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Edit Article How to Use the Cloning Tool for Photoshopping. Sometimes there is an object or person that needs to be removed from an image: an ex boyfriend or girlfriend, compromising text, an advertisement that can’t be displayed for legal reasons, or photographic defects such as dark or light spots. This tool, found in many photo editors, removes unwanted objects from photos or even adds a clone of another object. This tool has been a savior for many photographers as it saves them from having to take the photo all over again.

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The Clone Stamp Tool / Clone Tool and the Healing Brush Tool are both very useful photo editing tools in image fixing. This Free Clone Stamp Tool can be used both as cloning brush and healing brush, so it allows you to duplicate objects or correct imperfections in an image easily and quickly.

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1. The Clone tool uses the current brush to copy from an image or pattern. It has many uses: one of the most important is to repair problem areas in digital photos, by “ painting over ” them with pixel data from other areas. This technique takes a while to learn, but in the hands of a skilled user it is very powerful.
2. Mac Hard drive cloning is a process of replicating the contents of one hard drive to another hard drive for the purpose of backing up useful data while performing critical hard drive updates or a complete recovery of your Mac system.
3. The Clone Stamp Tool and the Healing Brush Tool are used for retouching. These tools take a sample of a portion of your image (the “source”) and “clone” or retouch that sample on another portion of your image (the “destination”).

Good backups are essential for every Mac user. Tools such as Apple’s Time Machine, included as part of OS X, make it easy to store multiple versions of every file from your computer on an external drive or an AirPort Time Capsule. And if you want the security of off-site backups without having to physically move drives around, an online backup provider such as CrashPlan is a good option.

But while both these forms of backup serve important purposes, I also recommend maintaining a clone (also known as a bootable duplicate)—a complete, identical copy of your startup volume, stored on an external drive in such a way that you can boot your Mac from it if necessary. (To learn more about designing a solid backup strategy, see Backup basics: The quick, something-is-better-than-nothing backup system and Bulletproof backups: When you absolutely can’t lose any data.)

What a clone offers that the likes of Time Machine and CrashPlan do not is immediate recovery: You can get back to work almost instantly after a drive crash or other severe problem with your startup volume. You simply attach your clone drive, restart while holding down the Option key, select the clone drive in OS X’s Startup Manager, and press Return. A few moments later, you’re back up and running—and you can then repair (or replace) your main startup drive more or less at your leisure. By contrast, even though Time Machine also backs up every file on your drive, restoring all those files to a new drive takes hours (or possibly days); restoring an entire drive from an online backup service takes even longer.

A clone also comes in handy for troubleshooting, because you can use it to run third-party utilities on your ailing drive. (Your Mac’s built-in OS X Recovery features include Disk Utility, but sometimes you need a drive-repair app with more oomph.) Finally, having a clone is essential when upgrading to a new version of OS X, because it gives you the option to easily revert to your previous system (by erasing your upgraded-OS drive and then restoring from the clone) if compatibility problems arise.

There’s app for that

Unfortunately, you can’t make a clone merely by copying files from your startup volume to an external drive in the Finder. Every file on your drive—including thousands of hidden files—must be copied just so, with permissions and other metadata intact. Symbolic links (Unix-based file references that function like Mac aliases) must be recreated correctly. And, crucially, the System folder (/System) on the backup drive must be “blessed,” which entails recording its physical location on the drive in a special portion of the drive’s hidden HFS Volume Header. (For more details, read Mike Bombich’s article What makes a volume bootable?) All this is best done with a utility designed expressly for cloning.

More than two dozen third-party backup apps can make bootable duplicates. (You can see a list in the online appendix to my book Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac.) It’s also possible (if not especially convenient) to clone a drive using Disk Utility or by using the diskutil command in Terminal. Most of these apps and processes do an entirely respectable job, but two cloning utilities—Shirt Pocket’s $28 SuperDuper and Bombich Software’s $40 Carbon Copy Cloner—stand above the rest. Each has a long history, focuses on cloning, presents a simple and clear user interface, and includes unusual features that make it an especially good choice for creating and maintaining bootable duplicates.

SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner

For everyday cloning tasks, SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are equally good in almost every respect, and they have a core set of features in common. In both apps, you choose a source drive (say, your startup volume) from a pop-up menu on the left, a destination drive (your clone-backup volume) from a pop-up menu on the right, and any desired options using additional pop-up menus or buttons. Each utility provides a plain-English summary of what’s about to happen; you then click a button to begin the copying operation.

Both apps give you the option to erase the destination before copying files from the source; or to update your clone incrementally to reflect only those files that are new, changed, or deleted since the previous cloning run. (The free trial version of SuperDuper disables the incremental update feature, which Shirt Pocket calls Smart Update.) Both also let you deselect specific files, folders, or filename patterns to omit them from your backup, although they have very different interfaces for doing so—I find this task much easier to accomplish in Carbon Copy Cloner than in SuperDuper.

In addition to using an actual drive as the destination, each app can copy the source volume to a disk image (which won’t itself be bootable, but which can be restored to a drive that will then become bootable); you can choose from among several disk-image formats, with or without compression. Carbon Copy Cloner also offers encryption for disk images, while SuperDuper lets you choose from three levels of compression. Likewise, you can use either app to restore a drive from a disk image. Both apps also let you schedule backups to run unattended—on a recurring schedule, when the destination drive is mounted, or both. (For example, I update my iMac’s clone twice a day, since its destination drive remains connected all the time, but my MacBook Pro’s clone updates only when I plug in my backup drive.)

Both apps can also perform designated tasks—for example, running shell scripts; ejecting the destination drive on completion; or instructing your Mac to sleep, shut down, or restart—before or after a cloning operation. (In Carbon Copy Cloner, such actions can be specified only for scheduled tasks.)

In my testing, both apps functioned impeccably, copying everything exactly as they claimed they would, including all the finicky OS X metadata, permissions, and links.

However, beyond the basics, the two apps diverge in interesting ways—each one offers useful tricks that the other does not.

SuperDuper’s sandbox and special options

SuperDuper has two post-run options that Carbon Copy Cloner lacks: It can create a disk image of the destination volume (useful in an institutional setting where you may need to copy an image to multiple Macs), and it can install a package-based app on the destination.

In addition, SuperDuper has a feature called Sandbox, which requires some explaining but turns out to be very useful in certain situations. When you create a clone using the Sandbox option, the contents of the source volume’s /Users folder (and, optionally, the non-Apple apps in the /Applications folder) aren’t copied to the destination. Instead, SuperDuper creates symbolic links of those items from the source to the destination. Because so many files are merely being linked rather than copied, a Sandbox clone takes much less time to create than a regular clone, and it occupies less space on the destination drive. When you restart your Mac from the Sandbox volume (assuming, of course, that the source volume—typically your normal startup drive—is still connected), everything should behave almost exactly as if you copied all the files. But any changes to the contents of /Users (such as modifications to documents in your home folder) are made on the original drive, not the clone.

What’s the point of all this? For starters, you can safely do anything you like while booted from the Sandbox clone—upgrade OS X, install new software, try out wacky system customizations, or whatever—and none of those changes will affect your original drive. However, you can also feel secure knowing that any changes you make to documents and settings while working from the clone will also show up when you switch back to the original drive. (Note that if you use the “Sandbox - shared users and applications” option, updates made to linked third-party apps while running from the clone will affect the original drive.) This makes a SuperDuper Sandbox a great way to test, say, a beta version of OS X. SuperDuper’s documentation cautions that you should not treat a Sandbox clone as a replacement for a regular clone, but as a supplement for testing purposes. The developer also recommends against restoring a Sandbox clone to the original drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner’s conveniences

Although Carbon Copy Cloner lacks a Sandbox feature, it has four other unique capabilities that you may find even more helpful.

