Showing posts with label how to. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to. Show all posts
09:07
Who Broke the News (or the Embargo) First?
Let’s say a company is about to launch a new product and, as is the standard practice, they have pre-briefed a select group of media outlets and bloggers about the news under an embargo.The launch date is close and writers have already prepared their news stories so that they can push them as soon as embargo is lifted. And then something strange happens – one media outlet publishes the story ahead of time thus breaking the embargo – intentionally or unintentionally.
Find Who Broke the News Embargo?
Broken embargoes can be frustrating for journalists and bloggers as the limelight (and page views) often shifts to the news publication who did not honor the embargo.If a news embargo gets broken, here’s a simple way that may help you determine the name of the publication that broke it in the first place.
Step 1. Go to google.com/realtime and type a few words from the story headline.
Step 2. In the timeline, click an area where you have minimal number of tweets around that story. That’s when the news first broke on the Internet and looking at the tweets, you should be able to figure who broke that news.
To give you an example, Google pre-briefed a number of publication about the priority inbox feature of Gmail and the news was supposed to stay under embargo until 9 AM. eWeek however published the story at 8:36 AM while others still had their story in the queue.
This technique works because most sites now auto-syndicate their content to social sites like Twitter and Facebook. Since all the stories are getting on Twitter, you can easily sort them by publication time through the timeline of Google Real Time search.
09:25
The Debug Log Stores your BlackBerry Call History
This may surprise some BlackBerry users.Do you know that your BlackBerry has a log file where it keeps a detailed record of every single action that you perform on the device including your incoming and outgoing phone calls?
To view the log file of your own BlackBerry, go to the home screen, hold the ALT key and press LGLG. If you are using a BlackBerry Storm, display the keyboard in portrait view, hold the number key for while to lock the number keyboard and then type ,5,5 to display the phone log.
Your BlackBerry Call History is in the Debug Logs
These debug logs may sometimes help you troubleshoot issues with your BlackBerry but there’s one related issue that you should be aware of.Even if you remove the SIM card from your BlackBerry and manually clear all the phone call logs, one can easily read your dialed and incoming phone numbers list from the debug log.
This won’t be an issue for most BlackBerry users but if you ever plan to giveaway or sell your old phone, remember to clear the debug logs manually as well. Unfortunately, BlackBerry doesn’t offer a way for you to turn off logging permanently.
09:21
HOW TO: Undo “Send” in Gmail
Did you know you can undo a sent e-mail in Gmail? It’s a lesser known feature, but Google just made it even better than it was before. When it first launched, you were given a 5-second window during which you could hit “undo.”The feature is hidden from most users who don’t know where to look, so here’s a quick guide to avoiding social and workplace faux pas with the click of a button. Be aware that the feature is part of Gmail Labs, though. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended.
Go to Gmail Labs
Since the Undo Send feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to navigate to the Gmail Labs page to activate it. Load up Gmail and look in the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and Settings you’ll see the green Labs icon. Give it a click.
Enable “Undo Send” and Save Your Changes
You’ll be presented with a list of features Google is testing in Gmail. Some are very useful and some are just fun. We’ve gone into more depth on all Gmail Labs has to offer in previous articles, but this time we’re here just for the Undo Send feature.
You’ll usually find it close to the bottom of the list. We’ve included a picture of it above so you know what you’re looking for. Just select Enable then scroll down and save your changes.
Customize Undo Send’s Duration
By default, Gmail gives you a 10-second window of time in which you may undo a sent e-mail. You can change that to five, 20 or 30 seconds by going to Settings (in the top right corner of the main Gmail page, right next to the Labs icon) and finding the Undo Send section inside the “General” tab.
There you can enable or disable Undo Send and change the duration with a drop-down selection box as pictured above.
Write and Send Your E-mail
Now that Undo Send is enabled, it works each time you send a new e-mail. You don’t have to do anything unusual beforehand to make it possible to use Undo Send with that e-mail.
Click the “Undo” Button After You Send
Now you have either five, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to undo your sent e-mail, depending on what you selected under Settings.
As soon as you hit Send, a subtle line of text will appear above your Inbox saying “Your message has been sent.” It will be accompanied by a few extra options. Among them is “Undo.” Click that within the allotted time and your faux pas will be prevented.
Note that you can hit “Z” on your keyboard, the Gmail shortcut for undo. Just don’t navigate away from or close this page, because once you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to undo your sent message forever.
