Can anyone kindly let me have a stepbystep tutorial on how to use the cloning tool in Photoshop CS5 ?

Why is it that when I choose the brush size and a circle pops up to show me the size chosen, that circle vanishes as soon as I release the right button on the mouse?

Could it be that I am doing something wrong ? I always ensure that "Aligned Sample" on the toolbar is unchecked and that "All Layers" is checked and that "Mode" is set to "Normal."

I have noticed that even though the brush circle vanishes, cloning is possible but this is not satisfactory as what happens is that the cloning of parts of the picture that take place are not the ones that I choose.

In Photoshop 7, I used to choose the part of the picture that I wanted to clone by clicking on the circle over that part of the picture that I chose. But now, in Photoshop CS5, the brush circle vanishes nad I have no control on cloning.

Hope I am not confusing the issue and I thank you beforehand for helping an old age pensioner who is slow to learn.

JOE

When selecting brushes, it is best to choose one that suits what you are trying to achieve. In general, I choose a hard edge brush. If you are wanting faint edges so that it blends in with the edges of where you are cloning to, then choose a soft edge brush, if only for the edges of the cloning location.

I set the size of the brush manually. On the menu bar, you will see the brush size. Example: 12 px which represents a brush of 12 pixels wide.
You can select that size box and type in the size you desire. Example, change 12 px to 3. No need to put the px after the number. Then simply press enter/return key after changing the number inside the brush size box. You can also use the slider to change the brush size.

In the example below, I show using brush 4 as the selection, ie: Hard Round Pressure Size. If you hold your cursor overtop of the brush type, it will say what kind of brush it is.
Experiment with the brushes to see their effects.



For the cursor, go to Photoshop preferences, select the Cursors category. I presently have it set to Normal Brush Tip for Painting Cursor. And Other Cursor set to Standard. However choose what suits you. The Clone selection cursor will only be as large as the Clone paint brush is set to.

Shows how the Clone cursor selector changes color depending on the background to make it easier to see. A size 8 px brush was used in this example.

I sometimes use the selection tool to select the area I wish to clone to, so I do not clone outside the desired area. Example, the Polygonal Lasso Tool. Or whichever selection tool you feel most comfortable with or easiest or most accurate to use in the situation.

To use the Clone tool, select it in the Tools. Then hold down the Alt key (Option key on Mac) same time you select the area you wish to clone from on the image (a circled cross will show whilst you press the Alt key which you can direct to where you wish to clone from.) After pressing the cursor onto the starting point of the clone-from point, release the Alt key. Move your cursor to where you wish to clone to and you will see your cursor ready to use to clone. Press the cursor onto the area desired to begin clone painting. Remember, the Alt/Option key is only used to set the clone-from (source) start point of the cloning. The Alt key should be released before you start clone-painting.

If you are cloning from one layer to another, you first need to have the clone-from layer selected in the Layers palette when you set the clone-from source point. Then select the layer you wish to clone to in the Layers palette and move the cursor to where you wish to clone to.

Here is a quick example:



Notice the circled-cross (like a gun target) as I hover the cursor over the image ready to select the cloning point whilst holding down the Alt/Option key.

As soon as I have selected the clone-from point (source point) and let go of the Alt key, the cursor turns to a circle to show it is ready for clone-painting.

Then as I begin to clone-paint, the cursor turns to an arrow to show the point where I am clone-painting. And the point I am cloning from (the source) is marked with a small cross.

BTW skies can be very difficult to clone because skies often have lots of varying subtle hues of blue, grey and off-white which do not always match up well.