Hows my cloning?

[cw318is]

Hey all, recent visit to San Diego and some time on USS Midway. I really wanted a photo of this particular Phantom but there were people everywhere all the time. I've done what I can and I'm left with this:


Rock River 102 by cw318is, on Flickr

Is there any area which massively stands out? Appreciate its a very plain image, but being a geeky spotter I wanted a record! For reference here is what I started with:



Thanks!

 

[Pookeyhead]

Sorry... but looking at your full res version on Flickr.. it's not too great. There are repeated cloning patterns wherever you have removed anything. Te shadow of the tailplane is really blocky looking. The airbrushed shadow under the wing of the prop plane on the right is just a dark blob.

If this is a first attempt or something you've rarely done before, then you've done damned well actually. I doubt I could have done so well the first few times I tried.

I'm just wondering, as it's so obvious and apparent when you look at the full res version, whether it's actually worth it. The people don't bother all that much in the original, and doesn't really detract from the Phantom that much. It looks OK as a 800 pixel forum image, but if you ever want to print this it will scream out at you.


As for improvements, you need to be constantly resampling when cloning out large areas to avoid patterning. use a mix of clone and heal (not spot heal) and also resamaple the heal tool very often too. Avoid stamping down the same area repeatedly. Look for useable features from other parts of the image, not just the immediate area you are working on.

Build up areas using lower opacities once the people are removed, then heal it with a texture from elsewhere... again, resampling all the time.

On large areas, try using the patch tool instead of constantly stamping down the same small sample over and over again.

 

[cw318is]

Great bit of advice, thankyou for taking the time to have a look and respond. Yes this was my first attempt at a large scale clone out, previously it's just been the odd bit of rubbish or random head/hand - usually against grass which is a lot easier!

That was done primarily with the clone tool and spot heal, I'll give it another go with the proper heal tool and will give it a try with using more layers. It was interesting about that bit, a few times I ended up with half a person removed but then kept cloning when it sounds like I could have used heal better.