Photoshop guru Jason Hoppe teaches non-destructive retouching techniques in Photoshop. In classes at CreativeTechs he shows many ways to improve your images without overwriting the original image data. Done properly, image quality doesn't degrade as you make edits, and you retain flexibility when clients come back with later change requests. Here's a classic example of those non-destructive techniques in action: We've added a separate cloning layer instead of cloning directly onto our image.
And we've used a color adjustment layer to correct our subject's skin tone without directly changing our photo's original colors. However, you must be aware of a subtle-but-important detail when using a cloning layer on images that have been color corrected with adjustment layers.
In this week's creative tip we'll discuss that issue, and we'll show why retouchers know to always turn off their adjustment layers before cloning on an image. This is one of those tips where the fix is easy, but the problem itself is a bit harder to explain.
So we've created an exaggerated example to make the problem more evident. We've started with a stock photo of a wall with aging blue paint. We've made a significant change to our image — however following our non-destructive philosophy, the original background image has not been modified. The only addition is a color adjustment layer which can be changed or removed later.
And what if we wanted to create a clone layer for this image? If we start using Photoshop's clone tool with the color adjustment layer visible, and our clone tool set to "Sample All Layers" we end up cloning with a weird green hue.
