Per Lon's request, this is a quick description of a technique I find very handy. It it really useful for fixing blown highlights in a sky, clouds, in water, wood, etc or to just give an area a hint of texture.
Create a new layer above the background layer (not a duplicate layer, but a new layer). This will allow you to delete it should you want to at a later point. Select your cloning tool, change the opacity to 7% to 20%. I usually start with 12% and see how it works. Find an area in your image that has a similar color, but has tone and texture compared to your blown area for your cloning "from" selection. Lightly clone over your problem spot until it has the amount of color/detail/texture that you desire. Use a fairly soft brush.
The technique is very quick, very easy and very effective.
Harley, do you use various brushes or clone tools, or one more often then others? I had just last week used a clone job on an image with highlight issues and it saved the day again for me. Not sure I paid attention to opacity to tell you the truth, but I must have. I've also used TK's "color" painting technique here and there with some success as well. You really need to use the opacity tuned in on that one to see the differences. Thanks for sharing.
As I always say, I love PS because it will do everything, but I also hate it because it will do everything. Seems like I never stop learning and spend way too much time experimenting at times.
Great idea, Harley, That's a technique that works very well, I've been using it for years. As your confidence grows, you can simply use it on your background layer. It allows you to process globally and not worry about a hot spot ot two that you can repair later. Especially good on cloud hotspots, with a low opacity cloning from other cloud areas using a soft edge brush.
The healing brush works entirely different. It does NOT sample from where you direct it to sample. It samples from the area immediately surrounding the target.
Posted by Lon Overacker on August 10, 2010 at 2:39 PM
I think what you're referring to Harley is the "spot healing brush tool" which is in the same tools palette as the "healing brush tool." The spot version is what I think you're referring to where it samples the pixels directly around the target area. The older regular healing brush tool you must specify a source, just like the clone tool, before you can apply the clone or heal. At least I'm pretty sure... I'm on CS3, so maybe the menu's have changed a little in later versions.
Another technique that works well, especially for skies is this: click on the brush tool, then place the eyedropper (color picker) over the color you want to replicate, and click. This will set it as the foreground (active) color. Change the painting style from "Normal" to "Soft Light", and reduce the brush flow to 1% or 2%. You can now paint with a soft brush (essential!!) and fill in areas. The more you stroke, the more paint is laid down. Soft Light is non opaque and will keep underlying texture, like clouds, if there is any. Putting it on a new empty Layer as Lon suggests above, makes it easy to get rid of, or change. If you over-paint and decide you want less effect, you can just reduce the layer opacity.
Harley, thanks for sharing. Sounds like this could be very useful for hot spots. I learned of a similar technique using the healing brush in darken mode for removing halos around sections. Again, thanks for sharing. Best Regards.
Discussion
12 repliesPer Lon's request, this is a quick description of a technique I find very handy. It it really useful for fixing blown highlights in a sky, clouds, in water, wood, etc or to just give an area a hint of texture.
Create a new layer above the background layer (not a duplicate layer, but a new layer). This will allow you to delete it should you want to at a later point. Select your cloning tool, change the opacity to 7% to 20%. I usually start with 12% and see how it works. Find an area in your image that has a similar color, but has tone and texture compared to your blown area for your cloning "from" selection. Lightly clone over your problem spot until it has the amount of color/detail/texture that you desire. Use a fairly soft brush.
The technique is very quick, very easy and very effective.
As I always say, I love PS because it will do everything, but I also hate it because it will do everything. Seems like I never stop learning and spend way too much time experimenting at times.
Are you using the clone stamp tool or the healing brush? I've always wondered what the difference was anyway..
Thanks for the tip Harley. I'll have to remember it when I get a hotspot in one of my images next year. Ha!
Lon
The healing brush works entirely different. It does NOT sample from where you direct it to sample. It samples from the area immediately surrounding the target.
Lon
Be sure to check out the other tips and links there, too.
If you have tip/ trick, or a link to useful information, please let us know.
--P