Weird Ghosting With Patch Tool

[rnbluvva]

I'm having the strangest issue with my patch tool and I am wondering if someone can help me.

I select the patch tool with source selected, I make a selection of the area I want to patch over, drag it to the area I want to patch it with and when it patches I get this fuzziness to the patch area. It's like there is some feathering on or something. This happens every time I try to use the tool and I don't get a very clean patch.

Can someone tell me if there is something I am doing wrong?

Thanks

[DWThomp]

I think the patch tool tries to maintain the luminosity and you're patching very light with very dark. I don't have much luck either when trying to do that. Someone else may have a better explanation tho.

Dennis

[fatimzz]

Hi,
In my (very limited) experience, the way to go around it is to divide the white "object" into smaller pieces and then use the patch tool. You can use the clone to isolate the white surrounded by the grass. And then when you use the patch around the isolated white it would not be fuzzy. Sorry if this is confusing...I can try and upload an example.
Fatima

[fatimzz]

Here's the example. I used the third pic that you posted.
The first one shows the cloning to isolate the white part.
The second shows the patch on the isolated white.
Hope that helps.

[pepperspray]

Hi, rnbluvva.

The patch tool is indeed pulling the luminosity of the white into your selection, which is what it does.

I haven't tried this on your image, but it may work for you. Try to change the colour of the white to match the average colour of the grass. To get the average colour, select some of the grasss and jump it to a new layer. On the new layer, run a filter that is under the blur menu called "average". This will turn the grass into a flat colour fill that is the average colour of all the colours in the grass. Take a colour sample from that, discard the layer, and then change the white area's colour to the new 'average' green. Then try your patch tool again. As I said I've not tried this yet, but it should work pretty well as it'll eliminate the luminosity issues - until you get close to very light or very dark edges again, anyway. At that point, you'll probably need to switch to the clone stamp.

Hope this helps!

[pepperspray]

That looks pretty nice, Fatima.

[byRo]

Patch is one of those tools that "thinks" for you.

It tries it's very best to blend in the source image you picked up into the destination area that you want to patch.

In this case, as the destination is white it will alter the patch to blend it in with the white area - as you can see, looking at it that way, it does a pretty good job!

What you need to do here is to use the stamp tool - or just copy and paste a slab of grass to make a rough start. Now you can use the patch tool and it will blend in everything just the way you wanted.

Rô

[Panpan]

Hi rnbluvva,

The patch tool is trying to blend the patch with the area around it. This can cause problems when the patch destination is close to a strong edge or transition. The solution in most cases is to use a source area approximately the same distance to a similar edge.

This is not possible here. There is grass on one side, white on the other and the edge of the image on the bottom. The bottom edge is no problem, but nothing matches the white side. The solution is to mask out the problem edge.

Select the white area and alt-click on the mask icon below the layer list. This masks out your selection. You can now patch as intended. Disable or delete the mask when done.

By the way, this also works for the healing brush.

Pierre

[Britsdad]

Hi there, I think you will always get the same problem with the patch tool when trying to "heal" areas that have a big contrast difference because the tool "blends" the two areas together to hide the join (ie feather one into the other) try opening a new white image and paint on it with 2 or 3 contrasting colours close together but not touching then use patch tool where the colours meet and move the selection to a blank part of the image, you will see the feathering. The only way around this is to use the clone tool instead.
Hope this helps.......John
Edit----blimey 5 posts as I was typing!!!!!

[byRo]

Originally Posted by Britsdad

Edit----blimey 5 posts as I was typing!!!!!

Good thing we all said the same thing.

Rô

[byRo]

Yes, but then you wouldn't be using the Patch Tool's ability to blend in the patched area.
Admittedly however, for grass, like this, it isn't a problem and a quick clone will do the trick without problems.

Rô