“Sending Has Been Undone”
You’ll immediately be taken back to the e-mail composition page, and your e-mail will be in draft form, unsent and ready for further editing — or deletion, if writing it was ill-advised to begin with!
10:30
HOW TO: Make Your Mobile Websites Act More Like Native Apps
Native applications still have their place, but increasingly, the number of different device types, operating systems, and screen sizes make developing optimized mobile web apps more and more enticing. Historically, there has been a trade-off between the rapid, iterative, cross-platform nature of web applications versus the more standard UI, support for gestures, and multi-touch and hardware optimizations on the native side.
Fortunately, a number of different frameworks are making it easier and easier for developers to create mobile web applications that look and feel more like native apps. Here are six examples. If you don’t see your favorites on the list, add them in the comments below.
1. Sencha Touch
In June, Sencha, formerly Ext JS, launched its Sencha Touch HTML5 mobile framework. The cross-platform framework is compatible with iOS and Android devices and will be expanded to other platforms soon.
Sencha Touch combines a resolution-independent UI library, touch event management, support for geolocation and offline access, and special CSS and CSS3 capabilities.
Sencha is the company behind the Ext JS, jQTouch and Raphael projects, so the new framework packs some serious power. Check out this Touch Solitaire demo, especially on the iPad. The Drag & Drop support is really amazing.
2. SproutCore
SproutCore is an HTML5 framework that aims to help developers build desktop-caliber web applications that run in any modern web browser, without plugins. The lead developer recently quit his job at Apple to focus on the project full-time.
Check out this demo on an iPhone or Android device and I think you’ll agree, it’s pretty impressive stuff. By leveraging existing backends and taking cues from platforms like .NET and Cocoa, SproutCore is focused on offering scalable, robust performance in a web browser.
While not just for mobile apps, the HTML5 nature of SproutCore really makes it a good choice.
3. YUI 3.2
Later this month, Yahoo! will release the latest version of its YUI library of JavaScript utilities. YUI is a really impressive framework and the upcoming version includes even better support for touch and mobile devices.
Christian Heilmann wrote up a great preview of YUI 3.2.0 for Ajaxian that details some of the new additions.
Yahoo! continues to be one of the best resources for tools, libraries, utilities and documents for web and mobile developers.
jQuery Mobile isn’t a full application framework like SproutCore or Sencha Touch, but the new initiative does aim to bring more native controls to mobile web apps.
Announced last week, the jQuery Mobile project will be a “complete, unified, mobile UI framework.” The core jQuery project will also continue to be optimized for mobile, but the jQuery Mobile project is focused on delivering a truly top-notch JavaScript experience and interface to the most-used smartphone web browsers.
The project is still in the early stages, but you can see what browsers and versions jQuery Mobile will support on this chart. The jQuery Core team is working to support all A and B browsers.
5. XUI
While developing Phonegap, the XUI team became frustrated with the existing JavaScript libraries and their performances on mobile devices.
XUI was created to work across mobile browsers, including WebKit, Fennec, and Opera. The goal is to provide lots of cross-compatibility without much of the overhead that can make traditional JavaScript libraries unsuitable for mobile devices.
6. iUI
iUI is an iPhone user interface framework designed to bring an iPhone-like experience to mobile web apps. It works with WebKit-based devices and includes a JavaScript library, CSS, and images.
It was originally started back in 2007 but has been steadily updated over the years to add support to more types of devices and even the iPad.
Let us know which frameworks you’re using to make your mobile websites act more like native apps in the comments.
03:17
Downloading Attachments from Multiple E-Mails
If you ever get an email message in your Inbox that includes multiple file attachments, you can easily download all the attachments to your hard disk as a single zip archive with a click. Such a feature is available in all popular email clients including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and even Microsoft Outlook.
However, let’s now consider a slightly different problem.
You have multiple emails that contain multiple attachments of multiple types and you now want to download them all (the attachments) to a local folder? How do you do this?
Well, here’s an easy workaround.
Step 1. Go to drop.io and click the “Create a Drop” button. Drop.io is now a paid service but you can still create temporary accounts for free.
Step 2. You’ll be assigned a unique email address for your drop.io account. Copy this email address to your clipboard (it’s listed in the right sidebar).
