Clone tool behaviour

[pbziegler]

11 hours ago, Damien Symonds said:

Don't forget to straighten as your very first step in Photoshop.

I did straighten the image first in Photoshop but when I went to clone to cover the edges the clone tool was acting up a bit. I know how to use it and in most areas it worked nicely but every once in awhile it wouldn't grab what I chose. And sometimes it left and edge which I smoothed out with a brush but I wonder if there is a way to soften the edge of the clone tool so it feathers better. I didn't post that in the Levels section because it didn't come out the way I would have wanted because of the clone problems I am talking about. I did read that article and followed the directions. I would never have known how to straighten the horizon in PS and in the old days I used the straighten tool in Lightroom.

Edited July 26, 2018 by pbziegler

[Damien Symonds]

Hi @pbziegler, I've moved this into Ask Damien since it's not a class-related question.

4 hours ago, pbziegler said:

every once in awhile it wouldn't grab what I chose.

Were you near the edge of the image at the time?  Remember to go to the View menu and turn off "Snap" if it's a bit jumpy.

4 hours ago, pbziegler said:

And sometimes it left an edge which I smoothed out with a brush

I suppose it's too late to show me a screenshot of that problem?

4 hours ago, pbziegler said:

I wonder if there is a way to soften the edge of the clone tool so it feathers better

Your tool should already be 0% Hardness (in the Options Bar) just like every brush-style tool.  Is that not the case?

[pbziegler]

5 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Were you near the edge of the image at the time?  Remember to go to the View menu and turn off "Snap" if it's a bit jumpy

That might be the problem

[pbziegler]

6 minutes ago, Damien Symonds said:

Your tool should already be 0% Hardness (in the Options Bar) just like every brush-style tool.  Is that not the case?

That was the problem with the hard edge. Somehow the slider was set to around 65. It has always been 0 on the brush. 

[Damien Symonds]

Ah.

[pbziegler]

2 minutes ago, pbziegler said:

Remember to go to the View menu and turn off "Snap" if it's a bit jumpy

It was on. I turned it off.

[Damien Symonds]

But yeah, even 0% hardness doesn't make it bulletproof.  You do have to gently clone at low opacity sometimes, to really get a good blend.

Are you making an effort to get into your opacity shortcuts?  It's well worth it.

[pbziegler]

Gonna read that article. I do consider opacity but have always used the sliders to make adjustments. I love shortcuts as you can well imagine.

[pbziegler]

Do you have objections to using the auto fill function when cropping and/or straightening? 

Edited July 27, 2018 by pbziegler

[Damien Symonds]

No, but of course check its results very carefully.