For the Cloning Gurus - DPChallenge Forums

06/26/2005 12:57:32 PM · #1

I need some help from "cloners". I have a picture of a red bird which I like very much. Unfortunately, there are iron bars in the background. Due to the bokeh, I cannot clone the bars away with satisfying results.
Can anybody help me with this? Maybe there's another possibility than cloning? Thanks a lot.

06/26/2005 01:11:19 PM · #2

Quick try at it:

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

06/26/2005 01:14:54 PM · #3

Looks better than what I got. What brush settings did you use? Big/small, hard/soft,...?

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

06/26/2005 01:18:29 PM · #4

My quick edit of your "redbird," this could be done more carefully...

Steps:
1. Create a layer to work on (ditchable if all fails).
2. Set clone stamp to 28 pixels (or a little smaller than a bokeh circle)
3. Set to Lighten at 34%
(Here's the hard part.)
4. Chose green areas to work from and cover the dark offending lines a little at a time.
5. Set the clone to Darken and take down a lot of the white bokeh, especially behind the beak.

Comment: When you work this way you are using parts of your image as a palette to "paint" from. The action on the clone stamp is cumulative. If I were working very carfully on a copy of an original, I might set the % to about 12 so I can build the effect I want. Nice thing is that in darken I didn't have to worry much about crossing over the beak as it was darker than my "paint."

6. Sharpened at 95% .9 radius 0 threshold

06/26/2005 01:19:33 PM · #5

First thig I did was to create 2 layers... one with the bird and one of the background. I used the magnetic lasso for this. Then I added blur to the background to blend it a bit. And used a combination of the stamp and healing brush to wipe away the bars. Just played around until they seemed to match the background. Usually I stamp first and then use the healing brush to blend it in. Healing brush size 22 and stamp tool 16 set at 100%. Then I added a bit of USM to get rid of the softness on the bird.

Also adjusted the color balance a bit on the background to add more green.

Hope that helps.

Now that I look at it more, there are a few places I missed, but you get the gist of it! ;)

Message edited by author 2005-06-26 13:21:15.

06/26/2005 01:23:27 PM · #6

Message edited by author 2005-06-26 13:24:21.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM

06/26/2005 01:26:44 PM · #7

Originally posted by gloda:

.... Big/small, hard/soft,...?

Now you're just getting naughty! :)

rox_rox

Canon EOS-20D

06/26/2005 01:54:43 PM · #8

Just a hasty edit. I lassoed the background and played with airbrush, clone, dodge, burn, blur and smudge. You could probably paint a really nice background if you took a little more time than I did on this.

06/26/2005 02:02:39 PM · #9

Thanks for all the tips so far. I'm simulating bokeh with KaDi's method, then I smudge and push it a bit to get rid of obviously edited areas. It just takes some time. I'll post the results when I'm done (tomorrow, since I'll stop for now).

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/26/2005 02:06:07 PM · #10

D'oh! Just saved my working file as JPEG. Bye, bye layers.

jemison

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

06/26/2005 02:42:53 PM · #11

Here's my stab at it...I used Corel Painter8 for the cloning - using the soft and hard cloner brushes. Pretty similar to the others, though I did remove what looked like a bar from the lower leg as well.

Tamron AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical for Nikon

07/08/2005 11:25:18 AM · #12

A bit late, but here's what I got: Red Bird.
What do you think? Of course, I edited the images for contrast & saturation etc.

Now, could anybody give me a bird ID for this red fellow?

vtruan

Nikon D5100

07/08/2005 11:29:19 AM · #13

Scarlet Ibis

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

07/08/2005 12:58:11 PM · #14

And yet another version:

Bars? What bars?

Message edited by author 2005-07-08 13:00:35.