Content-Aware allows you to select pixels in an image and move or extend them to other areas within it.
Beach
An example of content-aware in use is with this image of a beach and how we extended it to further than it originally existed.
First, we used the crop tool to extend the canvas past the original image of the beach.
Then we used the marquee tool to select all of the blank area and overlap a small amount onto the image.
With this selection, we then went to the fill option under the edit dropdown in the options bar to open this dialogue box. After ensuring that content-aware was selected, we confirmed the process to end up with the image below:
The blank space has been filled with borrowed pixels that photoshop has expertly blended into place to match the rest of the image almost seamlessly.
Healing Tools: Spot Healing Brush Tool
Content-aware can be used for fixing areas where pixels already exist which is what we did for an old photograph of a boy.
First, we imported the image of the boy. Here it is unedited.
Then, to remove the creases in the photo, we selected the spot healing brush tool in the tools panel. There are options for the tool in the control panel where you can soften it to work in greater detail.
To enable a non-destructive workflow, we created a layer called ‘blemishes’ on which we would be using the spot healing brush tool. For this to work, however, you need to ensure that the ‘sample all layers’ option in the control bar is turned on so that the tool will take effect on the image when you aren’t directly on its layer.
We then worked our way through the images, removing the blemishes to end up with this:
The edited image. As you can see, there is a line in the photo that looks blurry where I attempted to edit out a very prominent crease but as a result, it looks quite blurry. To possibly improve this, I could trial the other healing tools like the patch healing tool to see if I would be able to edit the photo in this area a little bit better.
Thanks for reading ~
Jasmine Cooper 