Step 3. Go back to your email inbox and forward all the messages, that you would like to download, to your new drop.io email address. Within seconds, drop.io will pull all the file attachments from your emails and will add them to the new “drop” that you created in Step 1.
Step 4. Now click Share –> Zip file to create a compressed zip file containing all the email attachments that you can save to your computer with a click. Once you are done with the download, go to Settings –> Maintenance –> Destroy Drop to delete all your files from drop.io permanently.
Drop.io, is blazingly fast. Another advantage is that if there’re any file attachments in the “drop” that you would not like to download locally, like a big video file or some PowerPoint slideshow with pictures of cute kittens, you can easily delete them from drop.io before creating the zip.
08:22
HOW TO: Clean Up Your Facebook Profile
As the number of your Facebook friends and apps you (and them) are using increases, your Facebook news feed and wall can turn into one big mess. It’s nice to communicate with your friends, but if you can’t find useful posts amidst all those silly apps, or your real friends amongst all the unknown people you’ve befriended, it’s time to clean up your Facebook profile.
Facebook offers extensive options for fine tuning what individual applications and people can see or do on your Facebook profile, but if you haven’t been following all the changes (and Facebook likes to change often), you might feel lost in all the options. I've offering a rundown of the most efficient ways to make more sense of your Facebook experience.
Hide Them From the Feed!
The simplest way to control what shows up in your News Feed is to click “Hide” on an item you don’t want to see. Facebook will ask you whether you want to hide that person or page, once you confirm it, you won’t see anything from them again.
If you want to bring some of the hidden stuff back, don’t worry. Once you hide something, Facebook will warn you with the message “XXX has been hidden from your News Feed. To manage who appears in News Feed, Edit Options.”
Now, click on Edit Options and you’ll see a list of all the people and Pages you’ve hidden. From there, you can restore the visibility of the items you’ve hidden, and set some additional options, such as the maximum number of friends shown in Live Feed.
Friends & Lists
Just like MySpace, Facebook is a place for friends. But let’s face it: in most cases, only a small number of your friends on Facebook are good, real-life friends. You’ve also got acquaintances, business partners, coworkers, and if you’re really trigger happy when it comes to friending, a bunch of people you don’t know at all.
Luckily, you can organize them into Friend Lists, which will let you filter your news feed and the chat box. The process can be a little tedious, but trust us, it can make a huge difference.
We’ve got a detailed article explaining how to create and manage friend lists on Facebook, and for the most part, it’s still accurate. However, Facebook changed its layout after the article was written, and some details about how lists are displayed and managed have changed, too.
Lists are now displayed under Friends in the Facebook homepage; click on it to see all the lists you’ve created. Furthermore, to edit lists, click on Account – Edit Friends. From there, you can add or remove friends from your lists, delete lists or create new ones.
To use lists, simply go to your homepage, and click on a list; you’ll only see news items created by the people you’ve added to that list. Perhaps even more importantly, the lists extend to the chat box. Once you’ve created one or more lists, you’ll see that the chat box now displays them separately. Click on Friend Lists; from there you can choose which lists do you want to see in the chat box. Fantastic if you have a lot of friends, but you only chat with a handful.
Apps
Dividing your friends into lists should help you organize and clean up your profile tremendously, but it still doesn’t rid you of all the apps your friends are using, some of which keep popping up on your wall. For example, if you’re not interested in Farmville, you probably don’t want to see how your friends’ crops are doing.
Again, it’s possible to fine tune which apps can do what to your profile, and we recommend doing this not only for the sake of clarity, but also for the sake of privacy and security. Click on Account – Application Settings, and choose Show – Authorized from the drop down menu. You’ll probably be amazed at how many apps you’ve authorized; the list can become huge over time.
There’s a couple of ways to deal with these apps. If you see an app you really don’t need, you can simply remove it by clicking the x next to it. This is a bit drastic, however, as you can also change the settings for each individual application. Click on Edit Settings; from there, you can deny the app to “Publish recent activity (one line stories)” to your wall (under Additional Permissions). You can also choose whether you want the app to be located in your Bookmarks, and you can limit the visibility of that app’s tab on your profile.
What Now?
After you’ve cleaned up your apps, you’ll see a lot less clutter on your Facebook profile; however, bear in mind that this is an ongoing process. After a while, you’ll likely authorize new apps, and your profile will once again become cluttered with stuff you don’t really need to see on a daily basis. The best way to deal with it is to do regular maintenance of your Facebook profile every couple of months.
