Storytelling In Photography: Mastering Self and Subject Cloning in Adobe Photoshop.

1. INTRODUCTION: Have you ever marveled at the photos that seem to defy reality images where the same person or subject appears multiple times, as if they've been magically multiplied. Well, you're about to learn the secret behind creating those captivating, marvelous images right here. Hello, and welcome to Mastering self and subject cloning in Photoshop. I'm Apoa Moody, a self taught photographer who has had the privilege of turning a passion, a profession. I'm also honored to serve as an Adobe Express ambassador, an Adobe rising star, and a skill Htop teacher. Today, I'm thrilled to be your guide on this creative chine. Whether you're an aspiring photographer with a passion for creativity or a season pro looking to add some intrigue to your portfolio. This course is designed for you will delve deep into each step of the process. You'll learn how to capture source images that are perfect for cloning, master the art of cloning itself, and then bring your clones together to create a stunning visual narrative using simple but yet effective editing techniques. You'll be surprised at how you can easily blend your images into one frame. But that's not all. We'll also explore the art of color grading, adding that extra touch of magic that can truly elevate your images. And for this, we'll be using adobe Ltrum as a self taught photographer. I understand the journey you're embarking on. In fact, my clone photos have been featured on platforms like Open A Drawing attention and admiration from fellow creatives. Today, I'm not just your instructor. I'm here to share my experience, my knowledge, and the things I've learned over the past few years. Remember, you do not need expensive gear to get started. You can use your trustworthy smartphone, a digital camera, or even a drone to capture the shot we'll be working with. And of course, having the right tools makes the work easier. You will need a tripod and the Photoshop software on either your phone or your laptop. By the end of this class, you'll have the ability to create your own unique visual stories. Whether you're shooting yourself, your subjects or objects, you'll be amazed at the reactions your creations will get. Trust me, I've been there, so are you ready? Let's roll up our sleeves, kick up our cameras, and get ready to dive into the world of clones. 2. CLASS ORIENTATION: Hello and a warm welcome to this class. I'm your teacher, Boca Mode, and I'm really excited to join me here today. Before we get started, I want to make sure you have everything you need to make the most out of this course. Throughout this course, we'll be covering everything you need to know to master the art of cloning in Photoshop. From capturing source images and editing clones, to crafting stunning compositions and adding the perfect touch of color grading. Let's get started by talking about what you'll need for this class. To fully participate in this course, you'll need a few key tools. A smartphone, a digital camera, or even a drone will work perfectly for capturing your images. A tripod will ensure stability and having the Photoshop software on your computer or the mobile app version is essential for editing process. But what I've got some fantastic news. If you're unable to shoot or create images for any reason, don't worry, I've got you covered. I'll provide sample photos that you can use to practice your editing skills alongside. So no matter your circumstance, you can fully participate and excel in this course. Now let's talk about your class project. Your task is a captivating cloned image featuring two to three clones in a well composed scene. You'll also apply professional color grading to enhance the visual impact of your composition. Here's the breakdown of the steps you'll take to complete your class. Project Number one, location scouting. Find a suitable location with good lighting and an interesting backdrop. Number two, capturing source images. Use your chosen device and tripod to capture shots for cloning. Number three, editing and cloning, employ the techniques you'll learn to seamlessly duplicate subjects. Number four, compositing an arrangement, arrange the clones in a visually appealing composition. Number five, color grading enhance the mood of your image with professional color grading techniques. Number six, share your project. Create a project on skillshare. Put your images on there and give us a brief description of your creative process. Encourage you to get creative and let your imaginations run wild. Feel free to experiment with poses, angles, and color schemes to make your projects truly stand out. And remember whether you're working with images that you create yourself or the ones I provided for you. The aim is to create something that is visually compelling and appealing. So let's get started. I'm here to guide you in every step of the way, and I can't wait to see the beautiful images you create. Get ready to reveal your creativity, embrace your inner artist, and embark on an amazing creative journey. Let's dive in. 3. FINDING INSPIRATION: Hello, wonderful learners. I'm Abel Moody, your guide, and today we'll be talking about finding inspiration and concept development. Before we jump right into the technical aspect, let's take a moment to understand why cloning is such a unique technique. Cloning isn't just about replicating subjects, it's about crafting stories, evoking emotions, and transporting viewers into a world where imagination knows no about. Just take a look at the stunning examples from fellow artists who have harnessed the power of cloning to create images that are nothing short of magical. They've woven narratives that intrigue, inspire, and invite us to think beyond the ordinary. So where do you find inspiration for your own cloned creations? One fantastic source is Pinterest. It's a treasure trove of ideas, concepts, and visual references that can spark your imagination. Here's an example of a Pinterest board I've put together. As you can see, it's