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.

Brush property can be use for any other tool that requires painting on the effects or selection such as painting dodge and burn effects or painting quick mask selection.

Selecting Brush – Photoshop is shipped with many predefined brushes, you can find them under the brush selection menu. Select the set you want and you will be asked to Replace or Append. Replace will hide the current brushes and replace it with the new set. Append will add the brush on to your current selection.

Under this menu you can also select different viewing mode, try them out and see what fits your taste best.

Select Brush by clicking on the brush icon on your tool box or use the shortcut B

You can use paint in different blending mode but I recommend doing it on a blank layer and using the layer blending mode so that you will get a chance to change it later.

Opacity can be changed by typing in a number, sliding the slider or pressing the number keys. A lower number will make your paint transparent. The example below shows 100% opacity than 50 and 25 percent.

Flow is how fast and how transparent the paint is released as you drag your mouse across. You will see a very obvious spacing if you are using a brush with hard edge, a small Flow percentage works best with a soft edge brush. It gives a more realistic paint brush effect than using the Opacity setting. The example shows 30% flow using soft edge and hard edge brush.

Airbrush will only be visible on soft edged brushes. It simulates airbrush painting, as you hold your mouse in the same location the paint will build up into a bigger blob. The example below shows two different location where I stopped my brush and the paints builds up into thicker paint.

You can also set physical dynamics on your brush to simulate real world brush or creating custom randomized effects. Play with the settings under Brush Dynamics with the shortcut F5 or pressing the Dynamic icon.

I will discuss brush dynamics and creating your custom brush in a separate entry.

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, please leave a comment below for feedback.

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

Polygonal Lasso tool is perfect for outlining object with straight edges such as buildings. You can also simulate curving organic edge by using the refine edge tool later.

(L) Short cut key to activate the Lasso, hold shift to cycle through the different lasso tool or click and hold the Lasso icon to choose the different types. The first Lasso Tool is a freehand tool, you can find the article about this tool here.

If your subject has a curvy organic outline don’t worry, you can always refine the edge to make the lasso smoother later. Above is an example of an organic object outlined by the polygonal lasso. Learn how to create smooth curving outline with polygonal lasso tool here.

Polygonal Lasso allows you to create selection with straight lines but you can also use it on curvy edges if you created a polygon with enough sides to simulate curviness.

Start by clicking on the first spot of your edge than continue clicking until you surround your entire object.

Holding Shift will snap the line on a 45 degree increment.

Temporary change the Polygonal to freehand Lasso by holding Alt/Option

Press ENTER on your keyboard to finish the selection or click on the first spot again.

Lasso Tool tips and tricks.

Moving the Selection after it is done – With Lasso Tool still activated you can click and drag the inside of a selection to move it around.

SUBTRACT a section of the selection by holding Alt/Option.

ADD to the existing selection by holding Shift.

CUT & MOVE the pixel to another location of the same layer by holding Ctrl/Command

Create an INTERSECTING selection on an existing selection by holding Alt/Option + Shift.

Partially undoing some of the clicks by hitting the Del button on your keyboard to undo the clicks.

Read my article about Refine Edge here.

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

Lasso tool is good for minor quick selection unless you have really good eye/mouse coordination or you are drawing from a tablet don’t think about making precise selection.

I rarely use freehand lasso as I find it difficult tracing objects with my mouse but it is great if you want something quick and lose such as the example above. I made a rough selection around the flower with feather on, than I copy and paste it to a different place in the photo, similar to clone stamp. With the right setting the two flower blends right in!

You can click on the Lasso Tool on your toolbar or use the shortcut key L to activate it. If you click and hold the Lasso Tool on the toolbar you will notice two other option, Polygonal and Magnetic Lasso tool. You can cycle through the tools with Shift+L shortcut keys.

Polygonal Lasso allows you to create selection with straight lines and Magnetic Lasso will actually trace contour edges based on the pixel reading. I will talk about those two in a separate article.

To draw a Lasso selection, click and hold your mouse, as you drag your mouse across you will see the selection being made. Letting go your mouse will complete the selection.

