Open the Clone source panel and check "Show Overlay".
And make sure you’re not cloning from the wrong layer!
Hi John – Thanks but I do have Show Overlay checked in the Clone Source panel. I am only working with a background layer. The file is a PSD and nothing unusual that I can find in any settings.
An interesting update. I tried opening another file. The Clone feature works as expected with a jpg file. So then I tried saving the open psd file as a jpg and opened that file. Again, as a jpg file the Clone feature works fine.
If I open the jpg and psd files of the same image and place them side-by-side in th edit window I find that when the jpg image is active the Clone tool works as expected. With the psd image active the Clone tool brush doesn’t show the close source. Instead it just shows a white spot.
Any ideas?? I would really rather not to have to convert a psd to jpg just to edit with this feature.
Have you tried resetting the tool (right-click on the tool icon on PC, Ctrl-click on the tool icon on Mac)?
John – Color mode is RGB, 8 bit, although in the psd image the Bit/Channel information is grayed out.
Dennis – Right clicking on the tool icon only opens the subfolder giving the other choices for that tool. i.e. a right click on the Clone tool icon opens up to the Clone Stamp Tool and Pattern Stamp Tool icons. Nothing there about resetting the tool. I presume you are talking about the tool icon located in the tool bar located on the left side of the screen?
Another interesting discovery. I am working on a previously saved psd image. I have made several color, saturation, and levels adjustments. But nothing extrodinary. I just opened the original psd image to see how it worked with the Clone tool and it works like it is supposed to.
So somehting along the way in the editing of this image somehow got it into this mode where the Clone tool and the Healing tool both show only a white spot in the brush circle, not the source pixels.
I appreciate your suggestions, but at this point I think I will simply start over with the original image and go back through the steps. I’ll keep checking along the way with the Clone tool just to see if any changes I make will directly cause the problem. If I discover the cause I will update the forum.
Thanks again for your help.
Jim
Sorry I wasn’t clear, Jim. You right-click on the tool icon that appears in the upper-left corner of the screen (the tool option bar) once the tool is selected – not in the toolbar on the left. You can also use the verbose mode that John is showing.
Verbose? 8o
Verbose: Using more words than necessary.
There, John – you did it again!
XD
I’ve been watching too much star wars. i came into this thread with my light saber blazing.
um, never mind. 🙂
Thanks guys. I get it now. I’ve never explored that drop down arrow next to the icon. Should venture out more I guess…..
John,
You used a picture to illustrate a 3-step process. A picture is worth a thousand words. I used a few words to explain a 1-step process. Your version was verbose. 🙂
Actually, it was not meant as derogatory in any way. Either way gets you there and I was just clarifying my initial suggestion.
If you reset it and it fixes it, you won’t know what the problem was. I wouldn’t do that except as a last resort.
Maybe opacity was turned down?
If you reset it and it fixes it, you won’t know what the problem was.
If it fixes it, who cares what the problem was. Files get corrupted. This is not an exclusive Photoshop problem.
OK – Here’s the deal.
I did try resetting the tool and nothing changed.
I started over with the original image and after applying each adjustment as before I tried the clone tool and it worked properly. Then I added a layer for color adjustment and then went straight to testing the clone tool again. Of course, the color adjustment layer is active so trying the clone results in the same problem I was experiencing earlier. After clicking on the background layer the clone tool worked properly. Then I merged the layers down and tried it again. All worked properly. I went back to the problem file again and double checked that there are no active layers. I confirmed that I had merged the layers down, and only the background layer is left, but the clone problem still exists with that file.
So I can only conclude that something happened to the file. Perhaps it is corrupted. Either way, the tool is working properly.
I still find it interesting though that when I saved the file as a jpg and then tried the clone tool on the jpg file it behaved properly. Only as a psd does it misbehave. I’ll chalk it up to a lesson learned, but I’m not sure exactly what I learned 🙂
Thanks for all the suggestions, and the interesting side discussions 🙂
Jim