brimming with common concepts that you can integrate cloning into. Remember, inspiration can be gotten from anywhere from movies, books, everything, your everyday life. The key thing is to think outside the box and imagine how the cloning can add an extra layer of intrigue or uniqueness to that scene. Now let's talk about brainstorming and developing concepts. Say you're drawn to the idea of a dreamy dance party. Picture yourself in a lush garden surrounded by graceful clones twirling to imaginary music. This concept could infuse a sense of wonder and mystery into your photograph. Next, consider the importance of suitable locations. Imagine you're fascinated by the concept of time travelers gathering. Think about places that evoke different errors. An old library, a classic cafe, or even a retro park. The location sets a stage for your narrative. As we move forward, I encourage you to explore interest, let your creativity flow, and try and integrate your clones into the most common concepts. Remember, it's about crafting a visual story that resonates with you and your audience. Congratulations on completing this lesson. You are now armed with inspiration and concepts to follow your creative ideas. In the next class, we'll dive into the practical aspect of creating these images. Get ready to bring your ideas to life. 4. SHOOTING: Hello, creative Learners. Today we are diving into camera settings, Trippod, set up postures, and the power of shutter speed. These elements play a crucial role in capturing the perfect shots for cloning and also in your editing process. First things first, let's talk about the tripod. It's your trusted companion for stability and consistency in your shots. A stable camera and shows that your clones are aligned perfectly, creating a believable composition. No tripod, don't worry. And here's why. A couple of years ago I set out to create photos without a tripod. I had to get a few stones to get my camera to the level I needed it to be. I focused on my bag. I set the time out to 10 seconds because I did not have a remote for my camera. Now let's focus on shutter speed. The setting determines how long your camera center is exposed to light. A slow shutter speed captures movement blow, which can be enhanced creatively to making editing clones easier. Take a look at this image. The slower shutter speed has enhanced the movement blow, making it easier to blend and edit clones seamlessly into the scene. Shutter speed can be a secret weapon, especially when it comes to conveying motion or dynamic energy into your composition. When capturing images for cloning, consider using a slower, shorter speed to capture your motion in a unique way. Moving on to posing and positioning. These are critical aspects for successful cloning. When positioning yourself or subjects, think about the interactions you want between the clones. Maintain consistent lighting and distance to ensure a convinced and final result. Remember, capturing a series of short is essential for seamless editing. Shoot multiple frames with slight variations in poses and expressions. This will provide you with options during the editing process. For instance, if you're capturing an image like this one, having multiple shots to choose from allows you to select the best expression and positions for each clone. As we wrap up this lesson, keep in mind that all these points are tools in your creative arsenal. They'll empower you to capture clone worthy images that tell a visually compelling story. Congratulations on completing this lesson. In the next class, we'll explore editing, specifically cutting out subjects for cloning. Get ready to bring your images to life. 5. EDITING SELECTIONS: Hello fellow creators. Today we're going to explore how to import your images to Photoshop and begin enhancing it for the cloning process. Let's start by discussing some basic editing techniques. Here's how you can import your images. First of all, you have Photoshop here, and then you pick out your selected photos and you dump them in Photoshop. It's going to open a software, a mini software called Camera Row, where you can adjust like your white balance settings and a couple of other things. So you hold or hit command or control to select all the portions so that you're adjusting a few things. It's adjusting all the images you want to have cloned as well. Here. I'm just going to reduce my exposure. Increase my highlights. Yeah, I think this is beautiful. I'll also increase my shadows just a little bit and then reduce my blacks. Normally, I toggle around this both on Litrm and on Photoshop. But here we have your saturation panel. Your hue panel. I normally go to the hue panel and make my yellows a little bit more orangish then also with the greens as well. I do that, sometimes I do it the opposite way. But oh, okay, I think I like it the opposite way today. We're just going to leave that there. And then my saturation's a little bit too saturated, so I'm just going to bring that down a little bit more. Yeah, perfect. Then the luminant. I'm just going to increase my greens. The luminance of the greens and some of the yellow as well. So note that I have all the images selected. It's going to affect all the images exactly what you see is what you see in like all the images I want to clone. This is important because you need to have a consistent level of colors in all the images. You need to clone so that no image seems out of place when you are compiling them together. Now the next step is making sure all of them are selected. You click open and it puts it in Photoshop in different tabs. So yeah, that's about it. Next we're going to enhance the image quality. This step, which is adjusting your levels and curves, is not necessarily an important step when it comes to color grading, it's just something you can do as well in Photoshop, you do this when you're done compiling all your clones together. You can simply go to this point here. You click on it and you see levels, you see curves as well. What I do is I click on levels, I go to Reds and I just