Still, if you’ve followed the instructions in this article, your Facebook is now a different place – more organized, less cluttered and generally more enjoyable. I hope it helped! If you’ve got any additional tips on how to clean up your Facebook profile, let me know in the comments!
08:58
The Ultimate Guide To Cloning In Photoshop
Photoshop’s wide array of cloning tools is the cause of many of the absolute best and worst works created with the application. In a skilled and experienced hand, these tools lead to phenomenal results. In the hands of a careless artist, Photoshop cloning can be disastrous to the credibility of the result. This article introduces the several cloning tools available in Photoshop and goes over the proper usage and best practices of each.
Use the “Option” key (”Alt”) to set the source.
To clone out the name on the tombstone above, you would select a source that shares the texture of the area you want to replace. In this case, the area around the words provides an ample source of stone texture from which to clone.
To begin, simply click on the preferred source area while holding down the “Option” key (”Alt” on a PC). Then, with no keys held down, begin painting over the area you want to replace. The image area from the source will be transferred to the destination.
To be able to use this tool effectively, let’s look at the relevant settings.
The clone stamp’s basic settings.
The first setting you’ll want to familiarize yourself with is for the brush. Photoshop does not restrict cloning to a basic default brush. Instead, it allows you to use any brush you want, allowing you to create an unlimited number of effects. In the example above, and in most cases in fact, a small to medium-sized round soft brush gives the best result.
A hard brush creates noticeable seams.
As you can see, a hard brush often creates visible edges along the path of the clone. The transition is much smoother on the left side, where a soft brush was used. Both sides suffer from noticeable replication, but this was intentional to exaggerate the cloned area. We’ll discuss how to avoid this later.
As stated, while a soft round brush is recommended for basic cloning, a number of interesting effects can be created using alternate brushes. For instance, below I’ve used a scatter brush shaped like a leaf to add some visual interest to the photo.
Use a scatter brush to create interesting particle effects.
Experiment with the opacity, blending mode and brush flow for an even wider variety of results.
The area cloned depends on the selected layer and sample mode.
As you can see, with Current Layer selected, the clone stamp ignores pixel data contained in any other layer. Conversely, All Layers ignores all layer distinction and clones any visible pixels in the document (invisible layers will be ignored). Finally, Current & Below samples pixels from the selected layer and any visible layers behind it.
Because of this, turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers When Cloning is almost always a good idea. This allows you to clone the original image, which can then be affected by an ever-changeable adjustment layer. If you do not choose to ignore the adjustment layer, the adjustment becomes permanent in the cloned areas.
In the layer set-up below, turning on Sample All Layers would by default clone pixels from both the background layer and the adjustment layer in the foreground. Turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers prevents this.
You can choose to ignore adjustment layers when cloning.
Type J to bring up the Spot Healing Brush.
The Spot Healing Brush is by far the simplest cloning tool in Photoshop. With little to no experience, you can repair small areas of an image. The secret to using the tool is in the name: Spot Healing. The tool is intended not for large areas of replacement, but rather to remove little unwanted spots, such as a scratch on an old photograph or a mole on a person’s face.
To use the tool, simply hover over the area you want to replace and click once. Photoshop does all the work by examining the pixel data around the spot and seamlessly integrating the data into the destination.
The Spot Healing Brush is perfect for repairing old photographs.
As you can see above, the tool does a remarkable job of not leaving behind any noticeable artifacts or repeating patterns. The trick is to go slowly and work on very small portions of the image. Select a spot to fix, and use a brush that’s only slightly bigger than the selected imperfection. The larger the brush, the more likely you are to clone unwanted portions of the surrounding area, and the more noticeable the repetition of pixels will be.
Use a brush slightly bigger than the target spot.
As with the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush attempts to automatically blend in the cloned pixels with the environment around it.
The Healing Brush tool automatically blends the source with the destination.
As you can see, using the Clone Stamp to clone the puppy’s eye results in a straight copy of the pixels, while the Healing Brush does a much better job of blending with the background.
This built-in intelligence proves extremely helpful when cloning a subject with diverse colors, textures and lighting conditions. Using the Clone Stamp in these situations can leave you with a lot of noticeably patchy spots that really stand out from the surrounding area.