If you need to add more area or subtract area to the selection, use the add/subtract/intersect icon on the Lasso menu. You can also use shortcuts to perform this task.

Holding the Shift key before clicking your mouse will allow you to add more area to your lasso selection. You will see a plus sign below your mouse icon.

Holding Alt/Option before you click your mouse will allow you to subtract unwanted area in the selection. You will see a minus sign below your mouse icon when the Alt/Option is held.

You can also create two different selections and keep only the intersected area of the two selection by holding Alt/Option+Shift.

If you do not want to select with a harsh definite edge just turn on the Feather value. The higher the value the softer the edge.

Anti-alias creates a slight feathering on the selection to give it the illusion of smoother rather than jagged edge that digital file usually suffers from.

While you are drawing your freehand lasso you can temporary change it to Polygonal Lasso by holding Alt/Option than release your mouse and start clicking as you would with the Polygonal Tool,  once you release Alt/Option it changes back to freehand.

Lasso Tool tips and tricks.

Undoing the Lasso partially – If you accidentally made a small mistake you can undo just that segment without starting over. Continuing holding the mouse and point it to the location where you wish to undo to. On your keyboard, hold the Del key, you will see the lasso slowly un-draw itself. Release the Del key until it un-draws all the Lasso you need.

Moving the Selection after it is done – With Lasso Tool or any type of selection tool still activated you can click and drag the inside of a selection to move the selection area around without disturbing the actual pixels.

CUT & MOVE the pixel to another location of the same layer by holding Ctrl/Command or use the Move Tool and drag and the selection to a different location.

Un-select the entire selection by hitting Ctrl/Command D on your keyboard.

You can further refine the edge with the Refine Edge tool, please read my article regarding Refine Edge menu.

If you need more precise selection tool you can try the Pen tool.

That is it for freehand Lasso tool, if you have any question or comment please leave it on the comment below.  Thanks!

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

After creating your selection you can further refine the edge of the selection. With the Refine Edge tool you can expand, contract, soften and even automatically trace the nearest edge.

Refine edge is available in many selection tool’s menu, usually the very last button as well as under the menu Select-Refine Edge or using the shortcut Alt+Ctrl(Option+Command)+R.

First, lets look at the bottom of the pallet; you will find five different displaying method. Try them all to see which method suits you the best for the photo you are working on.

First icon is the standard default selection; you can get a sense of which area is selected with the marquee border.

The second one is mask mode, it will create a RED overlay around everything that is NOT selected and the area that are being selected will be left alone.

The third option is similar to the mask mode but instead of a Red overlay a Solid Black color is used to cover up the unselected area.

The fourth option uses a solid white to cover up any unselected area.

The Last option will only show Black, White and Grays where Black is not selected, White is selected and any shades of grays are partially selected. This is a good preview to use if the image becomes too distracting or if you are more worry about the shape of your selection rather than what is on your photo.

Press F to cycle through the Views and X to temporarily view the image.

I’ve selected the flower with the Polygonal Lasso tool, as you can see, the outline is very sloppy. Refine Edge will help fine tune your selection so it is more presentable.

The first slider is Radius, Refine Edge will search around your existing selection and try to see if there is any obvious edge/contrast and try turn that into your selection border instead. As you can see in the example that when I turn up the radius the edge of the selection becomes blurred/softened but it also rearranged the selection border to more closely follow the contour of the flower.

To create a crisp edge turn up the Contrast slider, this will create a more definite edge on the selection.

If the selection has too much sharp corner you can Smooth it out with the Smooth Slider. Notice in the picture that the edges are rounder than when I first started.

You can give it a Anti-Aliased edge by turning on the Feather Slider.

You can also Contract and Expand the selected area when necessary.

Here is the flower masked out using the Polygonal Lasso and after the Refine Edge treatment. It took me less than a minute to mask out the flower in Polygonal Lasso tool than another minute to Refine the Edge. It will not work in every situation depending on the photo but the closer you make your initial selection is the better the Refine Edge tool will work.

I hope you find the tutorial useful, please leave some comments down below to let me know what you think about it. If you know more tricks for the Refine Edge please also share with us in the comment. Thanks!

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