I have a suggestion to clone tool. Currently the source area is selected automatically which is against the logic of cloning tool.
In case of repair tool we want to repair certain area and it is correct that PL tries to find the best source area for this action.
But in case of clone tool we want to clone certain concrete area to a new location. We need to be able to select this source area first and only then clone it to the new location. There is an option to move the source area afterwards but it is not convenient at all. Generally when cloning, I usually want to fill some bigger area by repeating the clone action many times. So moving source area all the time to desired position is really annoying.
Best would be to be able to select source area and then click on target area and when clicking repeatedly to new target area the source area would move by the same vector as target area. The same way as Photoshop does it.
This was discussed before. In my opinion, the problem with your suggestion is that you would need to know the exact size and shape of the area that you want to cover if you select the source first. It is likely that it would be too big, too small, or not the right shape. My suggestion would be to change the tool to select the area that needs to be replaced first when in manual (not automatic) mode and then select the area that you want to act as a source, creating the correct sized and shaped mask in the preferred area.
I agree - it has got better in recent releases but still room for improvement for more purposeful cloning / repairing. Sometimes it makes a brilliant guess, but sometimes it is way off. Particularly galling is when it sources some pixels from part of the image which you have already cropped away. As far as I can see you have to get out of the repair tool, go to the crop tool, un-crop, then back to the repair tool, fix the source, then back to the crop tool to recreate your preferred crop. Very frustrating. Could we please at least have a fix to make it never source pixels from outside the image (as currently cropped)?
I’d not be in favour of that proposal, Rob - it would remove a potentially useful source for the repair/clone. I do understand your frustration tho; I’ve experienced that too - but, then again, not often.
Making it easier to move or select a clone/repair mask that is outside the crop would be ideal for me. So I don’t have to save cropping for last. However, I can accept it the way it is.