The Healing Brush Tool makes it easy to clone visually complicated areas.
The photograph above is a good example of a subject with a fairly complicated surface. Using the Clone Stamp tool would have made it quite difficult to paint over the cracked areas while retaining the integrity of the stained stone. Much of the discoloration would have been sacrificed as you sourced smoother areas to erase the cracks. However, the Healing Brush was able to effectively replace the cracked areas with smoother areas, while sampling from the surrounding area to replicate the stains.
Tip: hit Shift + J to cycle between the tools in the fly-out menu.
The cloning tools we’ve examined so far are best when used meticulously on small portions of an image. By contrast, the Patch tool is the best way to clone large, relatively uniform areas. As with the other healing tools, the Patch tool not only performs a straight clone but attempts to blend in the edge of the selected area with the target environment.
To use the Patch tool, either make a selection with any of the selection tools, or simply select an area with the Patch tool’s built-in lasso. There are two modes to choose from for the behavior of the patch: “Source” and “Destination” (found in the menu bar above the document area).
In source mode, first select the area you want to replace.
As you drag the selection around to find a suitable source, watch the destination (i.e. your originally selected area) for a preview of what the source pixels will look like in that area. Keep in mind that this preview is a straight clone without any blending (the final image will look much better). Release the selection to see the actual result.
The Patch tool’s result.
As you can see, it does a pretty impressive job of blending the source and destination pixels all on its own. But going over areas that need improvement with the Healing Brush is good practice.
Patch tool destination mode.
After you release the selection, the golf ball is copied to a new area of the image and blended with the surrounding pixels.
Result of “Destination” mode.
The Clone Source palette contains three primary sections: cloning source, offset adjustment and overlay options.
The Clone Source palette.
Defining multiple sources.
The image above illustrates an example of when you might want to define multiple sources. To save a source, click on one of the five source buttons, and then Option + click (Alt + click) with either the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush. That location will now be saved to that button. Now, select the next button in line, and do the same in another part of the image. Once your sources are loaded, you can quickly shift between them simply by clicking the related button.
Notice that the file name appears just under the clone source buttons. This is because you can actually select a clone source outside of the image that you’re working on. Simply open a different file and set the clone source. Then, when you go back to the primary file to paint with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush, the pixels from the other image will function as the source of the clone.
Tweaking the cloned results.
You can see these transformation effects in action in the example above. The two bails of hay are actually one and the same, but they look considerably different because of the offset options. First, I set both the width and height to 90%, so that the cloned bail would appear slightly smaller than the original. Then I changed the width to -90% to flip the clone horizontally (you could change the height to a negative number to flip the image vertically). Finally, I set the rotation to 10° to give the illusion of a small hill.
An overlay of the source is displayed within the brush.
Note that if you choose to turn on the overlay but turn off “Clipped,” then your entire clone source layer will be shown surrounding the brush.
An overlay of the source is displayed within the brush.
Working this way is actually quite difficult because the source significantly blocks your view of the destination. But if you prefer it, try reducing the opacity of the overlay so that you can see the image below.
When you open up the Vanishing Point dialog (found under the “Filter” menu item), you’ll see a large preview of your image, along with a small set of tools on the left side.
The Vanishing Point dialog.
Grab the tool sitting second from the top to set up your initial plane. With this tool, click once on each of the four corners, outlining the desired plane. Once you’ve created an initial plane, you can Command + click (Control + click on a PC) to extend the plane perpendicularly. Some images, though, like this old barn, won’t have perfect angles. In this case, you’ll have to create a second plane, entirely distinct from the original.
Setting up planes.
Once you’re satisfied with the planes, grab the Clone Stamp (fourth from the top), and Option + click the desired source (in our case, the barn door). Then clone the door onto the front-facing wall using the same method you would use with the normal Clone Stamp tool. Turn “Healing” on in the drop-down menu above the image preview to ensure that the source is properly blended into the destination.
Vanishing Point result.
As you can see, Photoshop interpreted the planes fairly well. Some fine-tuning and clean-up are definitely necessary if we want a believable image; but overall, the result is extremely impressive, given the lack of work required.
Sloppy cloning results in noticeable patterns.
If you’re not careful, duplicated pixels can become painfully obvious. This is especially true of areas that should look fairly organic, like the grass above. Instead of appearing natural, an obvious pattern emerges when you use the same section of an image over and over. To avoid this, make heavy use of the Clone Source palette. Use multiple sources; and change the size, rotation and orientation of the areas you’re cloning to give the illusion of an unmanipulated image.