Recovery HD support When cloning a volume, Carbon Copy Cloner can duplicate the hidden Recovery HD partition that’s created when you install OS X 10.7 Lion and later—this is the hidden partition that makes OS X Recovery possible. At first, I didn’t see much point to this feature, because when I boot from a clone, I can use third-party disk utilities that may offer more features than the limited toolkit (Disk Utility and Terminal) I get when restarting into OS X Recovery. But having a Recovery HD partition on an external drive can come in handy. For example, if you want to encrypt the external drive using FileVault, that drive must have its own Recovery HD partition. In addition, if you ever need to erase (or replace) your internal drive and restore it from a clone, Carbon Copy Cloner enables you to restore the Recovery HD partition as part of the process; with SuperDuper, you’d have to run the OS X installer again to recreate that partition.

Archiving Versioned backups (such as those created by Time Machine and CrashPlan) normally are not bootable, and bootable clones normally contain only the most recent versions of your files. But Carbon Copy Cloner has a mode that attempts to give you the best of both worlds. When you use the “Preserve newer files, don’t delete anything” option, Carbon Copy Cloner moves any items that have been deleted from the source volume, and older versions of items that have been changed, into a date-and-time-stamped subfolder of a new _CCC Archives folder at the top level of your destination drive. Those folders maintain the original drive hierarchy—so, for example, if a file was originally located in /Users/jk/Documents, it’ll be found in /_CCC Archives/[date and time]/Users/jk/Documents afterward. Carbon Copy Cloner can also prune older files (beyond a size limit you set) when updating your backups. Although restoring files that were archived this way is much less convenient than in most backup programs, the feature does (to an extent) enable you to combine both backup techniques.

Network cloning SuperDuper can clone a drive to a disk image that’s stored on a network server, but Carbon Copy Cloner can also clone a drive directly to an external drive connected to another Mac on your network. That means you could later hook up that drive to your Mac and boot from it, without having to restore anything first. The procedure to set this feature up is odd: You must first create an authentication-credentials package on the source Mac, manually copy that package to the destination Mac, and install it there (complete instructions are included in Carbon Copy Cloner’s documentation). But once configured, it’s as easy to clone your drive to a network volume as to a local volume.

Block copying Carbon Copy Cloner normally operates on a file-by-file basis, but when certain conditions are met (for example, both the source and destination volumes must be locally attached and be able to be unmounted), the utility can perform a block-by-block copy, which is faster for an initial backup. (Updates to existing backups are always file-by-file, which is faster for that purpose.)

Honorable mention: ChronoSync

Though SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are my favorite drive-cloning tools, a third backup app, Econ Technologies’ $40 ChronoSync (4.5 mice) earns an honorable mention here. As its name suggests, ChronoSync is primarily a Mac-to-Mac sync tool, but it also includes an extensive set of backup features, including the capability to make bootable clones. Like Carbon Copy Cloner, it can even clone to an external drive connected to another Mac on your network (as long as you install the $10 ChronoAgent utility on that Mac). Also like Carbon Copy Cloner, it can move changed and deleted files to an archive folder on the destination; and like both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper, ChronoSync supports incremental updates, scheduling, pre-/post-run scripts, and the use of disk images as destinations, although you must create those images manually in Disk Utility.

On the downside, ChronoSync lacks special features such as SuperDuper’s Sandbox and Carbon Copy Cloner’s Recovery HD cloning; and although it has a massive array of options you can configure, it’s not quite as easy to use as my top choices. However, it’s still an excellent all-purpose choice for syncing, backups, and cloning.

My pick

Best Mac Photo Editing Software 2019 - Photo Editor Reviews

Recently, we spent over 50 hours testing 10 Mac photo editing programs. We compared the programs' editing capabilities by importing the same group of photos into each one and applying the same edits. We also took into account how easy each program is to use, preferring those that are powerful as well as easy to learn. We further evaluated each software’s photo organizing features, including how many categorization and search options it offers. After all our testing was said and done, CyberLink PhotoDirector Ultra 10 stood out as the best Mac photo editing software. We think it is a good fit for users of any skill level, but it has features that make it especially good for beginners. To find out if this software is a good option for you, check out CyberLink’s 30-day free trial.

