'd suggest learning how to clone onto a new, blank layer. There really is not much to it, but it will save you a lot of aggravation if you find out later that your cloning was more visible than you thought; what's on the new layer can be erased and you can start over because the original image is untouched.

 

[purple_jewels]

Yes, there is a lot to learn so you can clone effectively/efficiently, and there are other tools that are also useful for the same kind of editing, like the Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, Patch Tools, the various Selection tools and CS5's masking functions. A very handy CS 5 feature found as part of several tools and functions is Content - Aware.
Adobe TV
Adobe TV
Adobe TV

On the Applications bar you can click on Help > Photoshop Help to access Adobe Community Help which has a variety of resources, but it's even easier to just press the F1 key on your keyboard.

Each tool has an Options bar, and for Cloning there is another handy aid - the Clone Source Window.

When cloning, you can use the selection tools and masking functions to make portions of the image unavailable for editing. For instance, you want to clone away a background object that is partially obscured by a person's arm.
You can select the person's arm using one of the selection tools, and then invert the selection so the arm is no longer an editable part of the image. That way you can clone right up to the edge of the arm.
To invert the selection, up on the Applications bar you can click on Select > Invert (keyboard shortcut: Shift -CTRL-I). a good habit to develop is to save any selections you make (Select > Save Selection) as soon as you have finalized them.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/photoshop-20th-anniversary/getting-started-03-retouching-blemishes/

An excellent book to have for CS 5 reference is Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

Thank you KmH I have use the spot healing a few times for snot under my kids noses, but I'm trying to figure out how to clone out objects that are distracting to the picture that draw my eye away from my subject. You have provide me with great help with getting started on learning how to do this!! What about photoshop for dummies. I was thumbing thru a few books, and this one seems simple enough to understand. I didn't see the one you suggested at my local bookstore Hastings. Guess I will need to look it up on amazon. Or see if Hastings will get it for me.

 

[purple_jewels]

Once you learn how to do this, I'd suggest learning how to clone onto a new, blank layer. There really is not much to it, but it will save you a lot of aggravation if you find out later that your cloning was more visible than you thought; what's on the new layer can be erased and you can start over because the original image is untouched.

I've tried to work with layers and I just don't know what I'm doing. I am going to use the adobe tv link KmH provided in his response and learn layers before I try to learn anything else in ps. Seems learning to work in layers would be the "prerequisite" to editing a photo properly in cs5.

 

[Big Mike]

Seems learning to work in layers would be the "prerequisite" to editing a photo properly in cs5.

Yes, the ability to use layers is really what makes Photoshop such a powerful tool.
There must be a million Photoshop videos on YouTube and on the Adobe sites. You just need to find the right key words to search for the ones that will help you.

You might try looking for Photoshop books by Scott Kelby.

but I'm trying to figure out how to clone out objects that are distracting to the picture that draw my eye away from my subject.

The thing to remember when doing something like that, is that you aren't really erasing something, you are just covering it up (replacing) it with something else. For example, if you had power lines in front of a clear blue sky...you don't erase the lines, you just cover them up with copied (cloned) sky.

CS5 (I beleive) has a newer feature called content aware. It's something like an automatic cloning tool. If you are trying to get rid of something (cover it up), you can select it and hit (I think) backspace. If the area around it isn't too complicated, Photoshop will try to get rid of the distraction.

 

[KmH]

Remember the school books that used clear acetate overlays to build up an illustration? Photoshop layers are very much like that.

Layers have many options, and making all or part of a layer transparent is one of them.

photoshop layer options - Bing

Up on the Applications bar click on Edit > Preferences and in the Interface dialog box put a check mark in the Show Tool Tips box. Then hover your mouse over each tool/panel option.
Note: In any drop down menu or flyout panel, if there is a keybord shorcut, it is shown to the right of the option.