Digital Light & Color

May be this is just me, as I don't recall seeing any previous comments about this, but when I use clone or paint there is always a tendency to see the effects of the 'primary disk', even if a large setting for softness is used and a degree of transparency is employed. I attribute this, rightly or wrongly, to the fact that there is an abrupt change in lightness at the boundary between the 'primary disk' and the peripheral 'penumbra'. In other words, no matter what the softness setting is, the 'primary disk' remains clearly visible as a hard-edged disk. It's as though the lightness profile is flat across the 'primary disk' and then abruptly falls away linearly to zero. I was wondering if it would be possible to make a more gradual transition at the edge of the 'primary disk'? In other words, put a 'shoulder' on the lightness profile where the 'primary disk' starts to fall off in lightness.

Ian

Hi Ian,

I have wondered about this too. In most cases the 'hard edge' is not a problem for me, and when it is a problem I set softness to 100% and rework those edges that need a more gradual transition. But a softer, or maybe even adjustable transition at the edge of the 'primary disk' would be nice.

John

Hmm, no takers! (PS. Ah, I see that there is now a reply from John) Well, perhaps I am a lone voice, but by way of illustrating what I mean, here are two recreations of the clone disk. The first image shows what I am asking for. I would have thought that this profile would give a more subtle blending than the existing situation, since there is no hard edge to the central disk. The second image is meant to represent the existing situation, with what I assume to be a linear fall off.

Kiril, would this be feasible?

Ian

I am not sure that another softness parameter is what you really want. In addition to the edge softness, paint tools also have a transparency setting. A high transparency allows you to 'build up' the effect of the tool over multiple strokes. By randomizing the strokes (i.e. not overlapping them exactly, but making some long, others short, concentrating in the center area, etc) you can control to how much and where the tool's effect is feathered into your image.

Here is another tip which may seem counter-intuitive at first. When using the tool for dodging and burning, set the tool size much larger than the features you are trying effect. Set the transparency and softness to high values. Again, use multiple strokes. Re-click the mouse button after each stroke to create multiple undo events. You can then build your changes gradually. If you overdo, you can undo them stoke by stroke until you arrive at the optimum result.

Kiril

I accept that multiple strokes using low transparency is one way to blend a clone, but the downside for cloning (painting is probably different) is that if there is much by way of texture in the area then the act of applying multiple strokes is to smooth away any texture. So the cloned area becomes obvious for a different reason. Also, multiple strokes becomes more difficult where one is cloning in a confined region.

I suppose that your term "edge softness" is the key here, because whatever softness setting is used an 'edge' still remains; the only thing that varies is the extent to which the veiled part extends, not the blurring of the edge itself.

I guess what I am after is what Adobe call 'heal'

ksinkel wrote:I am not sure that another softness parameter is what you really want. In addition to the edge softness, paint tools also have a transparency setting. A high transparency allows you to 'build up' the effect of the tool over multiple strokes. By randomizing the strokes (i.e. not overlapping them exactly, but making some long, others short, concentrating in the center area, etc) you can control to how much and where the tool's effect is feathered into your image.

...

Kiril

Unfortunally this "build up" doesn't work when creating a mask. http://www.dl-c.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=562

The requested change has been made to the paint, mask paint, clone and miscellaneous tools and will appear in an upcoming maintenance release. Brushes now fall off with a cosine curve instead of linearly, and the results are smoother.

That's great news! Thank you very much Jonathan.

Ian

jsachs wrote:The requested change has been made to the paint, mask paint, clone and miscellaneous tools and will appear in an upcoming maintenance release. Brushes now fall off with a cosine curve instead of linearly, and the results are smoother.

Jonathan

Thanks, is there a possibility that a "build up" is added when using the mask paint?

Alain

Yes, that has been fixed as well - at least for add and subtract modes.