pull this a little bit in. And this a little bit into. I do the same with greens, it's quite consistent. Nothing special about it for now. But you can just use these steps to get this tone going. You can also experiment to know what you want, and I leave it like this and then put it in litrum to further color grade the image. But this is just the levels and you have the curves as well, which you can, you can play around with the reds. You can crush your reds. You can crush your shadows. You can bring them down. Yeah, just different things you can do with the curves and the levels panel as well. But this is not necessarily something you need to do on Photoshop. You can also like just carry your full color grading process to litrum. I'm just going to delete this too, right here. Now let's talk about the part of precise cloning selections. Photoshop offers various selection tools like magic wand, quick selection, and pencil. These tools help you isolate your subject effectively for clean and precise selections. The pencil is my favorite. It allows you to create parts around your subject, resulting in smooth and refined edges. Creating clean selections is key to achieving smooth cloning. As you can see here, we're about to connect the dots. When you're done with your pencil, this is what you do. Just click on your starting point and then it finishes up. You just zoom out and right click. And you tap on Make Selection automatically. It selects what you've been selecting. Yeah, that's for the pencil. Now we will use the object selection to. To select our subject, you press command D to get rid of your selection. And then we go all the way here. You can click the quick selection. You can click the object selection. I think I prefer the object selection as well to the quick selection. As you can see already, the object selection is already mapping out places that it automatically thinks we want to select out. You have the background, which is here, and then I click on the ground, and it's like selecting just the ground. I click on the subject and it selects the subject which is, well, a more stress free than the pencil. Yeah, Yeah, a lot more stress free than the pencil. We left click on what it's suggesting. We're just going to left click on what it's suggesting and we have it do the work for us. The next step is I go to the quick selection, while the object selection selection is selected. And then zoom in a bit just to find in a few things, we're just going to brush over the points we think should be selected. If you're using a Windows laptop, you can just click to minus, basically the things you don't want selected. Just looking at a few things. Looking at all the edges to make sure everything is well put. Yeah, I think we can zoom in to be further, to make sure see places like our head to just make sure everything is selected well. This is the, I think only stressful part with the object selection tool, which is you have to make sure like a few things are selected. You have to do the fine tuning yourself as well. Just clean up a few things basically. Yeah, so I think this is good. The next step for the object selection tool, which I use because I still don't mind the extra work which is making sure the clone is blended perfectly. I go to select up here, and I go to modify. And I go to expand, I expand it around ten pixels sometimes, and then I expand it around 20 pixels sometimes. Depending on depending on what frame, or rather what resolution I shot at You. Click Okay. I didn't notice any change per se, so I think I need to go higher, which is I need to go higher to like 20. Now I saw a change. Yeah, 20 might seem to be too much, but I think it's perfectly fine as well. This is why I expand it to, this is how I move it to my primary photo, which I'm cloning on, basically. Congratulations on completing this editing and selection lesson. In the next class, we'll take the selections and make them clone. See you there. 6. COMPOSING SELECTIONS: Hello, Creative Minds. In this lesson, we're going to explore the creative process of bringing all our selections into one composite and making a cloned image. Arranging and positioning your clones within a composition is like setting the stage for a captivating story. Think about the interactions between the clones. The gazes poses and movements to create a dynamic narrative. To arrange and position your clones, you need to, first of all, arrange and position your clones. And to do that, you have your selections here, like we did in the last lesson. And you click on the move tool right here. And you click and hold down on the selected tab, which pulls it out. We now press Command or Control and hold it and dump it on the photo. We want to be our primary photo. The next thing is holding command or control. You can slide it across and position it as you want it to be positioned. This is relatively nice. We now do the same thing for the other photo that we're adding to be our cloned photo as well. We go through the whole selection process to get like the photo selected, our objects selected and our subjects selected. And we do the whole process of modifying it, expanding it. We're going to do 20 pixels, which is perfect. And then we're going to also move it, make sure it's selected. On the move tool, we're going to pull that tab out and we're going to hold command or control and drag it onto that please. Now you have a photo that looks like this. Transforming and scaling your clones is a very powerful tool. This allows you to adjust the sizes and angles for a natural and realistic look. Remember, consistency is key. Make sure the lighting and the shadows are all equal in all the images. Here's another thing. When it comes to composing your cloned image. You can easily resize by holding onto the layer that you want to resize and pressing command or control to give sort of perspective. You assume that if this clone is a little bit further towards the camera, it's going to appear a little bit bigger. It helps the eyes actually balance like a cloned image without it looking