Clone from one pictiure to another

PhotoShop Elements 6

Say I have 2 pictures of 2 people. In one picture, person A has their eyes open. In picture 2, person B has their eyes open.

What I would like to be able to do (and could do in PhotoImpact) is use the clone stamp to copy the the eyes of person A from picture 1 to picture 2, resulting in a combined photo with both person's eyes open.

I know how to clone from one part of a photo to another spot in the same photo, but how can I clone from one picture to another?

Thanks for any help.

Bruce.

Clone is the wrong tool for this.

Instead, you should make a selection of the area that you want to copy (with a few pixels of feathering) and then copy and paste this selected area to the other photograph. The eyes will then be on a new layer on top of the photo so that you can use the move tool to position them, then transform or free transform to resize or skew them, etc. Then make whatever slight changes in color, etc. that may be necessary to make them match the photo underneath. By having the eyes on a new layer you can make any adjustments that may be necessary without it affecting the photo underneath. If you mess up you can even trash the layer and start over again. When you get it right you can flatten it, merging the layer into the photo or just save it with the added layer, just in case you may want to go back and make more changes.

Charley

"Bruce." wrote in message

PhotoShop Elements 6

Say I have 2 pictures of 2 people. In one picture, person A has their

eyes

open. In picture 2, person B has their eyes open.

What I would like to be able to do (and could do in PhotoImpact) is use

the

clone stamp to copy the the eyes of person A from picture 1 to picture 2, resulting in a combined photo with both person's eyes open.
I know how to clone from one part of a photo to another spot in the same photo, but how can I clone from one picture to another?

Thanks for any help.

Bruce.

"Charley" wrote in message

Clone is the wrong tool for this.

Instead, you should make a selection of the area that you want to copy (with
a few pixels of feathering) and then copy and paste this selected area to the other photograph. The eyes will then be on a new layer on top of the photo so that you can use the move tool to position them, then transform or
free transform to resize or skew them, etc. Then make whatever slight changes in color, etc. that may be necessary to make them match the photo underneath. By having the eyes on a new layer you can make any adjustments that may be necessary without it affecting the photo underneath. If you mess
up you can even trash the layer and start over again. When you get it right
you can flatten it, merging the layer into the photo or just save it with the added layer, just in case you may want to go back and make more changes.

Thank you very much for explaining the best way to do this. Your way sounds much more flexible and adjustable that a straight cloning would me.

I haven't done much with layers but this is a good reason to start. Thanks!

Bruce.

"Bruce." wrote in message

"Charley" wrote in message

Clone is the wrong tool for this.

Instead, you should make a selection of the area that you want to copy (with
a few pixels of feathering) and then copy and paste this selected area

to

the other photograph. The eyes will then be on a new layer on top of the photo so that you can use the move tool to position them, then transform or
free transform to resize or skew them, etc. Then make whatever slight changes in color, etc. that may be necessary to make them match the

photo

underneath. By having the eyes on a new layer you can make any

adjustments

that may be necessary without it affecting the photo underneath. If you mess
up you can even trash the layer and start over again. When you get it right
you can flatten it, merging the layer into the photo or just save it

with

the added layer, just in case you may want to go back and make more changes.

Thank you very much for explaining the best way to do this. Your way

sounds

much more flexible and adjustable that a straight cloning would me.
I haven't done much with layers but this is a good reason to start.

Thanks!

Bruce.

Bruce,

Think of a layer as a sheet of clear plastic that you lay over your photo. You can then add pieces of other photos, or adjustments on top of your photo and nothing that you do on the layer will permanently affect the photo that's underneath. This lets you do all kinds of experiments, etc. without having to start over, because you can put each experiment on it's own layer, then turn on or off whatever layers that you want, then print the result. You can even go pack and make later changes to a layer after you have added more layers on top of it. Whatever layers that you leave turned on is what prints. If you use the "flatten" command it will squish all of the layers (that are turned on) down into a single layer and reduce the digital size of the photo. The only problem with this is that you cannot make any further changes to your layers, since the information is now no longer separated from the photo. So, when you flatten, save it as a new file and keep a copy of your layered version for possible future changes. Some of the photos that I have worked on have had in excess of 100 layers before completion. This can become a bit of an organizational problem, but with practice it becomes relatively easy to handle. I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years now for commercial photo retouching and composites. It just takes practice. Take the time to learn from tutorials and practice, practice, practice, and you will become very capable of doing this in a very short time.

