Digtal Photography Class 6

Last week we had a few less than I expected, but numbers were up this week. This week was to to be our first session where we sat in front of the computers. We had previously had a good look at the Paintshop Pro interface last week, and as a sort of refresher for those that were absent I quickly went through some of the key features again.


For many, it was the first proper look at a photo-editing piece of software, so I had decided that tonight's session would be a relaxed pace class where the students could just simply play around with the software, exploring the different tools such as the clone brush and the scratch remover tool.


How Does the Clone Brush Work?


Lets start with this sample image. So involved was the photographer in composing the shot that he didn't spot the graffiti at the base. In this case there would have been little he could have done at the time to hide this fact, save for zooming in on the main statue and excluding the graffiti part. Or of course being so good as to take a cleaning cloth to it, and spend a long time scrubbing away but that seems unlikely. On your computer you can make these marks vanish in seconds, with no hard scrubbing at all.

Zooming in closer to the problem area...

Now, one common mistake is to select a colour similar to that of the statue and brush over the graffiti like so:

This bad type of paint brushing will stand out more when the photo is printed and is far from ideal. A much better solution which can even be done quicker, is to use Paint Shop Pro's clone brush. When you've selected the clone brush choose the correct brush size and zoom into the area you want to change. Now right click on an area similar to the graffiti area in terms of colour and shade.

In the picture above the area you should right-click area is represented by the red circle as shown above. After right-clicking there, move the brush to the area you want to brush over represented by the red cross. When you use the brush you will see that the area of graffiti disappears from the photo

Things to you might do wrong with the clone brush are: Accidentally create patterns on the photo from cloning the same area repeatedly. This will stand out and make it easy to detect your photo has been digitally manipulated. So be careful to check for patterns and correct any mistakes through cloning of similar areas or if possible use the undo feature. Cloning the wrong area and creating an unrealistic appearance. To correct this, simply use the undo feature, or if that isn't possible close the image without saving and start again.

Now you've seen how to use the clone brush properly to remove graffiti from statues, you could try it on something else. Clone someone out of a group photo, or an object out of a landscape photo. The variations and possibilities are endless, and can be very difficult in some cases so don't be disheartened if at first you aren't very successful.

Next week in class, I will be setting a series of examples that I want specific things removed from within the images. 


See you then!