Where did her leg go!?
If you’re not careful, you could eliminate enough vital body parts to make the image humorous. Your goal is to prevent your work from showing up on Photoshop Disasters, which is where you’ll find the image above.
The Clone Stamp Tool
The Clone Stamp tool is the oldest and most widely known of the cloning tools. The basic concept is that you duplicate certain portions of an image using a source, destination and brush.Use the “Option” key (”Alt”) to set the source.
To clone out the name on the tombstone above, you would select a source that shares the texture of the area you want to replace. In this case, the area around the words provides an ample source of stone texture from which to clone.
To begin, simply click on the preferred source area while holding down the “Option” key (”Alt” on a PC). Then, with no keys held down, begin painting over the area you want to replace. The image area from the source will be transferred to the destination.
To be able to use this tool effectively, let’s look at the relevant settings.
Basic Settings: Brush
Below, you’ll find the default settings when the clone stamp is selected.The clone stamp’s basic settings.
The first setting you’ll want to familiarize yourself with is for the brush. Photoshop does not restrict cloning to a basic default brush. Instead, it allows you to use any brush you want, allowing you to create an unlimited number of effects. In the example above, and in most cases in fact, a small to medium-sized round soft brush gives the best result.
A hard brush creates noticeable seams.
As you can see, a hard brush often creates visible edges along the path of the clone. The transition is much smoother on the left side, where a soft brush was used. Both sides suffer from noticeable replication, but this was intentional to exaggerate the cloned area. We’ll discuss how to avoid this later.
As stated, while a soft round brush is recommended for basic cloning, a number of interesting effects can be created using alternate brushes. For instance, below I’ve used a scatter brush shaped like a leaf to add some visual interest to the photo.
Use a scatter brush to create interesting particle effects.
Experiment with the opacity, blending mode and brush flow for an even wider variety of results.
Basic Settings: Sample
Under the “Sample” menu are three options: Current Layer, Current & Below and All Layers. These options affect the area you are sourcing. Here’s a visual illustration of how each mode works:The area cloned depends on the selected layer and sample mode.
As you can see, with Current Layer selected, the clone stamp ignores pixel data contained in any other layer. Conversely, All Layers ignores all layer distinction and clones any visible pixels in the document (invisible layers will be ignored). Finally, Current & Below samples pixels from the selected layer and any visible layers behind it.
Basic Settings: Adjustment Layers
The final basic setting (the circle with a diagonal line through it) lets you decide whether the clone stamp tool should sample adjustment layers when cloning. Adjustment layers, such as Hue/Saturation and Levels, are meant to be a non-destructive way to change the appearance of layers. So, you can make drastic changes to a layer or group of layers without destroying the original pixels.Because of this, turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers When Cloning is almost always a good idea. This allows you to clone the original image, which can then be affected by an ever-changeable adjustment layer. If you do not choose to ignore the adjustment layer, the adjustment becomes permanent in the cloned areas.
In the layer set-up below, turning on Sample All Layers would by default clone pixels from both the background layer and the adjustment layer in the foreground. Turning on Ignore Adjustment Layers prevents this.
You can choose to ignore adjustment layers when cloning.
The Spot Healing Brush
As you can see below, the Spot Healing Brush tool is located under the Eyedropper tool and above the Brush tool, and it can be accessed quickly by hitting J on the keyboard.Type J to bring up the Spot Healing Brush.
The Spot Healing Brush is by far the simplest cloning tool in Photoshop. With little to no experience, you can repair small areas of an image. The secret to using the tool is in the name: Spot Healing. The tool is intended not for large areas of replacement, but rather to remove little unwanted spots, such as a scratch on an old photograph or a mole on a person’s face.
To use the tool, simply hover over the area you want to replace and click once. Photoshop does all the work by examining the pixel data around the spot and seamlessly integrating the data into the destination.
The Spot Healing Brush is perfect for repairing old photographs.
As you can see above, the tool does a remarkable job of not leaving behind any noticeable artifacts or repeating patterns. The trick is to go slowly and work on very small portions of the image. Select a spot to fix, and use a brush that’s only slightly bigger than the selected imperfection. The larger the brush, the more likely you are to clone unwanted portions of the surrounding area, and the more noticeable the repetition of pixels will be.
