Memos From The Digital Darkroom

Introduced with Photoshop CS3 is a nifty feature called the Clone Source panel that provides lots of control over the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools. This panel has many interesting features, but the one that’s been getting the most attention lately (at least from my clients) is the Clone Source Preview. That’s because of a couple of changes that were made to its functionality in Photoshop CS4.

The first change is that there’s a new option (circled above) that allows the preview to be clipped to the size of the brush tool that’s in use. In Photoshop CS3 the preview was the same size as the document, which made it difficult to use at times. Now the preview size coincides with the brush size and hardness settings.

In the Clone Stamp example below, the preview on the left  allows me to attempt to line-up the details before I begin painting. This feature is especially useful the using the rotate and scale features of the Clone Source panel. It allows you to place cloned material in an exact position. It even works when you sample one image and paint on a second image.

The other new thing about this preview is that it’s now turned on by default, which can be disorienting to some longtime Photoshop users who don’t like seeing it. If you’re one of those users, simply open the Clone Source panel (Window > Clone Source) and deselect Show Overlay. Then you’ll never see it again. However, remember to turn this nifty little feature back on when you’re working on a cloning project where details need to be lined up in exact position.