You can create and save a Tool Preset for any tool, which will remember settings that you choose for that tool, so you can quickly and easily select different presets and settings for a particular tool. The degree of usefulness of presets varies, depending on the tool.

You can reset any tool back to its default settings by right clicking on the Tool Presets button and select Reset Tool. Take care not to Reset All Tools, unless that is intended.

Click to show or hide the panel.

You can choose from many brush options. But for the Clone Stamp, you don't need other options. A round brush, with varying degrees of hardness, according to the situation, is all you need.

Generally speaking a soft brush (0% Hardness) will allow you to easily blend your editing in with the rest of the image.

Sometimes 0% Hardness could be too soft, in which case I would suggest something around 60-70% Hardness, but I would never advise using a brush of 100% Hardness for cloning.

Click to show or hide the panel.

You can change brush size, hardness and spacing. A better method for changing brush size is to use the square brackets keys [ ]. [ reduces brush size. ] increases brush size. These are quick and easy to use.

You can change roundness and angle, but most of the time, when using the brush, a round brush will do perfectly fine.

This panel is very similar to the Brush Presets Picker, except you can't choose different brushes.

Size and Tolerance are highlighted in the green box. These relate to pressure sensitive tablets and tablets with a thumb wheel. Both have the same options; Off, Pen Pressure and Stylus Wheel. If you use a regular mouse, you can ignore these. On the Options bar there are buttons for Pressure Sensitive Size and for Tolerance. See below.

This button shows or hides the Clone Source Panel. There are various options here, but to be honest, I rarely bother with opening this panel. Yes, it could be useful sometimes, but for the most part I suggest you ignore it.

When you clone (how to clone is detailed below) this option determines at what opacity you will clone. If you clone at 100% opacity, the cloning will complete replace the area you are cloning from.

If you clone at 50% opacity, only 50% of the of the cloning will be applied and through this 50% opacity, you will see the original. Much of the time this is not wanted, but sometimes it can help you blend your cloning unnoticed into the image.

If you have a pressure sensitive tablet and pen you can control opacity with the strength you press the pen.

Flow allows you to build up the ink applied in the same stroke, by going over and over an area.

This similar, but different to Opacity. In one brush stroke, no matter how many times you go over the same area, the ink applied will be limited by the Opacity. If you end the brush stroke and begin a new stroke, it will apply more ink.

Build up paint in the same way as a real world spray paint effect

If you have a non round brush, you can change the angle of the brush.

It won't make any difference on a round brush.

This is an important setting when using the Clone Stamp tool and it will affect how you clone. To clone, you first select a clone source, then you paint with the Clone Stamp tool to clone from that area. During the stroke the two places are aligned and move together. If Aligned it selected, when you end the stroke and make a new stroke the alignment is maintained.

If Aligned is not selected, each time you release the mouse button and end a stroke, then next stroke clones from the same clone source point (unless you select a new clone source).

Much of the time you will clone with Aligned selected, but there are also times when you will want to deselect this option.

Choose whether to sample from the selected, current layer, or from all layers of just the current layer and the layers below the current layer.

When editing, it's always good practice to leave the original unedited and to do your editing in a way that makes it possible to change it in the future.

My preferred method is to add a new empty layer above the layer, or layers to be cloned. So I would select Current & Below from this list.

The fact that you are editing on it's own layer gives you flexibility to turn that layer's visibility on and off. You can also turn visibility of all the other layers on and off, thus showing only the cloned layer. It's then easy to erase or change parts of the cloning layer. This is a more flexible way of cloning than doing so on a duplicate layer. You should never clone the original, unless you're sure you will never want access to the original image again.

Whilst cloning, if you have adjustment layers in your image, i.e. Levels Adjustment Layer, or Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, these can affect the cloning. This option allows you to ignore any adjustment layers.

If you have a pressure sensitive pen and tablet, you can turn on this option, so brush size is controlled by the pen pressure. If this is off, size will be controlled by brush settings.

For non pressure sensitive users, the best way to change brush size is with the square brackets keys [ ].

Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds, is a beautiful area in the UK that is popular with tourists. It's typical of busy tourist areas, that there are often unwanted people in your shots. You could wait patiently for a time when no one is in the shot, or come back at a less busy time, but for many, this isn't an option, particularly if you're there with family. So, let's remove them in Photoshop.

With care, you can quite easily remove the people in this shot, without leaving any clues there were there at all (which is how all good editing should be).

Select the Brush Tool from the toolbar. Like most tools, it shares the button with other tools and the one that is visible will be the last tool used.

Select Aligned on the options bar. This is explained below, at the relevant steps.

In the Layers panel, click on the + button to add a new empty layer.

When editing, it's always good practice to do so non-destructively, to preserve the original image, unedited. You could duplicate the layer (right click on the Background layer and select Duplicate Layer...).

But this is a better method and gives more flexibility, while still leaving the original Background layer untouched.

We have added a new layer to clone on, so select Current & Below, so that cloning can sample the layer, or layers below. You could also select All Layers. In this example it wouldn't make a difference, but in other images with multiple layers, it could make a difference.

Before you start cloning, you must select a Clone Source, where you will be cloning from.

The Clone Source should closely match the area it will replace, so that cloning will be unnoticed.

