Want to impress your friends and followers on social media? Clone yourself!
Here’s how to clone yourself in a picture, using ONLY your phone. Cloning is easier than you think! I’ve created this guide to walk you through step by step. I’m using my iPhone, but don’t worry Android users, this all works for you too!
Want some additional tips for improving your iPhone photography? Check out this post.
Table of Contents
- Plan out your image
- Set up your tripod
- Prepare your camera settings
- Shoot your photos
- Edit in the Photoshop Express App
How to Clone Yourself In A Picture
What You’ll Need
- iPhone (or any smart phone)
- Tripod (I like this one – also comes with a bluetooth remote!)
- Photoshop Express App (Download here – it’s free!)
- *Optional* Bluetooth Remote (you can just use self-timer on your phone, if you want)
How To Clone Yourself In A Picture
Step 1: Plan Out Your Image
Spend a few minutes planning out your photo. The two main things to think about are: Composition & Lighting
Composition
- How many clones do you want in the photo? Start with two for your first time. (I’m showing 3 for this example)
- Plan out where each clone will sit/stand/etc. and move objects around your room BEFORE you start shooting
- Make sure you’ll be evenly spaced out in the photo so it makes sense and there’s enough open space in between each clone.
Lighting
- When shooting on a phone’s camera, planning your lighting is key because you can’t manually adjust it when you’re shooting like you can from a professional camera.
- If your photos have slight differences in lighting, they won’t blend as easily with one another.
- If outdoors, shoot on an overcast day to avoid too much shifting in light.
- If indoors, you can use 100% artificial lighting if you have it and that would ensure your lighting is constant in all your photos. But if you don’t have good enough artificial lighting, then shoot in a decently-lit room but, again, make sure it’s an overcast day to avoid big shifts in light coming through your windows. And avoid any harsh, direct light in your main frame.
Step 2: Set Up Your Tripod
A tripod (or something sturdy to hold your phone in place) is essential to being able to clone yourself. The frame of your photo must remain exactly the same in all your photos. Even the slightest movement to your frame in between photos could make editing the photos together nearly impossible.
If you’re going to use a bluetooth remote, make sure it’s connected to your phone.
Step 3: Prepare Your Camera Settings
If you have Portrait Mode with the wide angle option (the little 1x/2x in the bottom left corner), I recommend using that instead of the regular iPhone camera.
If using Portrait Mode, use a high Aperture (f stop) so that the entire photo is in focus. I recommend f/6.0 or higher. To change the aperture, tap the “f” in the top right corner, then slide the slider at the bottom; see photo for example.
Step 4: Shoot Your Photos
- Whether you’re using Portrait Mode or the regular phone camera, that last thing you’ll do before shooting is press and hold on the screen to lock the exposure in place. Leave it like this for your entire shoot and all your clones. (See Photo)
- Oh, and don’t forget your self-timer. Make sure that’s on, too.
- Now, get into frame in your first spot. Either click your bluetooth remote or use the self timer to take pictures multiple times in that spot. You will want options to select from later on.
- Move to your second spot, and repeat.
- Repeat for however many clones you planned to have in the picture.
Pro Tip: Be EXTRA careful you don’t touch your tripod in between photos. If you’re using self timer, tap it LIGHTLY and make sure not to shift your frame even the slightest. A consistent frame is essential. I tripped over my tripod one time and had to start all over. Whoops.
Step 5: Edit In The Photoshop Express App
Select Your Photos
Remember how you took multiple photos of each clone? Here’s where you select one of each. Scroll through those pictures, and select the best picture in each spot. Just make sure your clone is in focus and there isn’t anything weird going on with your lighting.
Photo Editing
Here’s the fun part! Let’s edit them all together!
For editing software, use the Photoshop Express app. It’s free.
Once you’re signed up, go ahead and import your first photo. I use the one with the clone in the middle because it’s easiest to edit that way. This will be your base photo.
Before we continue, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the app’s layout and understand what we will be doing.
- The layers are shown on the right side of your screen, near the middle.
- We are going to have one layer for each one of your “clones.” Your base layer is your first clone.
- We are going to be cutting out the clones from of photos 2 and 3, and placing them on top of your base layer.
If you’re confused, go look at when I posted the photo to instagram to watch the video of me editing the three photos together. That should help you better visualize what we are doing here.
- Now, import your second photo by clicking the plus sign underneath the layers. You will now have two layers.
- Time to cut out the clone in your second photo. Make sure photo 2 is selected and click on the scissors icon on the bottom of your screen.
- Then click on the “Custom” square
- Click on “Brush”
- Adjust your brush size using the scroll bar
- Paint over the part of photo 2 that you want to KEEP.
(See photo example. I used a larger brush and just painted over the whole third of the photo, then made the brush smaller to get more precision around my body
- When you’re finished with the brush, tap on another icon to exit out of it and see your layers come together!
- If you need to clean up any mistakes, tap the scissors icon again, then tap “Remove,” and you can zoom in, adjust your brush size, and clean up your edges.
- When you’re happy with it, exit out of the brush tool again by clicking another icon.
Repeat steps 1-9 for photo 3.
As long as your lighting was consistent and your clones are in focus, you don’t have to be perfectly precise editing around your edges. I certainly wasn’t with the photo in this example!
Important: Make sure your bottom layer is always your base photo. Edits should only be made to your top two laters. If anything gets out of order, tap and hold to slide a layer to another position.
Then guess what… you’re done!
To export your photo, tap the square icon with the up arrow (on the top right corner of the screen) and then tap “Save to Camera Roll.”
One more step… share that baby to your social media and show off those photo editing skills!
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial on how to clone yourself in a picture! If you post a photo cloning yourself, tag me and I’ll share it on my IG!
Do you want the next tutorial to be how to clone yourself in a video like this? Let me know!
Thats all for now, friends! Until next time.
Meet the Writer
Hi, I'm Teresa!
Thank you for taking the time to read my little space on the internet. I’m a digital creator, blogger & environmental advocate.
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