cloning and healing tool not working as expected in Lightroom 6

[brenda4292@OL.COM]

Hi I am a Lightroom beginner, and after watching cloning and healing tutorials, I am still having a lot of trouble. When I click on the area I need to clone or heal, I do not get any second source circle so I cannot choose what source Lightroom will pick and it really does not work at all. Help!

[Jennifer Wills · Accepted solution]

Hi Brenda!

With the clone tool selected you can either click, or click and drag to cover an irregular area. Now you will see two black pins.  You can select the pin that is the clone source and move it around to the area you want to use. It is a little backward from Photoshop, but can work pretty well once you get the hang of it. I hope this helps

-Jennifer

[Laura Shoe]

If you're seeing your fix circle but not the source circle, then the source is probably outside of the portion of the photo that you are viewing. If you're zoomed in, use the Navigator panel to either zoom out or move elsewhere in your photo. If you're not zoomed in and if you have cropped the photo, there's a small chance that the source is in a portion that is cropped off.  If you move your cursor away from the fix and outside of the image into the gray surrounding it, you may see that the cursor changes to a hand tool. If so you can grab the source circle (even though you can't see it) and drag it somewhere else. The other option is to undo your crop until you have done your healing and cloning.

If you are seeing no circles or pins, then they are hidden. Type H to reveal them, or in the toolbar below your photo change Show Edit Pins to Auto or Always. (I like Auto because they display when my cursor is in the photo and hide when I move my cursor out of the photo.)