How to clone in PS in other blend modes than Normal?

[milosh]

Hello people,

can someone please tell me what's the trick to successfully use the Clone Stamp tool in PS if your layer is in a blend mode other than the Normal blend mode. I have a layer in Linear Burn blend mode and when I try to use the tool on it almost nothing happens. Or other way around, if I do clone it in Normal blend mode and then change it to Linear Burn the cloning effect just disappears. Thanks!

[DanielLane]

Do your cloning on a new layer. Make sure you have it set to "All Layers" and not current layer. Set the blend mode (ie Linear Burn) not on the clone tool, but rather on the layer it's self using the drop down on the layers panel. This is the best way I know how to do it with keeping maximum edit-ability.

If you want to set the mode with the tool it's self, you have to do the cloning on the same layer for it to show up. Do either one or the other, both won't matter.

Remember to check the opacity level for the layer, as well as the opacity and flow levels for the tool too.

If these don't work, You should check for updates and restart the application because it sounds like a glitch in the matrix otherwise.

[milosh]

Originally Posted by DanielLane

Do your cloning on a new layer. Make sure you have it set to "All Layers" and not current layer. Set the blend mode (ie Linear Burn) not on the clone tool, but rather on the layer it's self using the drop down on the layers panel. This is the best way I know how to do it with keeping maximum edit-ability.

If you want to set the mode with the tool it's self, you have to do the cloning on the same layer for it to show up. Do either one or the other, both won't matter.

Remember to check the opacity level for the layer, as well as the opacity and flow levels for the tool too.

If these don't work, You should check for updates and restart the application because it sounds like a glitch in the matrix otherwise.

OK, thanks for the help, I think I'm doing what you suggested, bare with me here.
Here's what's happening;

I have only one layer (background layer). I make a copy of background layer. I want this copy layer to be in Linear Dodge bm (it's not linear burn, sorry) and I want to do the cloning on this copy layer:

1. I set the layer to Linear Dodge bm, take a Clone Stamp tool, set the tool to Normal bm, Sample all layers, set the opacity and flow to 100%. The result: cloned areas are brighter than the surrounding (sampled) areas.

2. I set the copied layer to Normal bm, set the tool to Linear Dodge bm, same thing happens, the cloned areas are brighter than the sampled ones.

3. I set both the copied layer and the tool to Normal bm, I do the cloning and then change the layer's bm to Linear Dodge, the result: cloned areas almost vanish, it's like their opacity goes down to 5%.

4. I set both the tool and the layer to Linear Dodge bm, the results are same.

The results were the same in cases 2 and 4 even when I tried changing the Sample all layers to Sample current layer.

I just want to do the cloning and leave the layer in Linear Dodge bm for further use. I tried restarting PS and my pc, it's the same.

Thanks

[ArmySoldier777]

Milosh,

I opened photoshop to try to recreate what you're talking about. If I'm understanding this correctly, you're trying to clone on a layer set to Linear Dodge. When doing this, the clone tool isn't going to work correctly because this layer is transparent. I know it's set to 100%, but it's still not a full image by itself. It's meant to be used to apply an overlaying effect, but you're still seeing through it to the layer underneath. Therefore, all the clone tool is going to do, is lighten the area you're trying to clone.

The only way to use the clone tool in this instance, would be to make all changes to the underlying layer "the main image," as well as the Linear Dodge layer. I left the Linear Dodge layer visible while selecting the background layer for editing. When applying the clone tool, you'll notice that you'll see the effects taking place through the Linear Dodge layer, that's because of what I described earlier about that layer being inherently transparent. Then you'll also need to apply those same cloning techniques to the Linear Dodge layer itself, which will effectively clone the image areas needed.

I did notice what you said about the Clone tool just lightening the area your cloning when setting it to All Layers. I don't know why, but it has to be set to Current Layer, and it has to be done to each layer individually. I don't know why this is, maybe somebody else will.


I hope I was able to explain this well enough for you. And I hope that I understood the problem well enough to accurately give you a reason why it's not working.
David


Edit: I attached an image to show the differences I was discussing.

[DanielLane]

Are you trying to remove something and lighten at the same time? If so, you can't with out applying to both layers. What I was saying before was to have a second layer that is a blank layer to do the cloning on while sampling all layers. Since you are trying to dodge or burn, the clone tool does not work exactly the same. Any mode out side of Normal is not going to work the same. They are key modes so they are a type of mixing of the layers. So when you are trying to clone an area in linear dodge or burn, you are adding to the other area and brightening or darkening at the same time. You will never fully cover up the area.

If you want to remove something, use the clone tool on normal first and remove the object, then use the dodge tool to lighten later.

1. Have your image on layer 1.
2. Create a new blank layer, set mode on all layers to normal.
3. Use the clone tool to remove area.
4. Then either Shift+Option+Command+E (on mac) or shift+option+control+E (PC) to create a new layer combining both the base layer and the new layer. (You need to have the top layer highlighted only to make this work)
5. Use the dodge tool to lighten where you want. (You could lighten on the layer where you did the cloning, but that can be a bit difficult to get everything to blend how you want it to.)

In this image, I have cloned out the statues eye, combined the layers then did a line of dodging across the area of the composited layer. This way, you can always go back and mess with your cloning if you need to touch it up.

[milosh]

Thank you both,

David, I see what you mean about the properties of a Linear Dodge layer, I wasn't aware of this. I guess we could say that it acts more as a transparent adjustment layer, right?
I understand your method, but I wanted to preserve the background layer in its original state and avoid making too many duplicate layers since my file is already too big.

Daniel, I have a background image from which I want to remove a small area and later, I want to apply the Linear Dodge bm to the whole layer and mask its effect. I don't want to use the Dodge tool since the area is too big and I already created a perfect mask. The method you presented with cloning on an empty layer and doing Stamp All after that makes perfect sense. I tried it and it does work. I first tried it and deleted the blank layer after doing the Stamp all, but it didn't work. This time, I've kept the blank layer beneath it and it works.

The lesson learned: a Linear Dodge layer is (so to say) a transparent layer (although it was created from an image layer). The point is to have a layer underneath it which will provide the image data when the Linear Dodge layer turns "transparent".

This was a bit tricky discussion, trying to understand each other correctly. Again, thank you both, you've really helped me!