Hello Photoshop friends! I was trying to modify an image I took on a recent trip to Ireland. My photos all were taken on my Android phone and I didn’t realize that the aspect ratio was going to be a problem. I wanted to make some greeting cards from some of the pictures but they were long and narrow and when I tried to resize them, there was a lot of empty space to fill while keeping as much of the lovely view as possible in the picture. So I tried Content Aware Scale and Content Aware Fill. They did an OK job, but I find that most of the fills are not all that great. It’s fine for a sky, but anything else it just looks fake/bad. So Clone stamp is usually a must.
In this instance I was really getting tired of changing the angle of the clone stamp by typing or using the shortcut SHIFT-ALT-> or SHIFT-ALT-< . Here’s a tip if you are going to use these shortcuts- the < and > are the ones on the keys with the comma and period. I have 3 sets of < and >keys, but 2 of hem just have those arrows on the key. The one Photoshop needs is the “original” arrow keys that share the key with the period and comma.
It’s a drag to have to hold down 3 keys at once, but it is pretty necessary when you are working with directional things like blades of grass or hair. I have been meaning to research using pen settings for the clone stamp brushes because I hadn’t been successful in finding out a way to use them in the past. So I bit the bullet today to do some research. I mean I didn’t spend all day on it, but I couldn’t find anything that would make me think there is a way to do it. At least not with the tablet I use- it’s an old Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch.
However, my tablet does come with a ring for utilizing shortcuts. You can toggle through 4 different “sections” by clicking the button on the ring/circle on the side of the tablet and then you can run your fingers around the ring to cycle quickly through values for those settings. These are customizable through the Wacom settings application. For instance, one of the settings changes the brush sizes, another Rotates the image etc. I decided to change one to run emulate clicking the SHIFT-ALT-> or SHIFT-ALT-< sequences. It still requires a second hand, but at least it is easier than typing the value or clicking those sequences a million times ;).
Here is a quick run down on how I set it up-
Bring Up the Wacom Settings.
Choose the Touch Ring Settings.
1. Click on the Quadrant you want to set/change. I clicked on the Bottom Right one that originally was set to the Keystrokes for brush size. This will pop up a panel so you can do the customization.
In this panel, do the following:
1. Click into the first box that will allow you to change the setting for running your finger around the dial to the left. If there is something already typed in there then
2. click the “Clear” button.
3. Click the “Shift”, “Alt” and “<” (the one on the keyboard with the comma ( “,”) on the bottom of the key and the “<” on the top. This will type in those key shortcuts in the box.
Do the same for the other direction-
4. Click into the first box that will allow you to change the setting for running your finger around the dial to the left. If there is something already typed in there then
5. click the “Clear” button.
6. Click the “Shift”, “Alt” and “<” (the one on the keyboard with the comma ( “,”) on the bottom of the key and the “<” on the top. This will type in those key shortcuts in the box.
7. Type in a name for your new shortcut Settings
8. Click Ok to save
Here is an image that shows the panels where I set this all up. The Wacom Settings Panel are shown with Photoshop in the background and I have circled in Orange the clone stamp setting value I am trying to use the dial in order to change those values using the SHIFT-ALT-> or SHIFT-ALT-< sequences . The Turquoise arrows are used on the Wacom Settings Panel under the Touch Ring Settings Tab to bring up the Panel for the Ring Settings. The Red arrows show the progression on how to change those settings as described above.
Here is the Original Long Photo:
And here is an image I worked on in Photoshop using the Clone stamp as well as lots of other techniques 🙂 :
Hope this hack helps! It isn’t pretty. but it worked haha. Enjoy!
