On High Sierra 10.13.3, in Photos v3.0, the clone tool doesn't seem to work. The retouch tool is fine. Trying to clone, I option-click on a source area of the photo and the + cursor appears like it should, but when I try to "paint" the area to be repaired, I only get retouching. Nothing from the source area is transferred. Is this a bug?
TIA
iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), macOS Sierra (10.12.6), null
You're welcome 🙂
Looks like something Apple needs to fix.
What we would need is a real clone and stamp tool.
The Retouch tool is doing what the manual says - copy the texture and apply it to the blemish, that is a long way from the clone tool in Aperture.
Retouch a photo to fix marks and blemishes in Photos on Mac - Apple Support
tip: If you’re not getting the results you want, you can copy pixels from another part of the photo and apply them to the blemish. Press the Option key while you click an area that has the texture you want, then use the retouch tool to apply the change. Control-click the image and choose “Clear manual Retouch source point” to stop copying pixels from the area.
Some photo editing extension are quit good at retouching, for example Affinity Retouch or Luminar 2018.
You may want to send feedback to Apple with a feature request: Feedback - Photos - Apple
The cloning will only transfer the texture from the source, but not the luminance. If you are cloning to a very bright area, you will not see much effect. Are you seeing more, when you are cloning to a very dark background?
But many users reported, that retouching is no longer working well on High Sierra.
Now that I looked more closely, that is what is happening. Only texture is getting cloned. True, the effect is almost invisible when cloning from a textured area to a bright area. When cloning from one smooth area to another area, there's no discernible effect.
Looks like something Apple needs to fix.
Thanks for informative reply.
I believe that it works the way it is documented to work - you may want a different tool rather than wanting the clone tool fixed - tell Apple what you want so they know - Product Feedback - Apple
LN
"you can copy pixels from another part of the photo." I would take this to mean that it works the way it did in Aperture. But in the next sentence, "Option key while you click an area that has the texture you want" seems to conflict with the former.
I suppose it could be useful to have the option to copy only a texture if you're trying to restore an area that's smeared by the Retouch Tool.
Thanks again.
Clone tool in photos doesn't work
