The Photoshop Tip of the Week for the Clients and Friends of Ben Willmore (www.digitalmastery.com):

This week, let’s explore a tool that is indispensable to a retouching artist—the Rubber Stamp tool.

In case the Rubber Stamp tool is a stranger to you, let’s start with a few basics. This tool does one thing—it copies (or clones) from one part of the image and pastes it somewhere else. You have to Option-click (Macintosh), or Alt-click (Windows) to indicate where the tool should copy from, then you can click somewhere else to apply that information.

Before you even start using the Rubber Stamp tool, there’s something you can do to make retouching much easier. A good number of desktop flatbed scanners automatically sharpen images as they are scanned. This can make it more difficult to retouch the image because the edges of objects will become more defined. Search through all the options in your scanning software and make sure any auto sharpen settings are turned off before scanning an image that needs to be retouched.

With default settings, the Rubber Stamp clones from a single layer. You can get it to copy from all the layers in the document (as if it were flattened), by turning on the Use All Layers checkbox in the Option palette (PS 5.5) or Options Bar (PS 6.0). I like to create a new empty layer and turn on that option, then I can put all my retouching on a single layer and the original image remains intact in a lower layer.

When I need to extend a straight line (the edge of a sidewalk, a telephone pole, etc.), I press the Caps Lock key to transform my cursor into a crosshair and then Option-click (Macintosh), or Alt-click (Windows) right on the line. Then I move to the end of the line (where it needs to be extended) and again line up the crosshair and then click and release the mouse to establish the relationship between those two areas. Now I’ll release the Caps Lock key so I get back to my round cursor and continue extending the line.

When retouching an area that contains grain, the grain often disappears leaving an area appearing blurry. To prevent this, double-click on a brush in the Brushes palette and use a much higher hardness setting (somewhere around 60-70%).

When I want to reduce the amount of grain, or noise in an image, I’ll apply the following filters: Filter>Noise>Despeckle for tiny specks Filter>Noise>Median for globs Filter>Blur>Smart Blur for posterization or large globs

When attempting to remove scratches, I’ll set the blending mode of the Rubber Stamp tool to Lighten or Darken (the blending mode is the menu in the Options Bar that usually is set to Normal). When you use Darken, the Rubber Stamp tool will only be able to darken the underlying image, which is very useful when you have a bright scratch, Use Lighten when you have a dark scratch. This technique is also useful for removing blemishes in skin tones and other images.

If you don’t want to completely remove something, but would like it to have less impact, then just lower the Opacity of the Rubber Stamp tool before retouching that area. You can do that quickly by pressing the number keys on your keyboard (1=10%, 4=40%, 0=100%, 45=45%, etc.).

If you’d like to speed yourself up when changing brushes, keep the following shortcuts in mind: In Photoshop 5, use the bracket keys (][) to cycle through the brushes that appear in the Brushes palette. Add Shift and you’ll go to the first or last brush in the palette. In Photoshop 6.0, use the comma and period keys to cycle through your brushes (they are the same keys that have the <> symbols on them, but you don’t have to hold Shift). Or, use the brackets (][) to change the size of your brush (this only works with round or oval brushes). Hold Shift and use the bracket keys to change the Hardness setting of your brush. You can also hold Shift and then Control-click (Macintosh), or right-click (Windows) on your image to access your Brushes palette without going to the Options Bar in Photoshop 6.0.

Once you’re all done with your retouching, you can add grain to your image to disguise your retouching (which often looks a bit blurry). To add grain, create a new layer, and then choose Edit>Fill and set the Use menu to 50% gray. Now choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise, set the Amount setting to somewhere around 10%, use the Gaussian option and turn on the Monochromatic checkbox. Finally, set the blending mode for that layer (at the top of the Layers palette) to Softlight. You’ll notice the grain a lot more on screen than you will when it is printed on a laser, ink jet or printing press.

I hope these tips will help you in your adventures with Photoshop. I’d love to hear your feedback on this week’s tips (as well as past week’s). Have a great week and I’ll talk to you again next Monday morning.

-Ben Willmore
Founder, Digital Mastery