I have seen countless family portraits that really need attention. Hair out of place, kids have lint on their clothes from the family dog, speckles in the background because of a dirty image sensor in the family camera and so on... all of this points to this lesson on how to touch up images that, well, frankly need touching up.
This is the first of two lessons on the Rubber Stamp tool. Yes, two lessons, because one is not enough! The Rubber Stamp tool will become an invaluable tool for you since it aids in things that need to be corrected. It is also a tool that can be over-used or easily used incorrectly so make sure you use it responsibly.
Adobe® Photoshop Class #18 Using the Rubber Stamp Tool, Part 1
Have you ever cropped a picture and found that it needs some touch up around the edge? Or have you ever taken a really nice family portrait but Uncle Harvey has those terrible moles on his forehead that really get in the way of a nice picture? Well this lesson deals with touch up and relates to those issues and more. Make sure you read the entire article thoroughly since there is a surprise at the end... read on!
Starting with this image of our barn this past winter, I found that there were a few things that needed to be touched up as well as the need for fixing one edge after a crop of the photo. And since this might be used in the future as a Christmas card image or even something hanging in the gallery, I wanted to do a good job on it. Most of the images there do not require this treatment, but this one demanded modification, though I won't change this image until the next lesson.
The first thing I noticed was that the wreath and windows were off center. In some cases, this would be ok since you don't want everything to be completely balanced. But this image looks like it would be better if it were balanced proportionally. The vertical boards were suffering from a lack of being unparallel. Some of these attributes are adjustable by the Rubber Stamp tool and others require more aggressive actions which will be covered in other lessons.
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As you can see, the original image has parts that are barely recognizable.
With the use of the Rubber Stamp tool, the image has been restored to almost original
quality and the scene now looks like it once did many years ago.
Let's go over how to use of the tool, the adjustable properties, and the affect these adjustments have on your resulting work.
Select the Rubber Stamp tool (shortcut: 's' key) and notice that the toolbar changes as well. You will also notice that these adjustable items are very similar to the Brush tool prosperities. Actually, a lot of what you do with the Rubber Stamp tool is copying similar pixels near the area that needs editing and the tool's properties are much like that of the Brush tool.
Left to right, the most used I find is the Diameter of the stamp. This refers to the area being sampled to copy to the edit area. The Mode drop-down refers to the way the sample area is applied to the edit area. Normal is the default selection, but other offerings are seen at left to affect a particular outcome of the stamp information... again Normal is default because it just copies the sampled area exactly.
Next, the Opacity is used to change how fast you are able to copy the pixel samples to the desired location. For instance, if you are selecting an area close to the edge of the image to add "squareness" to a slightly rotated picture, the Opacity might be used at 100% so that you finish your work quickly and move on to other adjustments. But if you are trying to copy an area to blend in gently, especially in the sky or clouds of a landscape, the Opacity might be used at a much lower percentage to make your work look more realistic. This particular attribute, used carefully, can make the difference between an amateur attempt of editing and a professional touch up of a cherished family image.
Below left and right, are the before and after edits of an old picture which was very tattered. After scanning the image, many hours of Rubber Stamp and careful use of the Brush tool helped to restore the image close to original. The Rubber Stamp tool was used extensively here.
Continue with us in the next installment of the Rubber Stamp tool in Lesson #19...
