Clone Stamp
Tool, History & Art History Brushes
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Options include the paint
mode, opacity, aligned option, and use all layers. Ordinarily you'll use the
clone stamp with the aligned option checked. When it's unchecked, your cloning
is reset to the source point each time you release and click again with the
mouse.
Don't overlook the blend
mode options. The lighten and darken blend modes can be extremely valuable in
working with the clone stamp to avoid that obvious retouched appearance.
Adjusting opacity can help, too.
To use the clone stamp you
must first define the clone source. To set the clone source, you click in your
image while holding the Alt/Option
key. Your cursor will change to the stamp tool and when you click, the source is
set. Next move your cursor to the area where you want to copy the clone source.
As you click and drag you will see a crosshair that moves along with the brush
cursor, indicating the center of the clone source. You can even clone from one
image to another by setting the clone source in one image, then activating the
destination image, and dragging the brush cursor. If you arrange each window so
you can see the source and destination, it will be easier to work this way.
When using the clone stamp
tool, you want to take care to align your source and destination brush
carefully. It helps to find a horizon line of some sort and make sure the brush
edges is aligned with it when you set the source point and when you make that
initial click. As long as you have those first two clicks aligned, you know they
will remain aligned until you reset the source point. You'll have a chance to
practice this with many of the exercises coming up.
 We've
already worked with the history brush a little bit in the previous lesson and I
don't believe it requires much more explanation here. The History brush shares
the toolbox space with the Art History brush. The shortcut is Y and
Shift Y toggles the two.
Remember to create
snapshots often and you'll always be able to paint back portions of an image
from a previous state using the History Brush. Snapshots aren't the only thing
you can use a the source for the history brush, however. Any item listed in the
history palette can also be used to paint from. So, for example, if you applied
a filter but forgot to create a snapshot first, and you want to bring back the
unfiltered state of the image in selected areas, set the source to the point in
the history palette just before you applied the filter and begin painting. The
opacity and mode options let you refine your techniques and create interesting
effects as well. The history brush is one of the most revolutionary new tools to
come to Photoshop. Learn it. Use it.
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Photoshop 5.5 and later only: |
The Art History
brush isn't exactly a retouching tool. It can be used to apply painterly
effects to an image like an impressionist style painting. It grabs color
from the underlying pixels and blends them in unusual ways according to
the style you have selected in the options. You'll notice several new
options for this tool:
- The style, in
conjunction with the brush shape, determines the basic shape of the
impressionist strokes.
- Fidelity
controls how closely the colors stray from the underlying pixel
colors. More fidelity means the colors will be more similar to the
source, lower fidelity will result in colors that vary from the
source.
- The area
determines how far the effect spreads from the brushstroke. The
brush strokes have kind of a twirling effect and the area determines
how far out those twirls go.
- The spacing
controls the distance between brush strokes.
This tool can be a
lot of fun to experiment with. You'll find you can get the best results
using it in conjunction with layers and the history brush to blend and
combine art strokes with the original image for interesting effects.
When it comes to art, we all have our own preferences, so feel free to
spend some time experimenting with this tool on your own. It can also be
useful for creating background textures and patterns |
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