Challenge - Digital Challenges :Clone Out a Distraction

 This weeks challenge is to use the clone tool ( or another similar tool) to remove a distraction from your photo.

The photo that I wanted to use on this layout was pretty poor to begin with. The lighting was bad but worst of all, right behind the McKean's  head and in between Jake and Mick was the window where the white light that was coming through. It was really drawing your attention away from the boys faces and to the light of the window.

So I cloned out the window to the left of McKean (boy on the left) and made it all the color of the wood trim. I also cloned out the window between the 2 boys and made it all yellow wall.

The 1st thing you should do is to copy your photo so that you still have the original intact. You can either copy the background layer by hitting Command J or Control J. Or you can make a duplicate of your photo by opening your photo and going to Save As command and saving it as a copy and then work on it.

One of the things I like most about the clone tool is that up in the menu bar you can change the blending mode so that you only clone the darker or lighter pixels. Go to MODE(after you have selected the Clone tool it will be at the top of your screen below the regular menus) and in the drop down menu, you can choose lighter or darker from the list of blending modes there.

On the left side of the photo, I changed the blending mode to DARKER and cloned over the bright white window light pixels with darker white trim pixels. Between the two boys, I left the blending mode on DARKER and cloned the yellow wall over the window.

If you accidentally clone an area of the photo that you don't want to clone just hit undo.

Another tip is to use a soft edge brush.

Also, you will need to hold down your Alt (PC) or Option (Mac) key and click to set your reference point. This tells the computer where you want to copy the pixels from to cover up the area you are cloning out. You will need to change this reference point as you work on cloning because as you move your cursor, the reference point shifts with you. 

Good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing your layouts! Don't forget to post before and after photos so we can see what you cloned out. Remember...it doesn't have to be perfect!!! Just give it a try!

Supplies used:

1. Background paper - lined paper from the Basic Backgrounds Collection
2. Blue striped border around the outside - I used one of the Borderlines from the Borderlines kit and painted blue on a layer underneath it.
3. Scalloped red with hand drawn doodles above. My own design.
4. #1 tag  - Party On kit
5. To Do List, red star label & Note to Self - Note to Self Kit
6. Stitches and hanging blue star - French Kiss Kit
7. Stamps behind Note to Self and To Do List - Roughed Up Tool Kit v.2
8. Swirled black frame around Memories - Swirly Gig Frames