Cloning but not nearby areas

Hi,
My brain is mash potatoes. I had method where I could select parts of an image that would be protected if I was cloning out a twig or such.
For some odd reason I cannot get the steps to work. I select parts of the image I want to protect, make a copy, then I try the clone tool. It no avail it still crosses / clones into the selected area..
Any help / steps would be most appreciated.
I currently use CS6.
thanks
James

Why use the clone tool at all, there are much better ways, the most effective in most situations is content aware fill.  You just select the are you want to remove with the lasso tool and then hit the delete key and make sure the dialog box is set to Content Aware.

As for cloning, the source is not protected by a selection, it never was.  It is only the destination that is protected.  So if you are cloning from a source it will venture into and out of selected areas which is what seems like youa re experiencing.  but in general, content aware fill, and also the spot healing brush tend to be better for removing areas.  Only when those fail to give you the result you want, should you venture into cloning.  Cloning for simple removal was supplanted around Photoshop CS2 as the best method to do that.

Agree with E.J....................I would also suggest trying the patch tool. It's often a great solution to removing unwanted objects or cleaning up background "scars" left by content aware or other tools. Just select it from the tool palette, circle the area you want to work on, drag that area to a nearby clean area and deselect.

Do you want to select an area that the clone tool doesn't touch. I.e. the belly of the bird? So that you can clone right to that point?
You should be able to you select/mask that with various tool and then clone without that area being affected.
Depending on what tool you use, you might have to inverse your selection.

Is that what you tried to do? Can you show a screen shot/ example?

IMO clone tool, path tool, content aware fill all have their place. Personally I like the control the clone tool give me much more than the often random results from the other tools. Every task has a tool best suited, not one suits all purposes...

Based on these conversations I have tried Content Aware Fill several times now to no avail.  I went back and looked at some Youtube tutorials to make sure I was doing it correctly and I "think" I am, but I keep getting this error message.  (see below).  Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

I have never seen that in many years of using content aware fill. Perhaps you are selecting a layer that is not an image layer, like a mask layer or something.

Thanks E.J. I will check my procedure once again and get back with you.