Use a brush slightly bigger than the target spot.
The Healing Brush
The Healing Brush tool, located under the Spot Healing Brush tool, is very similar to the Clone Stamp tool. To begin, Option + click (Alt + click on a PC) to select your source, and then carefully paint over the destination to transfer the pixels. The Healing Brush performs this operation with more built-in intelligence than the Clone Stamp.As with the Spot Healing Brush, the Healing Brush attempts to automatically blend in the cloned pixels with the environment around it.
The Healing Brush tool automatically blends the source with the destination.
As you can see, using the Clone Stamp to clone the puppy’s eye results in a straight copy of the pixels, while the Healing Brush does a much better job of blending with the background.
This built-in intelligence proves extremely helpful when cloning a subject with diverse colors, textures and lighting conditions. Using the Clone Stamp in these situations can leave you with a lot of noticeably patchy spots that really stand out from the surrounding area.
The Healing Brush Tool makes it easy to clone visually complicated areas.
The photograph above is a good example of a subject with a fairly complicated surface. Using the Clone Stamp tool would have made it quite difficult to paint over the cracked areas while retaining the integrity of the stained stone. Much of the discoloration would have been sacrificed as you sourced smoother areas to erase the cracks. However, the Healing Brush was able to effectively replace the cracked areas with smoother areas, while sampling from the surrounding area to replicate the stains.
The Patch Tool
The final healing tool we’ll examine is the Patch tool, which can be found under the Healing Brush tool, as seen below.Tip: hit Shift + J to cycle between the tools in the fly-out menu.
The cloning tools we’ve examined so far are best when used meticulously on small portions of an image. By contrast, the Patch tool is the best way to clone large, relatively uniform areas. As with the other healing tools, the Patch tool not only performs a straight clone but attempts to blend in the edge of the selected area with the target environment.
To use the Patch tool, either make a selection with any of the selection tools, or simply select an area with the Patch tool’s built-in lasso. There are two modes to choose from for the behavior of the patch: “Source” and “Destination” (found in the menu bar above the document area).
Source Mode
With the source mode selected, first select the area of the image you want to replace, and then drag that selection to the area you want to source. For instance, to eliminate the golf ball in the image below, you would first select the area around the golf ball, and then drag that selection around to find the best source.In source mode, first select the area you want to replace.
As you drag the selection around to find a suitable source, watch the destination (i.e. your originally selected area) for a preview of what the source pixels will look like in that area. Keep in mind that this preview is a straight clone without any blending (the final image will look much better). Release the selection to see the actual result.
The Patch tool’s result.
As you can see, it does a pretty impressive job of blending the source and destination pixels all on its own. But going over areas that need improvement with the Healing Brush is good practice.
Destination Mode
With “Destination” mode selected, the area you select first will be the area that is replicated elsewhere. For instance, if we start with the same selection as before, dragging the selection this time gives us a preview of copying the ball to a new location.Patch tool destination mode.
After you release the selection, the golf ball is copied to a new area of the image and blended with the surrounding pixels.
Result of “Destination” mode.
The Clone Source Palette
The Clone Source palette (found under Window → Clone Source) is an invaluable resource for professional-quality cloning. This tool gives you much more control over the results and functionality of the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush.The Clone Source palette contains three primary sections: cloning source, offset adjustment and overlay options.
The Clone Source palette.
Cloning Sources
In the first section in the Clone Source palette, you can define multiple areas of an image as a source from which to clone and/or heal.Defining multiple sources.
The image above illustrates an example of when you might want to define multiple sources. To save a source, click on one of the five source buttons, and then Option + click (Alt + click) with either the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush. That location will now be saved to that button. Now, select the next button in line, and do the same in another part of the image. Once your sources are loaded, you can quickly shift between them simply by clicking the related button.
Notice that the file name appears just under the clone source buttons. This is because you can actually select a clone source outside of the image that you’re working on. Simply open a different file and set the clone source. Then, when you go back to the primary file to paint with the Clone Stamp or Healing Brush, the pixels from the other image will function as the source of the clone.
Offset Options
The second section of commands in the Clone Source palette really increase the variety of cloned results available to you. You can set exact coordinates for the source, change the size of the cloned result relative to the original source, tweak the rotation of the result and set a precise offset (again, relative to the original source).Tweaking the cloned results.
