Clone stamp not working.

[mugge]

My clone stamp in Photoshop cc 2018 is not functioning at all. I use Win 10.

I have not done anything out of the ordinary with my computer.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

[rpcrowe]

Sometimes when I have my image in layers that I have not flattened, the clone stamp reuses to work

[Shadowman]

What's your opacity setting? Increase if at zero.

[pnodrog]

Now and again I have to kick myself for forgetting that I have a selection active and I am trying to clone outside the selected area. The other trick I have played on myself just to make life interesting is to be cloning with the layer mask selected not the layer.

That's enough confessions for one day so good luck.

[Manfred M]

My most frequent mistake is forgetting to check either Sample "All Layers" or "Current & Below".

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ole,

I have done most of the above at one time or another

You could try this;
in your image document, assuming it has built up multiple layers of varying types,

Stamp visible Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt+E
(this creates a new layer with all that you've done below)
Add a new blank layer
Select Clone stamp tool
(ensure 'Current & Below' is checked)
Alt click to select sample donor point
Start cloning
(this will be added to the blank layer above your previous work, so is non-destructive)
(the Stamp Visible step isn't always necessary, but if you do have masked layers below, it helps ensure that all previous work is sampled)

That was from memory alone, so I may have erred, also, if you use a tablet, your methods may alter slightly.
Also, I'm still learning, so this may not be best practice, but it's what I'm finding works best for me 'now'.

Cheers,
Dave

[mugge]

Thank you for your advice. I followed Dave's solution Ctrl+shift+alt+e. It worked perfectly after that.

I have put the 'formula' into my memory bank for future reference.

Cheers Ole

[Manfred M]

Stamp visible Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt+E
(this creates a new layer with all that you've done below)
Add a new blank layer
Select Clone stamp tool
(ensure 'Current & Below' is checked)
Alt click to select sample donor point
Start cloning

Dave - I agree with all the steps except the first one (Stamp Visible), which is unnecessarily. The all layers, including the masked layers below where the new layer has been placed, are properly included in the cloning operation.

[Dave Humphries]

Dave - I agree with all the steps except the first one (Stamp Visible), which is unnecessary.

I think it depends how we each work in PS, clearly for the way I and Ole work, which may be sub-optimal, sometimes it is necessary.
I suspect it depends what 'type' the top layer is, assuming that is the one selected when the new layer is created.

In the past I have got myself in to a pickle (or two); e.g. attempting to clone from an adjustment layer, or similar school boy error, which I'm far too old for!



Stamp Visible is a solution that works, it gets us (the inexperienced) to a known working point to clone from, even if it is overkill/unnecessary some/most of the time.

Clearly you could Flatten Layers, but that gives you no way back to revisit any Smart Objects, etc. after you've saved the PSD. With Stamp Visible, it creates a new layer which is the Flattened version of all layers below, but crucially leaves them there, at the cost of a bigger PSD file admittedly, but mine aren't huge anyway, as I'm just a simple fella.

If you can figure out what we're doing wrong, so we don't need to do it, all well and good, I'd be glad to learn.

[pnodrog]

For learning purposes, it would have been good to figure out what Ole was getting caught out by. I guess we will never know.

[Manfred M]

Dave - the simplest solution is to do the major fixes (i.e. the ones that require cloning) fairly early in the workflow. Putting the empty layer just above the main image and doing the repairs there is probably the best place to do it. Doing all of the adjustment layers with layer masks above those layers so that the effects are applied universally is a pretty standard non-destructive workflow.

The moment one uses the "Stamp Visible" command, one has left the "classic" definition of non-destructive workflow. The only time I use this tool will be for adjustments that I throw away in the end, i.e. output sharpening; which is going to be different for every single different final output, so is a step that I generally won't save with my edits.

[DanK]

My photoshop editing skills are not advanced by any means, but the only time I generally use Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt+E is to create a final flattened layer that I can use for sharpening adjustments. I often create more than two, each allocated to a specific sharpening method, and then throw out the one I don't want to avoid making the file even larger. (This is off topic, but this is most often to compare smart sharpening to a high-pass filter.)

[Dave Humphries]

Further to Manfred and Dan's posts, those are occasions when I also use it, I was writing from memory and may have confused myself.

That said I do save the psd with a Stamp Visible Layer, but I'd suggest that since I retain all the layers below, I haven't precluded the ability to re-open the file later and either turn off or delete the Stamp Visible layer, then continue a non-destructive editing, should the need/desire arise.

You're right; I usually do the cloning as one of the earlier steps, and add Stamp Visible later for sharpening, when I usually produce a downsized, web sharpened version to save as jpg only, then go back in history and produce a print sharpened version, so I may have been confusing this with Ole's original problem (although I'm sure I've been there too). I am learning how to use actions to do some of these steps quickly/repeatably, since I usually batch process a dozen or so shots from a 'studio' session.

Thanks,
Dave