foreign or alien. And then you can click Enter, and then if it's going to be behind, you can make it a little bit smaller and it's perfect. I think I'm going to put this one here behind. So I'm just going to make it a little bit smaller. Something like, this is perfect. And then I'm just going to track it across here. This is beautiful. Okay. No, I think this is perfect as it is at the front. So I'm just going to make it bigger. A little bit bigger actually. Yeah. And pull it out perfect. I'm thinking of putting this one behind, so I'll just make it a little bit smaller and pull her like this a little bit here. This is perfect layer masks. Now this is how layer masks work basically. So having your layer selected, this is layer one, which is this layer here. Remember we did something that sort of expanded our selection, which means it picked out like the extra outline from that background to this one. So we're trying to get rid of that at the moment. Which you can see right here over like her shoulders and all around her. So we're just going to click on that layer and then we're going to click on layer mask. It's going to bring this white, um, this white border thing. We're going to make sure our paint brush is selected and make sure our paint is on black. This means you're just going to paint over that layer basically. But it's not going to paint with the color, it's just going to paint out the selection. The next thing we're going to do is just adjust the size of our brush. We're just going to make it a little bit nice. Yeah, this is perfect. And then we're going to make sure our capacity is set at 100. Sometimes you can actually set this at T just so that it blends perfectly, so I think we're going to actually use AT as well here. And then you can brush over, you can see how it's just like brushing over gently a bowl, like the subject. Yeah, I guess this is actually how it works. This is how the layer mask tool works. This is just like perfect your selection. Basically, I prefer this method to just allowing the AI tool just select randomly for me. I prefer doing this because I can easily look at every single pixel I want out or in, and I can undo something as well. So as I touch the hair here, I can easily just go right here, tap white and paint back over the hair, and then tap black and just reduce my brush just to make sure I get that selection in. So you can actually be very detailed with this by zooming a lot more. And just like making sure your brush is a little bit, maybe smaller. And just doing this, layer masks and opacity play a crucial role in blending your clones seamlessly into the scene. By carefully painting on the layer mask, you can reveal and hide parts of your clones to achieve a believable integration. Fintining the composition is the last step in creating a captivating image. The next step after this is going to be your level. The theme we talked about earlier, which is which is the levels and the curves. This is, it helps you just blend everything together. You can just do do that just in case you have like clones that you go from another picture or when the sun was a different angle. You can easily just like put that in and use levels to just make everything look the same. Kind of congratulations on mastering the art of transforming, arranging and blending clones. In the next lesson, we'll take our compositions to the next level through color grading. See you there. 7. COLOR GRADING: Hello, Creative Explorers. Today we're going to talk about color grading and how that can affect your creativity and the outcome of your photo. We're going to discuss on how colors can amplify your stories and also explore the techniques I use in color grading. Color grading, a technique commonly used in film and photography, allows you to control the colors in your image to create a specific mood or atmosphere. In our case, it's about enhancing the story we're trying to tell with our clones to color grade this image. Like my previous classes, I've mentioned the tools and litum that you can play around with to just find your style color grade. So I'm just going to see playing around with things as well. So we have the exposure tab. I think it looks really beautiful when the exposure is down. Let me check my contrast. I'm kind of conflicted about the contrast because it looks nice when the contrast is a little bit up. And then it also looks nice when the contrast is down. So I think I'm just going to leave it down. And then we're just going to increase our highlight a little bit. And then decrease our shadows. Or increase our shadows. Oh my goodness, I'm conflicted. Okay, so I think we're increasing our shadows. That's a must. And then maybe we'll just just increase our contrasts a little bit. The next thing is the blocks. I think with our shadows increased. I'm just going to, this is the beauty in color grading, and I'm happy I get to do this with you. In trying out new things, you discover new things. Or rather in trying out different things. You discover new things, you discover what you like, what you don't like. Normally, I would put my blocks down, but I just tried sliding this up, and I really love how it looks. That's how color grading is, basically, for me, testing our new things with a previous knowledge of how they work. So I think I'll increase the contrast a little bit, with my blacks doing that as well. This looks beautiful. Next we have the curves. Well, in color grading, I use this sort of last, but let me just see how this works. I don't think I want to crush my blocks. So I'm just going to do this a little bit and bring this down. Well, I want to definitely crush my whites, so I'm just going to bring this down as well. Okay, That's all for the curves. For me, the next step is the temperature. I'm just going to make it a little bit. I think I'm leaving that there now. For now, I'm going to increase my vibrant and reduce my saturation. Okay, now we're here. I think for this I'm just going to reduce my luminant because that's his skin. And increase my temperature a little bit. The