Different Cloning Tools

[davidedric]

Hi folks,

Following on from another thread, I had reason to need to remove an object from an image, so I tried the three tools that I have available: Lightroom (spot removal), Perfect Enhance (magic eraser) and Photoshop CC content aware fill). The results are obviously dependent on my skills, but I thought you might be interested.

The Lightroom spot removal tool works very well at removing spots. Recently (LR 5?) it was enhanced to allow painting over an object, but I found it really struggled to get the texture of the water right. Of course, it is actually copying from another area of the image, which is rather different from the other two which are creating new pixels.

Perfect Enhance magic eraser sort of works, but I find it is rather unpredictable. SOmetimes it does a great job off the bat, other times it seems to only replace a part of the object. It's reasonable at the end, but it took maybe a dozen separate edits to get it looking reasonable.

CC content aware fill was the clear winner, and mostly did an excellent job. The only problem was that although the lasso tool clearly captured all the pixels, the fill did not reach the very bottom of the image and I had to resort to a slight crop. I've no idea why - maybe someone can help?


These are the images, starting with the original:





Then Lightroom:





Then Perfect Enhance:





and finally Photoshop CC

[IzzieK]

Please read my response to your other post...now that I had seen this, it became a useless exercise for me to do since you already know how to do it anyway...sorry.

[chauncey]

Dave, let me preface this by saying that I'm an avid PS user and that I use LR for only basic settings
that I want to sync with a series of images and, that I use PS all the time.

Your test image doesn't really surprise me but, "content aware fill" works reasonably well some times.
There are other times that it's a complete bust and must be repeated...it doesn't cough out the same
results every time. More often than not, there are other techniques that, for me, work better.

[Shadowman]

The LR spot removal tool has the capability (based on literature) to remove more than just a spot, performance was shown to be similar to Photoshop's spot removal tool; but I've yet to master it. After you've painted over the area to be removed; you select another area with similar color to replace what has been removed.

In your edits, Photoshop appears to be the most effective.

[Manfred M]

David - another tool worth trying is the Photoshop Content Aware Patch tool. I will often give both a try. I find that I will sometimes have to repeat using the tool a couple or three times and the result gets better with each attempt. Both tools will often get "fooled" if there is some continuity in the part you are trying to remove and so I will go in and manufacture a break with the clone stamp tool and then use the content aware tools.

The healing brush and spot healing brush, I tend to use for very small areas only.

[ionian]

In my limited experience, I find the PS content aware fill tool works best when dealing with rectangle selections - although I've had usable results with the lasso selection, it feels like it can mesh better with straight lines. If I have a fair area to edit, I break it into sections and make smaller overlapping rectangles until I've covered the whole thing. I only worry about the outside edges on this, as I can always go over the insides again with another rectangle.

With simpler areas - plain sky, blocks of colour - it does fine with a single selection.

I like the LR spot removal for small consistent areas, in particular for faces (blemishes and eye bags etc). I find it works ok if there isn't too much texture but I keep the areas as small as possible and prefer to use multiple spots rather than dragging a large area.

[chauncey]

Can't argue with any of the above.

[Geoff F]

I got Lightroom with the CC package but to be honest I can't see any reason for ever using it.

With an image like this I would simply use the basic Clone Tool somewhere around 90% opacity and clone in from each side meeting in the middle. If this produces any harshness I would then go over the area again with a Healing Tool possibly building up from reduced opacity if necessary.

The clone tool can be worked half in and half out of the image edge so you don't get any of the mixing problems which come from some of the more complicated auto mixing options.

The majority of my images have much more complicated cloning work than this example.

Incidentally, when cloning very close to an edge which must remain unaffected and not allowed to influence the clone at all I draw a lasso selection carefully around the problem area with about 1 pixel feather. I can then clone easily from within the selection area using the clone tool but a healing brush etc will still attempt to add matter from outside the selection into the final mix with unwanted results.

[Mike Buckley]

I used Lightroom's Clone tool. Keep in mind that I wasn't able to use the file because my cataloging software that I use as my photography home base isn't configured to recognize .php files. So, I used only a screenshot.

I cloned to eliminate the greenery in three portions from left to right. I then cleaned up the edges of those clones using another three or four cloning steps. I spent no more than five seconds on each cloning step, taking a total of about 30 seconds. If I had spent another 30 seconds or so, I could have refined it more.

[benm]

Dave, I tried your photo with Pixelmator. It was one click with the repair tool and it looks perfect. Nice photo. Reine?

[Geoff F]

The thing to remember with this sort of problem is that a Clone Tool directly transfers new data from elsewhere in an image and lays in down over the problem, totally obscuring it; subject to opacity settings.

That usually works well but sometimes harsh edges can need extra tweaking.

Most of the other auto fixes including Healing Tools create a mix of new and old material so the old unwanted area is influencing the correcting mix which can produce unwanted effects.

[chauncey]

Another thing to remember is that there are a whole host of PS auto tools that rarely cough out
exactly the same results twice in a row. Repeating a process will, more often than not, give slightly
different results, witness merging, stacking, CA, and others.

[dennybeall]

I've been experimenting with doing a selection (polygon tool) first of the area to be changed and then using either clone or healing tools, usually the patch tool. Seems to be working better than not having a selection. Works best for getting straight edges when cloning or painting.