**Program Tutorials** : Photoshop Elements : *Technique

This tutorial will show how to use the Clone Tool and how to extract the subject of a photo to deal with distracting background in PSE.

Small distractions: Cloning
When there is something relatively small in the background of a picture, the Clone Tool can be used to copy another portion of your background over the distraction. Below is one of my favorite pictures of my son exploring the beach but I really did not like that there was a big white truck in the background. Using the Clone Tool I removed the truck.

Before	After

1. Open the picture to be edited and click on the Clone Stamp Tool in the toolbox.
   Hint: Before you even start working on your image you may want to save it with a new file name so that you do not accidentally overwrite the original image.
2. Adjust the basic settings of the Clone Tool in the Options toolbar.
   
   Brush Shape – typically you should use a soft round brush so that the cloned portion of the image will blend into the original image without a noticeable hard edge.
   Hint: To change brushes, right click then select a new brush from the pop-up menu
   Brush Size – pick a size that will allow you to cover the unwanted elements with several passes.
   Opacity – you can lower the opacity of the cloned portion of your image. This will allow some of the original image to show through. Typically 100% opacity is used.
   Aligned – If aligned is checked, the sampled area will only be copied once even if you move to another part of your image and apply the Clone tool. This is good for removing unwanted objects. If aligned is not checked, each time you click to clone the image you will be starting at the same initial sample point. This is a good way to make several copies of the same image.
3. Select the initial reference point by holding down the ALT key while clicking on a portion of the image to be copied over the unwanted object.
   Hint: When the ALT key is held down, the cursor will temporarily change to crosshairs
4. Click and drag the cursor to start covering up the unwanted object. This will take several passes and you may need to reset your reference point if there is not a large enough section to clone over the object. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 as needed.

Larger distractions: Extracting the subject
Sometimes you want to de-emphasize or even completely remove the background of your photo. This can be done be extracting the subject from the photo. Extracting means to select an object in the photo and remove it from the photo.

Original image	Extracted image

1. Open the picture to be edited and click on the Lasso Tool in the toolbox
2. In the Lasso Tool Option toolbar, select the Magnetic Lasso Tool. The Magnetic Lasso Tool aids in automatically selecting the edge of an object in the photo.
3. Adjust the basic settings of the Magnetic Lasso Tool in the Options toolbar.
   
   Selection Mode – Use any of the four standard selection modes. The add to selection mode is a great way to build the selection of the object to be extracted.
   Feather – Enter 0 for a hard edged selection or enter the size in pixels of the soft edged fade out for the selection.
   Width – Between 1 and 40 pixels. Specifies how close to the cursor PSE will look for an edge.
   Hint- to better visualize this area, press the Caps Lock key before starting the selection. The cursor will become a circle showing exactly the area PSE is looking for an edge to select.
   Edge Contrast – Between 1% and 100%. Specifies how sharply the edges have to contrast for the Magnetic Lasso to select them. The larger the percentage the more contrast required for PSE to find the edge.
   Frequency – Between 0 and 100. Specifies how often to select another point on the edge. The larger the number the more frequent the points are selected.
4. Single click on the edge of object to be extracted. This starts creating a selection with the Magnetic Lasso.
5. Follow along the edge of the object with the cursor. PSE will automatically select the edge.
   Hint: If PSE puts a selection point somewhere is not along the edge of the object, press the Delete key to remove the last selection point. You can remove as many points as necessary this way.
   
6. You can also click along the edge of the object to set a selection point where you need it. This is useful when PSE has trouble finding the edge you want to follow.
   Hint: If you are manually specifying all the points along the edge of the object, try adjusting the Width and/or the Edge Contrast in the Magnet Lasso Option Toolbar. See Step 3 for more information on these settings.
7. Double click to have PSE close the selection. This will not follow along the edge of the object, but you can always add and remove portions of the selection with the Magnetic Lasso to continue outlining the object.
8. At any point along the way, you can save your current selection by going to Select>Save Selection… and typing a name in the Name field. You can retrieve this selection by going to Select>Load Selection… and picking a named selection from the Selection pull down list.
    
9. With the entire object outlined and selected, copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CRTL+V) the object to a new layer.



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