Photoshop How To

Are you struggling to overcome the frustrating limitations of Lightroom's Cone Tool? If so, the simple hacks in this tutorial from the Digital Photo Mentor YouTube channel is just what you need to get back on track.

Instructor Darlene Hildebrandt is educator known for her popular workshops, guided photo tours, and problem-solving online tutorials that run the gamut from in-camera techniques all the way through the final image-editing process. In today's three-minute episode she reveals a few "mind blowing" Clone tool hacks that  "will revolutionize your Lightroom workflow."

Hildebrandt kicks off the lesson by posing a question: "Have you ever had an issue with the Clone tool when you apply it to one spot and it does a pretty good job but doesn't get everything, so you go back and try to clone over the same area again." If so, you already know that Lightroom won't let you apply one clone adjustment atop another.

One of today's Lightroom hacks will quickly resolve this particular issue, along with others that you may not yet have confronted. Hildebrandt's first sample image is of a freshly made bed in a hotel room, and her goal is to remove a small sign in front of the pillows. She opens the Clone tool and paints over the area she wants removed.

As you'll see, remnants of the sign are still visible, and Lightroom won't let her clone over the spot again. Or will it?  As Hildebrandt says, "There are actually two ways we can hack this problem." The first trick is to close the Clone tool and open it again. Now that the original cloned area is no longer selected, you can resize the spot are paint over the area that was missed in the initial attempt.

Hildebrandt demonstrates her second solution on a different area within the frame. This time the result is a total mess. For this complex type complex removal she first tries Lightroom's Generative AI, but the results are far from satisfactory. And once again, painting over the area is a no-go. But watch what happens when she calls upon her second hack. Nice, right?

There are more hack yet to come, and Hildebrandt demonstrates how effective are for solving other Clone tool misfires. Be sure to update your Lightroom workflow once the video concludes. Then head over to Hildebrandt's instructional YouTube channel for more powerful shooting and post-processing techniques.

We also recommend watching a tutorial we featured with another image-editing expert who explains why changing three simple Preferences will greatly speed up Photoshop imports and simplify your workflow.