Image editing tips and tricks - layers and cloning

OK, so I've mentioned before all of the 'old-fashioned' analog techniques that we used to use in the darkroom, like dodging, burning-in and solarizing, that are now used within software like the GIMP or Adobe Photoshop. The big advantage is that you don't have to get your hands dirty with photographic chemicals any more; and you also don't need to print it just to see what it looks like. And throw out reams of paper in the process. I tend to use Photoshop in my virtual darkroom, but most everything is duplicated in the GIMP as well.

So here are some quick tips on layers and cloning:

1. Yeah yeah, layers again. I can't stress too much that just selecting 'duplicate layer' is the single most powerful thing you can do. Just try it!
2. The clone tool. It's magical. It comes in many shapes and sizes and can be faded away as you like it. Try this in company with a new duplicate layer. Simply choose the item you want to remove (say a post, a sign, or a blemish) and then press the clone "stamp" on the tool bar.
   
3. Use the cursor to select just enough (ie adjust the size of the cursor) of an area adjacent to the blemish that preferably continues on the other side of the blemish itself.
   
4. Best example is of an unsightly black mark on the sky - just clone nearby clear blue sky with an "alt" key plus left-click and then "stamp" that bit of blue sky over the mark with another left click. Voila, black mark gone!
5. By playing with the clone tool's shapes and sizes, plus the opacity, you will find that this one tool, coupled with layers, is probably the single most powerful combination in the history of digital art. Well I use it a lot, anyway ;-)
   

Digital tip of the day - layers

OK, you know all this stuff, but maybe someone out there doesn't. If you are into either scanned or direct digital photography you will have noticed by now that you have a range of editing options at your disposal. Typically you will have a basic freebie like MS Paint, or a came-with-the-scanner powerhouse like Photoshop Elements. Now you can do some pretty useful stuff with Paint and its ilk - like cropping, for starters, and adding text. But I'm hoping that you lust for more control. So I'll write here about Elements, but it applies generally to other editing programs like the GIMP, too.

Layers. Not productive chickens, but another layer of image added on top of the original. Just try it out. Open your image and maybe do so cropping first. Then start with a duplicate layer. That's right, it's an option up there on the top tool-bar. Elements defaults to viewing down through the pack, so it's like you have simply added a another exact copy on a transparency, except it didn't get darker. You can make it darker by using different types of layers and settings, or by using the filters (again, look at the tool-bar and pull-down a list of filters). In fact you can do so much it's dazzling.

Try this one trick for starters. Select your original image and use the clone stamp tool (select tool, select size and 'normal', hold down alt and left-click) to select just a small part of your image from the background slide. Now make a duplicate layer, or go to it by selecting it on the layer panel to your right. Now select a filter - let's use blur, then Gaussian blur, on just that duped layer. Just use a small blur to start with, to put everything 'out of focus' but recognizable. Now experiment a bit with the clone tool, try stamping once on the same feature that you copied. Once you have made that initial stamp you can move around and fill in the rest of the image, or just the detail you want.

Remember, less is more. Unless you want to go crazy (I know I do).

In this way you can stamp an unblurred original on top of a blurred copy, bringing a feature (maybe a face) out of a crowded background. Try feathering the clone stamp - or even easier, just use differing levels of opacity. Say 10% to just ink in a faint image, or 100% to really make it stand out. Experiment. You can always undo. In this way you can build up multiple layers with different effects to generate a final image. You can do a lot more but that gets you started.