You can see these transformation effects in action in the example above. The two bails of hay are actually one and the same, but they look considerably different because of the offset options. First, I set both the width and height to 90%, so that the cloned bail would appear slightly smaller than the original. Then I changed the width to -90% to flip the clone horizontally (you could change the height to a negative number to flip the image vertically). Finally, I set the rotation to 10° to give the illusion of a small hill.
Overlay Options
The overlay options are among the most helpful features in the Clone Source palette. Years ago, cloning involved a lot of guess work because it was difficult to tell exactly what the selected sample would look like without actually applying it. The guesswork has been eliminated with the “Show Overlay” command. When “Show Overlay” is selected in conjunction with the “Clipped” option, your brush is shown with a preview of the clone source inside. This is extremely helpful when attempting to clone inorganic areas with straight edges, such as a brick wall.An overlay of the source is displayed within the brush.
Note that if you choose to turn on the overlay but turn off “Clipped,” then your entire clone source layer will be shown surrounding the brush.
An overlay of the source is displayed within the brush.
Working this way is actually quite difficult because the source significantly blocks your view of the destination. But if you prefer it, try reducing the opacity of the overlay so that you can see the image below.
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point takes cloning to an entirely new dimension, literally. The tool makes it possible to set up primitive planes across your artwork, which a clone then follows to simulate a three-dimensional space. Vanishing Point has a ton of features and potential applications, and it really merits its own entire article, so this will be just a brief introduction.When you open up the Vanishing Point dialog (found under the “Filter” menu item), you’ll see a large preview of your image, along with a small set of tools on the left side.
The Vanishing Point dialog.
Grab the tool sitting second from the top to set up your initial plane. With this tool, click once on each of the four corners, outlining the desired plane. Once you’ve created an initial plane, you can Command + click (Control + click on a PC) to extend the plane perpendicularly. Some images, though, like this old barn, won’t have perfect angles. In this case, you’ll have to create a second plane, entirely distinct from the original.
Setting up planes.
Once you’re satisfied with the planes, grab the Clone Stamp (fourth from the top), and Option + click the desired source (in our case, the barn door). Then clone the door onto the front-facing wall using the same method you would use with the normal Clone Stamp tool. Turn “Healing” on in the drop-down menu above the image preview to ensure that the source is properly blended into the destination.
Vanishing Point result.
As you can see, Photoshop interpreted the planes fairly well. Some fine-tuning and clean-up are definitely necessary if we want a believable image; but overall, the result is extremely impressive, given the lack of work required.
5 Quick Tips For Better Cloning
Now that we’ve examined each tool in depth, let’s close by recalling a few things to keep in mind if we want to clone with professional results.Take Your Time
As you undertake a cloning project, the quality of the result is directly proportional to the amount of time you put into it. Cloning photographic details can be incredibly tedious work. The world has become well acquainted with Photoshop magic, so never assume that no one will notice your blunders.Duplicate the Active Layer
The very first step to take when cloning parts of an image is to duplicate the layer you’ll be working on (or to just work on a new transparent layer). Realizing that you made a mistake so long ago that your “Undos” don’t go back far enough to fix it is beyond frustrating. Keeping the original image on a hidden layer gives you the flexibility to revert any part of an image to its original state.Be Selective With Your Tools
Each cloning tool has its strengths and weaknesses, as outlined above. Never arbitrarily grab a tool and stick with it for the duration of a project. Consider which tool is best suited to the particular area of the image you’re working on. On large projects, no single tool creates believable results on its own. Use two or more tools in synergy to achieve a realistic result.Watch for Obvious Duplication
Sloppy cloning results in noticeable patterns.
If you’re not careful, duplicated pixels can become painfully obvious. This is especially true of areas that should look fairly organic, like the grass above. Instead of appearing natural, an obvious pattern emerges when you use the same section of an image over and over. To avoid this, make heavy use of the Clone Source palette. Use multiple sources; and change the size, rotation and orientation of the areas you’re cloning to give the illusion of an unmanipulated image.
Avoid Disasters
When retouching significant parts of an image, overlooking certain areas becomes all too easy.Where did her leg go!?
If you’re not careful, you could eliminate enough vital body parts to make the image humorous. Your goal is to prevent your work from showing up on Photoshop Disasters, which is where you’ll find the image above.