Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Cloning Between Documents

The Clone Stamp tool is great for retouching tricks like duplicating pixels to get rid of something in a photo (Removing an Object), banishing shiny spots (Zapping Shines and Shadows), and repeating an object in a photo (Duplicating an Object). You can also use it to copy pixels from one open document to another. Using the Clone Source panel—the clone source is the object you’re copying—you can clone from up to five different sources regardless of whether they’re in the same Photoshop document. Here’s how to clone from one open document into another:

1. Open the source document(s)—the image(s) you’re cloning from —and the target document (the image you’re cloning to) and arrange your workspace so you can see them both.

   You can’t clone from a document that isn’t open, so start by opening both images you want to work with. Next, choose Window→Arrange and pick a setup that lets you see all the open documents, or just click each document’s tab to activate it (Chapter 2 has more on working with tabbed documents).

   Note

   For info on using the Clone Stamp tool within the same document, skip to Using the Clone Stamp Tool.

2. Press S to grab the Clone Stamp tool, and then open the Clone Source panel.

   Choose Window→Clone Source or click the panel’s icon near the left end of the Options bar—it looks like a tiny panel with a rubber stamp icon on it. (Full coverage of the Clone Source panel’s many options starts on Cloning Between Documents.)

3. In the source document, set the clone ...