CyberLink PhotoDirector Ultra 10

PhotoDirector not only offers some of the easiest-to-use editing tools, it also offers one of the best photo organizing systems we've seen.

Pixelmator 3.3

Pixelmator 3.3 is easy to learn and costs less than many other programs. It is compatible with a wide range of file types and offers editing tools to enhance your images like a pro.

Affinity Photo

This software's tools are comparable to Adobe Photoshop. One of the biggest differences between the two programs is Affinity's lower-cost.

Best Overall

CyberLink PhotoDirector Ultra 10

CyberLink PhotoDirector Ultra is one of the easiest programs to use, which makes it ideal for beginners.

Experienced users will also find that it offers the tools needed to edit and organize their work. You can arrange your photos using a star rating system, color labels, keyword tags and even by tagging specific people's faces. There is a wide range of editing tools and we found that they work super well when making changes. The object removal tool was especially impressive, removing unwanted elements and replacing the space believably. We also found an easy HDR feature and lens distortion correction tools. Unfortunately, there were no vector graphics tools.
The interface is built differently than many other photo editing programs. Instead of displaying toolbar icons, the program is split into category tabs, which contain various editing tools. Instead of simply clicking on the cloning brush icon in the toolbar, you'll need to click on the 'People Beautifier' tab in the 'Edit' section to access this feature. PhotoDirector works with the most common image file types including PSD, JPG, TIFF and RAW files. This software also makes it easy to post your favorite images directly to Facebook or send your photos to loved ones using email from within the program. You'll find tutorials and a FAQs page on the website. While emailing the company is free, you have to pay for a phone support plan if you want to get technical help.

Best Budget

Pixelmator 3.3

Pixelmator 3.3 is a less-expensive photo editor with advanced editing capabilities. Considering all included tools, this is a very good value.

You get all the basic tools such as red-eye removal, selection tools, and color management, along with more advanced tools like background removal, creative filters and automatic editing options. Unfortunately, while the program works in layers, you cannot apply layer masks to your images. You also cannot easily fix lens distortion, create HDR images or stitch together panoramas with this software. There is no organizing system, so you will have to purchase a dedicated program if you want that capability. You can, however, view your photos' EXIF information.
Pixelmator works with the most common image files, including RAW, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, PSD and PDF. It can also help you optimize your photos for online usage. You can post photos directly onto social media sites such as Facebook, or email photos from within the program, but there is no online photo gallery. Also, you cannot make animated GIFs with this software.
If you want help with Pixelmator, there are various video tutorials, FAQs and even a user forum to help you learn and find answers. If you want to contact a representative, you can do so via email.

Best Alternative to Photoshop

Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is one of the most powerful photo editing programs we tested. It didn't score as high as other program since it lacks a photo organizing feature.

You'll find that many of the tools you use in Photoshop are also in this program. In fact, it uses many of the same hotkeys. We were quickly able to remove unwanted objects from our photos with the content-aware fill tool. We counted 42 preset filters in the program that you can quickly add to your images.
We also found it easy to work with and manipulate the various layers as we worked. The program will help you create HDR photos and panoramas using simple step by step windows. There is no lens distortion tool per se, however, you can use the perspective tools to fix any warping caused by your camera. This program can be bought for a one-time purchase of roughly $50, which is much cheaper than Adobe's monthly or yearly subscription plans.
Affinity does offer a free demo of the software, but you'll need to use it quickly as it only lasts for 10 days. There is no photo organizing system built-in to this software so if you're specifically wanting a program that can sort your images, this might not be the best choice for you. We didn't find any printing project resources within the program. It will only allow you to make basic print requests.

Best for Learning Adobe

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2018 is one of the best Mac photo editors on the market. You navigate through the interface by choosing between the Guided, Quick and Expert modes. As expected, Guided mode helps you become acquainted with the various tools. It even offers tutorials and written instructions to fully explain everything.

