Using the Clone Stamp Tool in GIMP – You Won’t Believe How Easy It Is!
I think I might have picture ADD.
I get distracted really easily when I look at photos. All kinds of things can distract me, like dust spots, unidentifiable blurs, strange out of place highlights or shadows, and text that you can’t really read (like a sign in the distance). They divert my attention from the subject of the photo, and slowly drive me insane.
So, anytime I have a distraction like that in my pictures, I turn to the Clone Stamp Tool in GIMP.
The Clone Stamp Tool lets you copy one part of your picture and paste it over any distracting elements to make it look like those distractions were never there.
I used the Clone Stamp Tool in the Point and Shoot Challenge to hide the wire my pendant was hanging from, but you might use it to remove blemishes, stamp out dirt spots on a white background, or remove sensor spots (round spots that come from a dirty camera sensor).
If you’re new to GIMP, you might want to watch this video to adjust your GIMP windows so they look more like mine do in my tutorials, before you watch the Cloning video. It will make GIMP easier to use, and it will be easier to follow along with my tutorials.
Click the Play Arrow when you’re ready to watch the Clone Stamp Tool video.
Here’s a quick rundown of the steps I use to Clone in the Video:
- Grab the Clone Stamp Tool in the Toolbox. It looks like a rubber stamp.
- Set the tool options like this: Use a soft edged round brush, and adjust the size of the brush to fully cover the blemish. Then set the Source option to Image, and the Alignment option to Aligned.
- Use Ctrl + Click to set the Source (that’s what you’re copying), then click over the blemish or distraction to clone (that’s where you’re pasting).
- Re-set the source and adjust the size of the brush as necessary. Continue cloning until the distraction is gone.
This is just one of a series of videos I’ve been making about taking and editing better point and shoot pictures. The challenge is to make a picture that looks like it came from a DSLR camera, even though it really camera from a four year old point and shoot camera.
The Point and Shoot Challenge so far:
- Video One: How to Set Up the Shot … Thinking about light, the background, and camera settings.
- Video Two: Setting up GIMP for Easy Use … I set up GIMP a little differently. Arranging your windows like mine will make it easier you follow my tutorials, and easier to use GIMP in general. I give you a little intro to GIMP in this tutorial too.
- Video Three: Brightness and Contrast in GIMP … make your photo brighter, without making it too bright.
- Video Four: Faking a Shallow Depth of Field Blurred Background in GIMP… fake the look of a shallow depth of field (one of the signatures of the fancy DSLR look) It can be hard to get a truly shallow depth of field with a point and shoot camera, so I show you how to fake it in GIMP.
That’s it for using the clone tool in GIMP. Make sure you don’t miss a thing by subscribing to PareAndFocus.com (use the subscription buttons at the to of the page).
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