Copy Brush - Improvement Request

[Koyaanis]

I use the Copy Brush quite often. Sometimes I use its tool settings for HIS and Lab modes. Using only the I channel or L channel to clone only texture. Much like using the Repair Brush.

What I like most about the Copy Brush is the "Preview Copy" option. This saves tons of work, being able to see the exact effect I will get before applying it.

But when used with the RGB, HIS, or Lab options, selecting only 1 or 2 channels, the "Preview Copy" doesn't reflect this. The Preview Copy image in the brush is the same as if all 3 channels are selected.

Would it be possible for Preview Copy to also reflect which user-selected color channels are in use? Meaning, if I choose only the S channel for HIS mode, the preview in the brush would only reflect that change on the image before applying it. Otherwise, it's not really a preview.

p.s. It would be really nice if the Repair Brush also had this Preview Copy feature. But I suppose that wouldn't be possible because of how it works.

p.p.s. Gerhard, it's been a long time since you released an update. Could you post a "v13.90 Preview!" list of all the improvements and additions that you are putting into the new v13.90? I bet everyone will be really happy to hear what it's going to have.

[Hoogo]

Somehow off-topic, but my way for copying structures goes like this:
-Duplicate the layer
-Use Filter > Other > Highpass. Choose a radius that keeps the desired details, but turns all less fine structures into grey.
-Choose Layermode overlay. So far its a kind of higpass-sharpening.
-Now you can use the clone-brush as desired, but it will not remove original structure, it will just add the new structures.
-Before finishing you might deepen the new structures with a sharpening brush or flatten them with a softening brush.
-To end you have to remove the sharpening-effect where it is not desired. Try something with masks or cropping, or paint with a 50% grey.

[JulianZI]

Hi,

since it fits under the headline one wish for the copy brush:

rotation, scaling, skewing and mirroring.

One thought: As intuitive user interface I could think of a small square with the option to drag each of the four corners for the modification of scale/skew plus a 5th rotation point. This would fit into the small tool panel which already holds the transparency guage and nobody has to enter numbers.

If the mentioned square is painted over the actual image it would be even easier to make the required modification, but I guess the implementation is more difficult and the existence of this option would be less obvious to most user.

It makes a lot sense to have this feature if you use the copy brush to repair a picture or overlay unwanted parts. For example if you paste branches to hide a house it would be nice to have some kind of modification option to vary the display of the pasted information. A possibility to manipulate the exposure (make copy lighter/darker) would be also nice.

Right now I can copy some part of the image and create new layers by pasting it multiple times. But for may operations and also if these parts are very small, it is hardly possible.

Kind Regards,
Julian

BTW: Thanks for this wonderful application!

[greenmorpher]

Omigawd! You guys are flying so far above my level that I can't even see you with a telescope!

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Koyaanis]

Omigawd! You guys are flying so far above my level that I can't even see you with a telescope!

It becomes an obsession once you start to learn how the tools work. It's a bit like reading. At first you're just happy to recognize the letters A, B, C. Then you learn to recognize words. Then you can't stop reading whole books in one sitting taking in a paragraph at time. No doubt if you started talking about the intricacies of Canvas you'd have most of us lost too!

JulianZI is suggesting a nice feature. I'm not sure how often I'd make use of that, but I can see how it would be valuable. In lieu of that in a copy-brush, you could just make a whole new brush/stamp out of any selection and paste it anywhere you want, rotate it, resize it, apply any effect to that selected layer that you want. In effect, doing the exact same thing with tools that are already built in. Try the stamp tool, and use the "create from lasso" option in the tools palette, it might suffice in some instances. If there was a small rotate and scale option on that stamp-tool's options panel it would probably do most of what you are suggesting. After creating a layer from a selection just rotate and modify that before using the stamp tool's options, would that work? I don't think the copy brush was meant to be a supplement for the layer tools, but I can see how it might be handy having them all on one tool options panel.

(time passes ... like 1/2 hour ...)

Adding some after-thoughts ... I'm starting to like this idea. I just now thought about how many times I'm trying to rebuild large sections of foliage or other textures, beach areas, rocks, etc. Where a slight rotation to level the image clips off large corners on the main image and I don't want to lose the composition. So I try to rebuild whole sections of the photo from existing structures in that photo. The problem comes with trying to make the cloned areas imperceptible. It's easy to spot duplicate parts of an image in a photo if you don't sample from lots of areas to randomize the details. With the rotate, resize, skew, and mirror functions it would be a breeze to make invisible additions to a photo.

So, YES! I vote for this too!

Nice idea.

[greenmorpher]

Like you make a selection, copy it, then deselect and paste, and you're on a different layer. Then you can mirror, rotate, resize, etc. than bit on that layer. Then you can merge layers. Is that what you mean? Only all with the stamp or whatever?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Koyaanis]

Like you make a selection, copy it, then deselect and paste, and you're on a different layer. Then you can mirror, rotate, resize, etc. than bit on that layer. Then you can merge layers. Is that what you mean? Only all with the stamp or whatever?

Yes, but his suggestion was a way to do that more simply. By having rotate, mirror, and other adjustments right on the clone-brush. So if you were cloning, for example, the letter F to another area, you could rotate, enlarge, or mirror that F into a new size and orientation as you moved the clone brush.

Say you wanted to repair some reflections of tall reeds across some water. You had just removed a boat from the scene. But the only reed detail you had was above the water-line. You could set the clone brush to mirror those reeds, but invert it as you passed it over the water section. (Then apply some deformations or whatever you need to make it look like reflections of those reeds in the water.)

Stuff like that. Neat idea, eh?

Gerhard, YES YES YES! Can this be done? I vote strongly in favor of this idea.

[greenmorpher]

Gawd, even I can understand that. It would be a killer, wouldn't it?

I vote in favour, too!

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com

[Hoogo]

Hm, don't know... Using layers is a more flexible way to reach that result, especially for that reflections on water. It reminds me a little bit of the Selection-tool. Thoug I could just drag a selection around, I usualy turn it into a layer so that I could use blending modes, add noise and other things.

Something to make the clone-brush a little less predictable would be nice, but I don't have an idea yet.

[JulianZI]

Hi,

Using layers is a more flexible way to reach that result

Yes, for transparent overlays and water this is true. But if you use multiple sources fro the overlay the layers are hard to manage. Also if the stamped areas are very small, than layers are even more difficult to handle.

Here is my suggestion:


From the programmers point of view there is "only" a matrix operation involved to transponse the source to the destination. I believe such an easy to understand feature would highly impress any reviewer and will so result in positive press for an innovative and useful feature.

Regards,
Julian

[Koyaanis]

Well, in v14 the copy-brush preview now shows only which channels are selected! YAY! The original request for this thread.

No sign of any mirror, flip, rotate, skew options yet, but at least the preveiw works really nice now.

THANKS!