Quick mode allows you to automatically make common adjustments to your photos, which can save time when you know your enhancements won't take long. You can adjust contrast, brightness and color. The Expert Mode gives you access to all of Photoshop Elements' tools.
There are more than 90 filters that can quickly add artistic effects to your favorite images. It also features advanced tools like content-aware fill, which gets rid of objects in an image and fills the space believably.
Photoshop Elements comes with Elements Organizer 2018, a separate program dedicated to organizing your photos. You can tag photos by time, date, name and rating. While Elements Organizer 2018 allows you to organize and catalogue your photos in a variety of ways, it can get tiresome jumping between the two programs. You can use Elements Organizer 2018 to store your photos directly in the cloud so you can access them anytime, anywhere.
This program is compatible with all the common image file types, including RAW, PDF, PSD, PNG, GIF and TIFF. You can also choose to share your photos directly onto Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. Should you need help, there are dozens of video tutorials online along with user forums and a FAQs page.

Best for Making HDR Images

Acorn 6

Use the tools to alter the hue, brightness and contrast of your images to make them look the way you want them to.

This software also works in layers to quickly view and select various elements when making changes. You can create both HDR and panoramic images using this software. The HDR guide steps you through the process making it easier to combine two or more images into one for a vibrant and lively finished product. Since it works with HDR images, it's not surprising that the software is compatible with RAW images, in addition to the most common file types. There is no photo organizer, so you'll have to purchase another one separately if you're wanting to manage your images. Fortunately, it does include a batch processor to make changes to multiple images at once and save you time. The cloning tool can help you eliminate unwanted objects from your images whether that be acne from a portrait or phone wires from a landscape. It also happens to be one of the least expensive programs in our comparison, selling for roughly $30.

Why Trust Us?

We have been testing Mac photo editing software for the past seven years. Whenever we evaluate products, we use the same testing methodology on each product to get fair and honest results. Our testers are often a mixture of experienced and inexperienced users, so we can gauge how different audiences react to a piece of software. With photo editing software, we look at every feature, tool and capability to determine how useful and intuitive each program is overall. Our testing helps us determine whether or not a program is best for beginners, advanced users or a mixture of both. We prefer to recommend programs that help you grow from a novice to an experienced artist while offering all of the best editing tools and sharing capabilities.

We contacted Brooklyn Parks - a graphic designer of 6 years – and Lisa Dixon – a professional photographer of 4 years to get more insights about photo editing programs. We also reached out to John Yoo, Head of Sales at CyberLink to learn more about PhotoDirector Ultra.

How Much Does Mac Photo Editing Software Cost?

You'll find that the best Mac photo editing software ranges between $30 and $100. Usually, programs costing $50 and up will give you more creative freedom and control over your work. The excessively expensive programs that cost more than $100 aren't always worth the cost, since you can usually find a program that fits your needs for less. Determine the tools and features you want most and then choose a program that offers them.

How We Tested

This year alone, we spent 50 hours testing 10 products. Our testers are graphic designers and photographers with a range of photo editing software skills. To determine which programs have the best editing capabilities, we uploaded the same images to each piece of software and applied the same edits. We paid attention to the intuitiveness of each product and compared the edited images side by side.

When the programs allowed, we also shared images to social media sites to see how well the sharing process worked. Programs with more editing features scored higher, while programs with fewer features scored lower. Our ease-of-use score was determined by the number of tools each program offered combined with the effectiveness of applied edits and the intuitiveness of each program's interface. Programs that were well organized and offered plenty of help tools scored higher.

We looked at file compatibility and awarded programs with more points when they worked with a wider range of common image file types. This also included the ability to optimize images for use on the web. The best software also comes with extensive resources, especially online video tutorials. Programs that offered a larger quantity of quality video instructions, a FAQs page and a user forum scored higher in our review.

What to Look For

Editing Tools

When we spoke to Parks, she told us that the best programs are the ones with intuitive tools. 'The name makes it obvious for what [the tool] does and it's easier to find what you are looking for,' she said. We score programs higher that were easier to use, this included making it easier to find the specific tools you need. What you need from a photo editor depends on what you intend to do with your images. Any true photo editor should offer basic editing tools like red-eye removal, cropping, color management, shape tools and the ability to add text to images. More comprehensive programs also have background removal software and a variety of brushes. Advanced tools help you make fine tweaks to your photos like touching up skin blemishes with touch-up or cloning tools.