yellows, I want to see what they affect. So I think I'm just going to reduce the yellows all in all and increase the luminant of the yellows, the greens however. Okay, that's good. Okay, so I'm just going to reduce the saturation a little bit and make it a little bit yellowish. Okay, that's perfect. The next thing now is the color grading tab. I'm just going to avoid the point color because I don't we Okay, let me quickly cover this. We're going to select a color in the photo and I think this is the perfect color and then we're just going to mess around with it. This is a new feature, a Llrom'st Impressive. Because you can actually get a particular color and adjust what you want with that color. So I'm just going to and increase the luminus, reduce the saturation, and note how it actually just picks just that color. It's really impressive. The next thing I'm going to do is my color grading. I normally like to add some meat tons, some warm meat tons. So I'm just going to do this. Here's a tip I have for color grading. You take this to the maximum and then you just like hover it around to see what you like. If this looks nice to you, then you now start reducing it to a little bit to when it seems realistic. The same thing with the shadows. You just move it around and see what looks nice. This looks really good. This looks perfect. So I'm just going to reduce this a little bit up to here. And now it's looking to warm, so I think I want to add highlights and make it then blue and this looks perfect. I might also reduce my meat tons or just take them here and see what that does. This looks good, this looks really good. Next we have blending. You're just going to slide this across and look at what you like. Basically, I think I like this because it removes a little bit of that warmth. And then I'm just going to shift my pants towards here a little bit. Okay, so now we're going to go to the effects. Basically, I'm going to move around with the vignette and then feather it out a little bit so that it doesn't really affect our subject. And then the green, green is actually a very interesting part of my editing process. Um, you can choose to add grain and then some roughness and then maybe some size, and then it just gives a lovely perspective. And especially in cloning, because here's the secrets, grain can cover up some little little editing mistakes you might have made when you were selecting your clones. Grain is a perfect way or a perfect friend for you when editing clones, the next thing I would do is yeah, just basically the next thing I will do is go to my crop. And I just like playing around it, seeing what they look like when you shift things. And this looks in, this also looks interesting. I think I'll just leave it in the original ratio. I would go to my mask and then just pick my radial mask as well. And just put this like this. I would select the negative and click on the subjects. It's going to select all my three subjects, which it has. And then I'll just increase this a little bit. Red. I think I will increase the contrast because I want to reduce my haze. Yeah. Then my blacks as well. I think I will just reduce my exposure. This is perfect. Yeah. So there you go. This is the before, and this is the after. With the color grading person, congratulations on discovering the transformative world of color grading. In the upcoming class, we'll wrap up the journey with tips, tricks and insight on how to keep honing your skills when creating cloned images. I can't wait to see you there. 8. CONCLUSION: Hello my friends and imaginative creators. We've reached the final chapter of this journey. My name is Apl Mode, and I'm very excited that you've joined me on this journey trip. As we reflect on the incredible lessons we've covered, I want to take a moment to highlight the key things and incite we've had trough this lesson. These things will guide you on your journey to crafting captivating, cloned images. From exploring the potential of cloning, to finding inspiration from fellow artists, perfecting your camera settings, to editing, to shooting, to color grading as well, and also to selecting your clones from your images. Every lesson has been crafted to improve your skills as a seasoned photographer. Remember, the art of cloning isn't just about creating duplicate. It's about weaving stories that resonate spark curiosity and transport the viewers to a new dimension. Your imagination is the fold that will propel your creativity forward. As you embark on your creative journey in creating cloned images. I encourage you to use your uniqueness and finding your own path through the tips and tricks and inspiration that has been shared throughout this class. What's more important is what you can tell and the story you can tell through your mind and your creativity. Uniqueness? Yeah. Use the techniques you've learnt to craft images that reflect your style and your omission. Throughout this course, I've shared every single thing I know about cloning in the hopes that it would ignite a passion and ignite a fire within you. Use these tools and go and create amazing images. As you move forward, remember that creativity knows no bounds. Let your imagination so your journey doesn't end here. It's just the beginning of a journey of acceptance. You've accepted the artist within you and I can't wait to see it. So please remember to share your images as projects with us. Describe your creative process and show us the beautiful things you've created as well. You will get positive feedback, I'm very sure of that. And also get to see your classmates and see what they had in mind to when creating cloned images. I can't wait to see what you would create using cloned images. Thank you so much for being a part of this class. I will be creating more classes on photography and different techniques you can use to master photography as well. I've also created some amazing classes in the past on mobile photography and portrait photography. Feel free to check them out. I can't wait to see you in one of my other classes. Take care.