Whenever lines exist, you must preserve the continuity of the line. In this part of the image, the line is clear and that's usually a good place to select as the Clone Source.

To select a Clone Source, hold down the Alt key. The cursor turns into a target, as shown in the red box. Click to select the Clone Source.

The next step is an important part of cloning. Where you first click to begin cloning, establishes a relationship between the Clone Source and the cloning. In this image, the Clone Source was selected directly on the line where the grass meets the sky. To maintain this line, cloning must start accurately on the line. The cursor makes alignment easy, as it contains a preview of the Clone Source.

Don't start cloning until you have perfectly aligned the Clone Source preview over a similar area.

When you align the preview, begin cloning. This step is important, as it establishes a relationship between the Clone Source and where you are cloning. If you have selected Aligned (see options, above), this relationship will remain until you select a new Clone Source.

If you didn't select Aligned, the relationship will only last for the duration of the brush stroke. The next brush stroke will use the same Clone Source.

As you clone, notice the + (in the red box). This is the Clone Source. As you selected Aligned, the Clone Source moves while you clone, keeping the same position relative to where you clone.

When we clone the line of the grass, the line is maintained. Note the Clone Source, indicated by the + (highlighted by the red box).

Now we'll deal with the main in blue. The line of grass is running slightly differently to the original Clone Source, so we need to select a new Clone Source.

Press and hold the Alt key, watch for the target icon and click on a suitable area that is similar to the area we will replace.

The red highlight shows my new Clone Source.

Again, the preview in the cursor (highlighted in red) makes it easy to align the cursor before you start cloning.

Don't click to start cloning until this is aligned. In this screenshot, to make it easy to see, I have not yet aligned it to the line of the grass.

The first click to begin cloning is important, as it establishes the relationship between the Clone Source and where you clone.

Get this right and cloning is easy and accurate.

Get this first step wrong and cloning won't look right. In that case, undo, select a new Clone Source and try again.

Be careful not to select a Clone Source too close to the area you want to clone. If you do, you may encounter this problem. In this image I'm cloning the man in blue, but then he starts reappearing.

Until you release the mouse button to complete a stroke, you will be cloning what is there.

If you have room, like we do in this image, don't select a Clone Source too close to the area you will clone.

Sometimes there is not much room, in which case, clone a little, then release the mouse button to end the stroked. That area will then be cloned. Then make another stroke and release the mouse button. And so on. Sometimes you have to be patient and go in small steps.

The Clone Source is indicated by the + (highlighted in red). This shows that the Clone Source is quite close to the area I'm cloning, so I need to keep releasing the mouse button.

I have cloned in strokes, vertically, then released the mouse button each time to end the stroke, so that cloning takes place. Then make a new stroke. Keep repeating.

Keep cloning until the original unwanted object is gone. Then have a close look for any repeating patterns. Where these are present, they spoil the effect, as viewers can see where something was cloned.

In this image, this area of the sky is quite easy to clone, as there are no repeating patterns.

Step 16 showed this finished area and there were no issues with the line of the grass. However, this screenshot illustrates a potential problem that can occur when lines are not perfectly straight, as with the grass..

I have selected a new Clone Source to the right of the unaligned area, because this line of grass is slightly higher than the line on the left.

We can then clone from the right, until the line of grass meets the line of grass on the left.

Cloning the two ladies requires the same techniques as cloning the previous people. The sky is fairly uniform. There is only the line of grass to maintain.

Don't select a Clone Source too close to the women, then release the mouse button after cloning a small area and begin the next stroked. I suggest cloning in vertical strokes, which gives you plenty of room.

Below, I will demonstrate a problem of selecting a Clone Source too close to the area to be cloned and how to deal with it, if there is no more room.

If you select a Clone Source close to the area to be cloned, you may run into problems of a double image. Instead of removing what you don't want, you create more of it.

If there is room, don't select a Clone Source very close to the object to be removed. Sometimes you don't have a choice and you have to. If so, here's how to deal with that.

I have selected a Clone Source close to the lady on the right.

If I don't release the mouse button, the cloning has not yet taken place and I will be cloning part of the image that is still there.

One solution, using the Aligned option, is to just clone a part at a time. In this image my strokes are vertical. Then I release the mouse button and the cloning takes place, which gives more room for the next stroke.

Another solution could be to deselect the Aligned option, so that after each stroke, you are cloning from the original Clone Source. In this image, that would work because the sky is fairly uniform, but this would depend on the image and the area in question.

Continue working patiently, a little area at a time and release the mouse button to complete the stroke.

The above groups of people were easy to remove, as we only had to maintain the line of the grass. But sometimes you have multiple lines and these must be maintained, for the viewer not to notice the cloning.

In this image we must maintain the line of the grass, but we must also maintain the line of the side of the building.

In many situations, this is not as difficult as it first appears. We just have to tackle each area, one bit at a time.

Select a Clone Source along the line of the grass.

Then clone, as before to remove the area up to the building.

Select a new Clone Source from the other side, where the building meets the grass.

Clone up to the edge of the building.

Select a Clone Source along the edge of the building.

Clone down the edge of the building.

For the last part, where the building meets the grass, reduce the brush size. Zoom in so you can clearly see where you are cloning.

Working methodically, with patience and care, this should not be too difficult.