Charley

"Charley" wrote in message

Bruce,

Think of a layer as a sheet of clear plastic that you lay over your photo. You can then add pieces of other photos, or adjustments on top of your photo
and nothing that you do on the layer will permanently affect the photo that's underneath. This lets you do all kinds of experiments, etc. without having to start over, because you can put each experiment on it's own layer,
then turn on or off whatever layers that you want, then print the result. You can even go pack and make later changes to a layer after you have added
more layers on top of it. Whatever layers that you leave turned on is what prints. If you use the "flatten" command it will squish all of the layers (that are turned on) down into a single layer and reduce the digital size of
the photo. The only problem with this is that you cannot make any further changes to your layers, since the information is now no longer separated from the photo. So, when you flatten, save it as a new file and keep a copy
of your layered version for possible future changes. Some of the photos that
I have worked on have had in excess of 100 layers before completion. This can become a bit of an organizational problem, but with practice it becomes
relatively easy to handle. I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years now
for commercial photo retouching and composites. It just takes practice. Take
the time to learn from tutorials and practice, practice, practice, and you will become very capable of doing this in a very short time.

That's a great explanation Charley. I've started playing with layers, and have been able to copy a face from one photo to another as a layer, making lighting and sizing changes needed. It's pretty cool.

I also bought PhotoShop Elements 6 for Dummies and plan to read the chapter on layers first. All in all I'm really impressed with PSE 6. The last time I looked was PSE 2 and it just wasn't powerful enough at the time. PSE 6 seems much closer to what I need in an editor.

One question. When I select and copy the face from the first photo, I know I can apply feathering at that time. However, once I paste it in to a new photo (as a layer) can I further refine the featuring at that time or am I stuck with the feathering I did when I made the selection copy?

Bruce.

"Bruce." wrote in message

"Charley" wrote in message

Bruce,

Think of a layer as a sheet of clear plastic that you lay over your

photo.

You can then add pieces of other photos, or adjustments on top of your photo
and nothing that you do on the layer will permanently affect the photo that's underneath. This lets you do all kinds of experiments, etc.

without

having to start over, because you can put each experiment on it's own layer,
then turn on or off whatever layers that you want, then print the

result.

You can even go pack and make later changes to a layer after you have added
more layers on top of it. Whatever layers that you leave turned on is

what

prints. If you use the "flatten" command it will squish all of the

layers

(that are turned on) down into a single layer and reduce the digital

size

of
the photo. The only problem with this is that you cannot make any

further

changes to your layers, since the information is now no longer separated from the photo. So, when you flatten, save it as a new file and keep a copy
of your layered version for possible future changes. Some of the photos that
I have worked on have had in excess of 100 layers before completion.

This

can become a bit of an organizational problem, but with practice it becomes
relatively easy to handle. I've been using Photoshop for about 15 years now
for commercial photo retouching and composites. It just takes practice. Take
the time to learn from tutorials and practice, practice, practice, and

you

will become very capable of doing this in a very short time.

That's a great explanation Charley. I've started playing with layers, and have been able to copy a face from one photo to another as a layer, making lighting and sizing changes needed. It's pretty cool.

I also bought PhotoShop Elements 6 for Dummies and plan to read the

chapter

on layers first. All in all I'm really impressed with PSE 6. The last

time

I looked was PSE 2 and it just wasn't powerful enough at the time. PSE 6 seems much closer to what I need in an editor.

One question. When I select and copy the face from the first photo, I

know

I can apply feathering at that time. However, once I paste it in to a new photo (as a layer) can I further refine the featuring at that time or am I stuck with the feathering I did when I made the selection copy?
Bruce.

The best way is to trash the layer, change the feathering setting and try again. Everything else takes longer. A soft edge eraser can be used for minor problems but it's not easy to do the whole edge, much faster to do over.

Charley

"Charley" wrote in message

One question. When I select and copy the face from the first photo, I know

I can apply feathering at that time. However, once I paste it in to a new
photo (as a layer) can I further refine the featuring at that time or am I
stuck with the feathering I did when I made the selection copy?
Bruce.

The best way is to trash the layer, change the feathering setting and try again. Everything else takes longer. A soft edge eraser can be used for minor problems but it's not easy to do the whole edge, much faster to do over.

Charley

Ok, thanks much for the advice. I'm sure after a while I'll get a better feel for how much feathering to do as I select items.

Thanks Charley.

Bruce.