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Hello All
I posted this image a couple of days ago and have been fortunate enough to have been awarded an HC award by Pete who was generous enough to leave a comment about the blade of grass crossing the lower wing and cloning it out....
I have to agree it does detract from the image but my cloning skills arent up to the task!!
Can anyone point me in the right direction as how to clone the grass out (and still have the wing!!)
I have Photoshop Elements 9 as my main editing software.
| Brand: | Canon |
| Camera: | Canon EOS 7D |
| Lens: | Canon 100mm f2.8 L IS |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Date Taken: | 28 Jul 2012 - 9:34 AM |
| Focal Length: | 100mm |
| Aperture: | f/8.0 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/250sec |
| Exposure Comp: | 0.0 |
| ISO: | 400 |
| Exposure Mode: | Aperture-priority AE |
| Metering Mode: | Partial |
| Flash: | Off, Did not fire |
| White Balance: | Auto |
| Title: | Cloning Help Please |
| Username: | 
lawbert |
| Uploaded: | 5 Oct 2012 - 5:44 PM |
| Tags: | Close-up / macro, Emerald damselfly, Wildlife / nature |
| VS Mode Rating |
111 (63.33% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
This is a fine image of high quality. I would crop top and bottom to landscape though. Doesn't need the square treatment. You could clone the grass out on a full res image with great care. The only way is practice. You would need to magnify the image to 200% at least in the wing area and use a very small clone brush. I use a tablet for cloning and that is far more accurate than a mouse.
Paul
I've uploaded a mod using Photoshop's healing brush. The same brush I understand is available in Elements 11. Click just above the grass on the wing and work down over the grass (using a small brush at maximum soft edge) , replicating the wing detail from above. Then with the grass work from each side using a large brush with maximum soft edge. Don't go too near the wing when doing the grass. Then with the clone tool do the grass around the wing area. Finally go over the patched background to make sure any areas you've healed look natural. I would need to do a bit more on the background but just rushed it through (took a minute) to show you how easy it is to do...and well worth it.
This article I wrote years ago (using the clone tool - the newer healing tool is much more advanced) helps explain how to decide which area to clone (heal) from and direction to go in Mastering Cloning
Great image, you may not be too good at cloning but you are pretty good at shooting insects! I've done a clone job mod too. This took me about 3 minutes. After opening image in photoshops click the mag. icon over the area you wish to clone and mag a lot to get in close.. I used a soft brush mainly but went over detail with hard to sharpen details. As Paul says a tablet is best but I did this on my laptop.
regards
Ian
Nice Job Pete....a dramatic improvement
Thanks Paul for your advise...I am reasonably capable of taking out the blade of grass but have no idea at where to start where the grass cross sections the wing!!
Do I have to clone inbetween each section of the wing structure individually or is there an easier and quicker way?
Petes Modification is spot on for a quick job and I cant believe he had the time to clone inbetween each wing section....I could well be wrong though!!....I do wrong more proficiently than cloning!!
WOW! What a fabulous well captured photo! Well done you!
Quote: I cant believe he had the time to clone inbetween each wing section
I didn't - just copied the area above and it was two click, press sweeps - one from above right of the blade and then one from lower left to patch up any untidy wing area that was a result of the healed area. Have a play with the healing brush if the elements version is the same as Photoshop you may be amazed at how it works, and a lot easeir than you imagine once you get used to where to pick up from and ride over.
So now you know how to fix the wing, some critique.
The overall image is very good, however I think it can be improved with a little more contrast and vibrancy. Its rather flat for a Dragonfly image, - you expect more "pop" and iridescence, so Ive done a little work in the mod. This includes Calibrating black and white points, increasing vibrance ( its a CS feature, but you could use saturation), and sharpened a little more. I think it lost a little sharpness in the re sizing process.
For the wing, there also the possibility of copying a wing section and pasting it over the grass, and cleaning up using a layer mask.
For calibrating the B&W points, take a look at this link, - but Im not sure if Elements has Threshold and Curves, - but you may be able to do similat with the levels tool by clicking the blac and white droppers while holding down ALT or Control. http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=24
Regards
Willie
amazing cloning and tute also a superb shot once treated properly
If you make a selection of the wing then go to Select>Inverse so you now have everything outside of the wing selected, you can select the clone tool and a soft brush, possibly the airbrush from the drop down brush menu and so long as you sample from outside the wing you can work up to the selection without effecting the wing.
Another alternative for dealing with the wing itself is to make a selection of the wing above the body then Copy it. Next make a selection of about half of the wing with the grass in it then use the Paste into command which will paste the copied wing inside your selection.
This will then allow you to use the free transform tool to resize and re orientate the selection to fit into the existing wing, the whole thing can then be blended together by using a layer mask.
Regards,
Graham.
Many Many Thanks Pete, Ian. Willie and Graham for your Modifications and insight into cloning.
It seems there are many ways to clone and as a novice at it its interesting to see that the method Pete used has left the dark patch on the wing intact which is true to the original image and certainly something someone who knew a bit about Damselflys would pick up on.
I shall have a practice this evening and post my effort later.
Many Thanks to all again.
Paul
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