An Old English Cottage

[JohnC]

Infact it's very old dating back to the 17/18th. Century and it's a Grade 11 (2) Listed building.We have a system here that grades buildings like this cottage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listed_building

It's in a small village called Wherwell near Andover ,Hampshire(Hants) -about 70 miles NW of London and there are several thatched cottages and buildings like this one in the village. I'll go back on a decent day-it was clouded over and grey and the light wasn't too good. The lady who lives there is a professional artist and she told me that she'd had her eye on this cottage for a long time and when it came onto the market she and her husband bought it.

I didn't like the road markings, (attracted the eye too much) the road signs, ( the Give Way sign at the far end on the bend,an ugly distraction as are the direction signs beyond it) nor did I like the cables that ran over the full length of the cottage so I cloned them all out but I've lost the texture on the road surface and don't know how to 'put it back' in Photoshop. I only have CS2 and rely on Lightroom 3 for editing but it doesn't allow me to deal with textural problems. I don't know if the road markings are acceptable or not so I've put in the photo with and without and would welcome any comments,especially re. the road surface cloning.

As it is ie...no cloning.Note the road sign at the far end.




With the cables taken out.



With all the above cloned out.



Here's the same problem (for me) re. the road markings but this time right in the viewers face. I took the cables out too. Once again,with and without.








and this one to show the location in it's entirety by the river Test. Infact I cropped out a large road sign that is just to the left end of the cottage-I couldn't clone it out properly,losing the texture (again) of the thatched roof

[dje]

Nice images John. What a lovely cottage. Neat bit of editing too (to my untrained eye at least).

I think removal of the road markings is well worthwhile and even though it might not be perfect, I doubt that anyone would notice anything if they only saw the final image.

Cheers Dave

[arith]

I think you are about right. That artist must have a few bob.

Difficult job and sadly cloning needed almost everywhere I've been in our road dominated culture.

Don't know what you mean about texture though, it looks alright to me.

[Geoff F]

John, I don't think your problem is so much the road texture; more a case of I can see the edge lines of your clone. I would try 'feathering' the clone edges by using around 50% opacity (or a little less) to break up the harsh transition.

Or, if you have it, try a Healing Brush.

[JohnC]

Many thanks- it really is old England as visitors from abroad would like to see it.

Steve..If you look very closely at the road surface where the lines were, especially the give-way at the junction but also the centre line running past the cottage too, you'll see a 'smoothness' where I've cloned compared to the almost mottled surface away from that area and that's what I described as the 'texture' of the road surface-maybe that wasn't the right word but the best I could think of to describe what I meant. If you look again,knowing this now, maybe you'll see what I was getting at.

Well Geoff, as Steve says - 'to the untrained eye' and Steve didn't notice but I too was aware of where I'd cloned on the lines and could see what you saw. As Dave says though, most people wouldn't notice but I'm not really happy with that and we both saw what I'm sure some others would see ,especially in this forum hence the request re. cloning methods. You spotted that jet aircraft in Mr. B's (Philip's) photo 'Houses' but I hadn't, so the feedback and cc on this forum is invaluable and it's very heartening to feel comfortable posting a photo and being open about it's shortcomings . I'll try again with 40% opacity. I did use 50% and 40% Flow (I better read up on exactly what flow is) but I think opacity is the 'depth' if that's the right word of the application. With 50% opacity it seemed to be taking forever so I went to 70%. I'll also try the Healing Brush ..many thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

[Wirefox]

John, it is sometimes worth trying the sponge brush for cloning especially with large areas. Try 50% opacity and 50% rate as a starting point but like you say above you can usually get away with up to 70% before hard edges become an issue.