Clone Stamp Tool MAGIC!

Photoshop

Ever wondered how to clone areas of an object that have a directional pattern, to different areas of your photo that require other angles of that pattern, and to have it look believable - thought so, find out how...

Blogged By:

Bryan

This was the best photo I could find, where this little "hint" worked wonders. This is a shot I took years ago and even then it was quite a production.

We started by filling up a large kiddie pool with a crazy amount of warm water, somewhere in the ballpark of 300 gallons! To create the look of a dark river bottom or pond, we had to soak a large black bed sheet, and kept it submerged by large weights. We then had the model, (wearing sweat bottoms, and a tube top), lay down with her legs hanging over the pool's edge. Then, from a massive collection of leaves gathered that same day, my assistant painstakingly poured them onto the water's surface and then placed them carefully over her body. I did not want wide angle distortion to effect the woman's figure so I needed to use a longer lens, which forced me to position myself high up on a ladder. We then had to counter weight the ladder as I was needing to be directly above her in the air. Strobes were used to light her softly from above and a large fill card from the side.

Now,to get to the problem area...her hair. Up until this point I knew we wanted to wait until the last moment to place her hair in the water, as it would quickly become saturated and sink to the bottom. So, as soon as everything seemed perfect, in went her hair. To my surprise the hair IMMEDIATELY went dark and sank as the water took its predicted effect. I didnt even have time to autofocus.

So here is how i did it... along with hours of other touch ups, consisting of color correction, filters, and illustration, I created what I call a "Clone Reference Patch" or CRP. If you look at one of the last remaining hair curls to the left of the models face just above her ear, and straight back from her eye you will see my selection area for creating my CRP.

Because that section of hair is running vertically it would look very out of place if it were cloned repeatedly about her soaked hair, in the same direction. So, with the Clone Tool selected and by pressing the alt key (PC), or option key (Mac) while clicking the mouse i create a reference point in the previously discussed "selection area". Then I click File-New-and create a new document, (big enough to accommodate the CRP), and while still using the Clone Tool I begin to clone that selection area to the new document. I repeat this process until I have filled a good amount of the new document with numerous hair curls. You may choose to clone other areas of pattern such as the leaves and so on or even just different sections of hair you liked, just incase you need them later.

Once the CRP is finished I now have a Patch of hair that can be rotated to any degree as to match the direction of her currently, but soon not to be, invisible hair. I then take the CRP and proceed to rotate and clone, rotate and clone, in what I can only describe as a "Loch Ness" monster like fashion. Thus creating the illusion of her hair weaving in and out of the water. Now most likely, (as it always is with me), you will still have to take time and fine tune the CRP placements, but all in all the trick is done! Enjoy!

REPLIES

6 May 2007 - 0:37:30 - KenMarshall

Thanks for helping

15 January 2008 - 2:37:36 - rhana

I love the step by step. It's fun to know what was going on in your mind when you were creating this. Thank you for the insite.

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