It's also nice having a program that can fix lens distortion and create panoramas and HDR images. Batch processing is a super-convenient feature that allows you to make the same edits to several images at once. If you plan on taking dozens of photos at a time on a frequent basis, it's worth finding a program that offers it.

Yoo told us that if you can take the time to correctly adjust your camera before taking your photo, you will save yourself some hassle. 'The biggest lesson I learned that saved me time in post-processing was to take the extra time to compose the photo and light in the beginning when shooting. A well-composed photo will save you a lot of time later.' So, it's worth taking the time to prepare your scene.

Pricing
As far as Mac photo editing software goes, you should be able to find a basic editing program for under $100, typically starting for as little as $30. Paying more than $100 will often land you a professional editing program with additional editing tools and presets compared to the basic versions. It's good to note that you don't always have to pay the more expensive prices to get the specific tools you need. Before making your purchase consider what you think are the most important tools and find a software that offers them. If content-aware and cosmetic brush tools are most important to you, you can get a relatively cheap program that still includes those options like Affinity Photo. Programs generally have a trial period as well, so use this to try out the software and see which ones work best for you.

Photo Clone Tool For Mac

Organizing
Not all photo editing programs come with built-in photo organizing systems. While this isn't a critical feature, it can be incredibly convenient and save you time. The most common systems organize by location, faces, dates, times, titles, ratings and color labels. Categorization options vary from program to program.

File Compatibility
Since file compatibility is an important factor of a program's usability, we gave more points to programs that covered the most common image files such as RAW, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, PSD and PDF. Make sure you choose a program that works with the file types you use most. Yoo told us, 'I always shoot in RAW since it keeps the most light information in case I need to edit.' RAW images give you the most control over the editing process when they are imported into editing programs, which is why many photographers prefer to work with them.

Sharing Capabilities
Being able to post photos to Facebook or email them to family and friends directly within a photo editing program is a nice feature. Many companies offer online photo gallery accounts for you to use for free, but some cost extra. This can be a good place to back up your photos in case of computer failure.

If you plan on printing your photos or designs, Dixon told us it's best to work with 300 dpi, which is short for “dots per inch”. 'You can print pretty much anything,' she said. Many photo editing programs allow you to determine the resolution and size of new files or adjust the resolution and size of current images. This high resolution allows you to print images the size of movie posters and larger without getting blurry or pixelated imagery.

Parks told us that a super simple thing to help you when using photo editing software is to know the size of your project before you start. 'It will save you headaches later on,' she explained, 'otherwise when you transfer your files it can look like garbage.' Pulling a small image onto a larger file can make the small image pixelated and blurry so it's best to know the size of your end goal project when you start.

Affinity Photo Clone Tool

Help & Support
Advanced photo editors have so many features that you will likely need help learning how to use them. Video tutorials, FAQs pages and user forums can go a long way in helping you become an editing expert. Look for companies that also offer customer service in the method that you most prefer, whether through email, live chat or phone.

Parks told us that 'the biggest resource for learning is YouTube.' She further explained that she loves using it to find multiple ways to solve the same problem. If you ever get stumped jump on the web and see what other users have figured out.

Tips from the Pros

Photo Editor Free For Mac With Clone Tool

• If you're wanting to add vectors and symbols to your work, Parks suggests you use The Noun Project, a royalty-free icon library. 'You pay for vectors or PNG objects and symbols. It saves you a lot of time.'
• 'There are a billion artists and YouTube tutorials out there. There are things out there that already exist, there are pictures for you to use. Don't steal things outright, but use things to help you make something.' Many professional artists and graphic designers use imagery that already exists but combine it in a new way to make something unique. As long as you aren't stealing someone else's work, this can be a good method for enhancing your own photography.
• As parting thoughts, Parks explained, 'When looking for a job, it might not be something you imagined, but you can get something using [photo editing] skills.' We couldn't agree more. Being able to use this kind of software opens doors to many different job opportunities, from freelance work to positions within a company.

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