Clone stamp is not just for cloning objects in photos, you can also “erase” them. Blemishes and wrinkles can be magically erased from your model’s faces as well as that annoying person who somehow made it in to your photo.

To start, select the clone stamp on your tool bar or press S on keyboard.

You will first need to pick a spot where you want Photoshop to copy/sample the information from than start painting over the area where you want the cloning to happen.

First hold Alt/Option to set a sampling point, this is the location you want to clone, than start painting as you would with a regular brush. Instead of solid paint coming out of the brush it is a identical spot where you first set your sampling point.

This is similar to using a lasso or any other selecting method and copy and pasting it to a different location.

The first 5 settings are the same as Brush tool, please read my post on brush settings

Brush – you can use any brush and brush dynamic for the Clone Stamp. Read my article on how to use Brush here.

Mode – the colors can be manipulated using any of the blending mode, although I do not advise using this. You will gain better control if you paint onto a blank layer than using the blending mode on the layer instead.

Opacity – Lets you choose the transparency of your stamp.

Flow – The value is how fast the paint will be applied, for best result use soft edged brush. You will see the paint builds up as the brush overlap previous paint.

Airbrush – this option will only work with brush with soft edge, it will gradually accumulate into a bigger blob if you hold your mouse in one area for too long similar to an airbrush.

Aligned – Once you start painting after you’ve set your reference point, the cloning will continue where you last left off every time you release your mouse until you set another anchor point. If aligned is off than once you release your mouse and tries to paint again, it will use the original reference point.

Example –

- Current layer, Clone tool will only be cloning whatever that is on the active layer.

- Current & Below, Clone tool will only clone whatever that is on the active layer plus whatever is visible under the active layer.

- All Layer, Clone tool will take all visible layer into account.

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Include Adjustment Layer, this icon become available when you have an active adjustment layer turned on and Sample is set to anything other than Current Layer. When it is on, it will ignore all adjustment layer, and when it is off than what you see is what you will get.

Use the key “[“ and “]” on your keyboard to increase or decrease the size of your brush.

Best way to use clone tool is to paint it on a blank layer with the Sample set to Current & Below or All layer, that way you are not destroying the original.

There are many ways to "erase" an object in a photo rather than Clone stamp, what else can you use to achieve the same result?

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.

japanese garden

The first part of the tutorial I created a new layer and sketch what I think should go behind the people I wanted to erase. Its always a good idea to sketch the background out when there is a good amount of details.

The second part I use the marquee tool to select the upper part of the door and pasted down, than use a soft eraser to blend it in. You can use this to help you align the doors by moving the copied layer around until it fits.

Next I used a solid color for the small area on the bottom next to the door. When the area is small it's ok to use a solid color but don't over do it or it will look fake.

Finally I use the clone stamp to finish the rest of the image, when you first activate the clone stamp you will need to "sample" an area on your photo by holding the Alt key and clicking on a area that you want to clone, than you start painting over the area that needs to be covered.

Check out my tutorial on the clone stamp if you are not familiar with the basics.

The clone tool can be found on the tool bar, it looks like a stamp, you can also activate it by pressing "S"

You will need to tell photoshop where you want to clone by holding Alt while clicking on the area.

I started by cloning person in the middle, that is the easiest part because there are less objects behind him. Pay extra attention to where the sand and the rock meets.

- Clone the rock from a different rock to fill the gap.

- Moving on the the harder part, to remove object that is blocking a lot of things, I create a new layer and outline over what I think it should look like. Than using the same technique as before, I sample an area that looks similar and clone over it.

- When you are stuck- You might not always find the right area to clone so you will have to paint it in such as the crashing wave.  I used a scattered pattern brush and use the eye-drop tool to sample the color of the crashing wave. Than I dabbed in the effect. (Learn more about painting with Brush in this tutorial)

- You can also use marquee tool to copy some of the elements and past them to another part of the photo, it gives you better control over the shape of the object like the rocks on the sand and the reflection cast by the rock.

The rest of the video is pretty much the same, by using brush, copy and pasting and guide lines, you will have a easier time erasing objects in a photo. I hope I didn't miss anything, please post it in my comment if you like to know more about this video.

Have you tried this tutorial out yourself? Feel free to share your before and after photo with us!

This is part of my tutorial set. Please visit the TUTORIAL PAGE for a list of all the tutorials.