playing with the inpaint+Clone toys

[ianrb]

Where does affinity find these names -- Inpainting!! . Yeah; I heard Adobe have claimed ''content aware'' as their own . 
I was thinking this could be a 'I share my tips and you share your tips' for inpainting/cloning and so on
Tip: I found covering bigger areas with the bush better than doing little at a time --- like the twigs at the bottom --- one big brush and it's all gone  
Tip: There were problems with inpainting the smaller limbs/twigs against the bigger limbs – sort of a “bleeding” look. By using a small hard clone bush to a put a gap (not too big) against the branch and then use the inpainter to remove the rest worked reasonably well. Be careful to hide the clone tool work when sky is involved --- blue sky is always hard to "repair"
Tip: Use a lower opacity setting to tidy up the little bits left
Tip: It's so easy to dive in thinking "this will be easy" . It's often harder than it seems so use layers to save work as you go with the bigger and more complex work . I needed to go back to start a couple times before I was happy. Time could have been saved doing this -- open file >duplicate > bottom layer is the backup >inpaint an area >duplicate >inpaint another area >duplicate and so on .. If you find there is area you are not happy with; you add a layer mask to remove the mistakes by masking back to a duplicate of the back up layer . Some 'merge visibility' / duplicate / flattening maybe needed but that's better than having to start again 
Comes down to doing some forward planning before rushing in (as I do too often) . Have a way back if required  .  
1] is the original 'untidy' file .  2] is something like I was thinking.  3] just a bit more removed before I got bored . Mainly done as a learning/practise exercise and there really is not a use for the photo ATM --- just looked good at the time with sunlight coming between clouds and with the darker clouds behind the tree
You are welcome to download the photos (if possible)
What are your inpainting/cloning tips? 
Thought while typing: there maybe times when rough inpainting/cloning can be tidied up using the layer masks back to an original file --- over do it then mask the important stuff back in . Must try that !!