Aperture Cloning Tricks

Most of the Aperture heads know the Retouch tool is excellent for sensor spot removal - but it can do much more.  I use the Clone brush often to remove distractions from a photo. A couple of tricks with cloning I use are:

• After Option-clicking the clone source, hold the option key down to fine tune where the cloned area will be painted. This is great when dealing with straight edges.
• Change the opacity of the Clone brush and repeat a brush stroke to blend in rough transitions.

In the video below, I use these techniques on some strongly textured areas. Distractions are removed and the textures still look natural and seamless (well, seamless except for the seams in the concrete I needed to keep for this photo :).