Help With Cloning Problem Please

[val]

Hi, I am working on an image at the moment and I am having problems with removing a stain whilst making the left arm look right. In the attached photos you will see in photo 2 that I have made the man's arm looks terribly false. I think that the problem is due to the fact that there is no creases in the material?....But as you can see from the original (photo 1) that the stain covers the whole arm nearly so I havent got any "creases" as such to clone and make the arm look more realistic. Has anyone got any suggestions please. I am using photoshop 6 and am fairly new to retouching so please be gentle with me

[CJ Swartz]

Hi, Val!

To start with, you can post those examples of your image in this same thread by clicking on "Post Reply" at the bottom of the last post on the page - then you can upload your images, one at a time, so that people who read this thread can see them easily without going out to search elsewhere in another thread. (We all have had some problems learning how best to use this forum's setup -- you're not the first, and you won't be the last to get confused )

You've cleaned up this image pretty well, but I agree that the arm is not quite right -- I think that one method that can help would be to add a blank layer over the image and paint over the arm -- setting the zoom at about 300% should let you see the outline of the arm underneath the stain. You can use the eyedropper to match the dark and white of the uniform. You can outline where the arm is supposed to be (you can raise and lower the layer opacity to see how it fits) and then lower the opacity of the painted layer to better match the uniform. You can paint in more or all of the arm and then just use the cloning tool on the background and other parts of the man.

Don't worry about asking questions here -- we're all learning, and we've all gotten answers from someone else sometime -- that's what we're all here for -- to learn and sometimes to share something we've learned.

Here's what it looks like when I tried it...

[CJ Swartz]

Let's see if I can show a magnified section of this --

I'm no painter, but you can at least get the shape of the arm better while seeing most of what the original looks like. I don't know if you're ready to look into channels yet -- the channels show a bit of difference between them as far as seeing the arm under the spot, but all showed the damage. Sometimes one of the channels will not show any damage, and you can get all of the picture information from that channel.

[val]

Hi C.J.,
Thank you so much for your reply. I am going to try your recommendations. Your "arm" looks ten times better than mine, so to speak ...I have also tried to upload the photos into this thread but the site is telling me that because I have already uploaded this photo I can't do it again!....shall I just rename them and thy again?......also can I upload both photos within 1 reply?....the system only seems to accept one.......Val

[CJ Swartz]

Val,

Each post should let you add one photo AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST POST - you can't edit it and add a photo, but you can add another post and upload one photo per post. If you do upload a photo in a post, you CAN come back later and edit the post INCLUDING uploading a different version of the photo. The system has never told me I couldn't upload a photo for any reason other than it being too big -- 100k is typical size.

I've copied your photos and will post them here so that folks can more easily see the original and the work you have accomplished so far.

Oh, another hint that may be part of your uploading problem -- you have to click on the SUBMIT button -- if you choose Preview, often the upload doesn't work.

[CJ Swartz]

Val's restoration so far:

[roger_ele]

Hi Val and CJ,

Great job Val, you are a hop ad a skip away from being done. I used your restore so you could see how close you are.

Used the Clone/Rubber stamp tool and turned off aligned so that it would continue to sample from the same spot. I then selected a good lighter part of his outfit and painted lighter texture onto the arm where I thought it might look good. Selected a darker good spot and painted in some textured shadows, it just took a few minutes.

Think of this as painting with the clone tool...
Roger

[val]

Hi C.J. and Roger, thank you so much for all your help so far. There is lot I have to learn about photoshop, as until c.j. told me about painting on blank layers I had never done it before, I have got the programme (photoshop 6) but don't know how to use it properly yet. So I will stick around this site a lot more, it seems I will learn a lot. I am still working on my photo, and will have a go at Rogers suggestion to use the clone/rubber stamp tool, as I have never used this tool before either. I have bought a book called Photoshop restoration and retouching by Katrin Eismann and find it excellent, it is a very comprehensive book but to me it is a bit complicated so I will have to study it a lot more, ......Val

[val]

Hi Everyone, another question, when using the cloning tool, I sometimes want a brush size that is differant to the ones that photoshop gives you as default. I know how to make a new brush size/shape but how do I "save" it.........Thanks Val

[val]

Hi Me again, I have also re-coloured this photo, but I did it whilst the arm was "wrong".......here it is, I would like to know your opinions and critisisms please.........Val

[CJ Swartz]

Val,

Photoshop has so many different tools and abilities that it can take years to learn it thoroughly -- but you can learn to use it well enough to do many helpful and fun things in a matter of weeks and months. I don't know what you have already done to learn as much as you have, but want you to know that there are free tutorials on the internet that can be very helpful in learning the basics as well as more advanced skills. This site has a tutorial section for retouching, but it does help to have some of the basic skills already under your belt.

Some places on the internet with helpful info for a beginner (we are all beginners at one time or another ) --

Graphicsoft

Russell Brown Tutorials - Photoshop This man has excellent tips, but this page has a mix of beginning/intermediate tips all tossed together -- look at cropping, sharpening, healing brush and painting with light first. You need to click on "More tips" at the top of the page to get to the next page.

Free-Ed.net You'll have to register but there is no fee and they don't bug you with e-mail ads or anything. There are MANY subjects taught at Free-Ed.net.

[val]

Hi C.J.
Thanks for the information. I suppose that I can say that I am not an early beginner as I have been practising retouching for months now but I think that I am doing it the hard way by trial and error and also I am taking a lot longer to do things because I haven't learned the quicker ways yet. Before I had Photoshop I was using Corel 8 photo-paint and found it very good but maybe not as good as Photoshop, however I bought a set of learning CDs for photopaint and learned a few things from those, but of course although the way to do things in photo-paint is similar to Photoshop it isn't the same and I am definately confusing myself. I will have to stick to one programme and I have decided it will be Photoshop. You mentioned channels in one of your posts C.J. and I did learn a little about Channels in the book I have mentioned above, but again I don't really understand them to well, it all seems so complicated.......Val