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[♪ Music ♪] [Adobe Creative Suite Podcast]
[Learn CS5]
[with your host]
[Terry White]
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast.
My name is Terry White, and in this episode, we're going to take a look at
how to use content aware scale and how to use content aware fill when it doesn't work.
That's right.
We know that technologies don't always work perfectly in Photoshop
on every single image the exact same way.
That's why there's so many ways to do so many different things.
So, while I've shown many examples in the past of content aware fill,
I still have people out there that just don't believe it works,
or they don't get the same results.
So, I think I know part of the problem, and I'm going to show you how
to correct that problem today.
So, let's start with CS4s content aware scale.
That's right, this was introduced in CS4, and of course it's in CS5.
So, let's take a look.
I'm going to go ahead and head over to Mini Bridge, and Mini Bridge,
I need to search for the image that I'm looking for.
It's called "Beach."
So, we'll do a beach.psd, do a quick search, and there's the beach photo.
So, we'll just go ahead and open that up, and this is one of the example photos
that we've used in the past for content aware scale.
So, I just want to point out that the layer containing the actual scene
of our beach photo is on it's own layer with another white background behind it.
And the idea here is that we need this image to fit the width of this background.
Of course, the problem is that if you do a free transform, which I'll hit command T
on the Mac or Control T on Windows, and if I were to stretch the image this way,
this is not what we want because now those people actually look
like they were on a cruise ship.
So, we don't want people stretched and distorted.
That's the worst way to do it.
So, content aware scale allows me to do the exact same thing to that layer,
but more intelligently, so if I do content aware scale versus free transform,
I can now scale this image and Photoshop will figure out the things that can be scaled
and leave alone the things that shouldn't be scaled, such as the people,
the ship, the parasailer and the snorkeler.
But everything else was scaled as needed, and of course, made the scene wider.
And yes, it even works in the opposite direction.
You can even go the other way just to prove how intelligent it is without
squishing the people or squishing the boat.
It just made the scene smaller.
So, content aware scale is awesome when it works.
So, I'll show you an example of when content aware scale doesn't work,
and we'll see how to fix it, and we'll also use the same or similar technology
to fix it when content aware fill doesn't work or is grabbing too much.
So, we can go ahead and close this image, I'm not going to save it, you get the idea.
We'll head back to Mini Bridge.
I'll go to my history here, my recent folders, and I have a content aware fill folder.
All right, so we'll go ahead and grab this image,
and I'm going to go ahead and again, put it on some other layer so that
I can content aware scale it.
So, I'll just go ahead and delete the lock from the background,
which will convert that into a layer, and now, we'll do the same exact thing,
content aware scale, no tricks, but this is the problem when it doesn't work.
This is when the computer can't figure out what can be scaled and what can't.
And you end up making the guy too skinny.
So, you get the idea.
It's not perfect on every single image.
It's not going to guess right on every single image.
That's why we're doing this tutorial today, to walk you through some steps
of how to tell Photoshop what areas it shouldn't try to scale.
So, in other words, for whatever reason, it did not detect him,
maybe because of the brick background, maybe it got confused.
Who knows? It's a computer, but in this case, we can correct for this.
The easiest way to correct for it is to simply make a selection of the guy,
you can use quick select tool, whatever selection method you want,
and then save that selection as a channel.
So, the minute you make the selection, you choose "save selection"
under the select menu, and that will automatically
allow you to add it and name your channel.
Once you have that selection saved, then when you do your content aware scale,
we'll do the exact same thing.
Here, let's get out of it, and we'll choose it again.
Content aware scale, now, before you start scaling it,
you'll notice in the control panel up here there's a protect feature,
and this protect feature is going to pop up and show me any channels I have.
And of course, I have one called model selection, and once I choose protect,
model selection, I can go ahead and content aware scale this scene
without it scaling the person, and that's the idea.
We'll just keep scaling the scene narrower and narrower without scaling the person
because I've identified that area of the photo as something Photoshop should protect.
So, when it doesn't work properly, it's just as simple as making a selection,
saving it as a channel and then choosing that selection
as something that should be protected.
Okay, great, that will do my transform for me, my content aware scale,
and now that I've scaled it and that bush or those vines are closer to him,
that's going to create another problem for me if I've now decided to take him off the scene.
So, for example, let's go ahead and grab the lasso.
Of course, I am not going to be very accurate with this.
I'm even doing this on my track pad.
I didn't even bother to plug in my stylus or even use a mouse.
So, track pad fingers beware, but we'll go ahead and make our selection
as best we can and there we are.
So, you would make a better selection, I know, but just to show you what happens.
Now that I made that selection, I would love to content aware fill that area,
and just have the wall.
But here's the problem.
Content aware fill grabs everything around the selected area, including, in this case,
those vines are so close, I've got a feeling it's going to try
and grab them and pull them into the scene.
So, here's one tip, right off the bat, because I'm on a layer,
I can't just hit my delete key like I normally would or that will actually delete the image.
So, if you're on a layer, you hit shift, delete.
Or, if that's confusing you, you don't have the right delete button on your keyboard,
just go to fill, fill will bring up content aware fill because it's a fill option.
So, all the people that write in and say "Hey, I don't have a delete button,"
"I don't have a backspace, my keyboard is different,"
don't worry, just go ahead and fill and you'll have the same option.
So now, we'll do content aware fill on that area, but here's the problem.
Once I do content aware fill, it's bringing in the vines,
and I think a lot of people get frustrated with content aware fill
because it starts bringing in things they don't want,
and therefore, it causes additional work to try and remove the extra things.
So, let's undo, let's deselect, and let's use the same method.
Let's tell Photoshop that the vines are off limits.
So, we'll do this by making a selection.
We'll make our selection around the vines, and again,
you can see I'm not being very accurate or close here.
I'm just getting kind of a rough selection around the vines.
Now that I have that selection around the vines, and because I'm on a layer,
I can add a layer mask, and I'm going to add one that hides that area.
So, I'm going to hold down my option key on the Mac, or my Alt key on Windows,
and then click "add layer mask" and that will temporarily hide that area.
It didn't delete it, it just masked it out.
Now I can go back to--and very important that you remember to click
back onto the actual layer that you want to edit now.
You're no longer on the mask, and now you can make your selection
around the guy that you want to content aware fill out.
So, we'll just go ahead, and again, not being very accurate here,
doing this from the track pad which I hate doing.
This is why I don't even bother trying to use Photoshop with a track pad
because it's just really bad.
All right, so here we'll try and get rid of that little boo-boo there.
There we go.
Okay, so now, once again, shift, delete.
We'll bring up content aware fill, and we'll go ahead and do that now on the guy.
And because Photoshop can't see the vines, it can't bring them in,
and that's the trick, is that you're protecting the area.
You're hiding that area in this case from Photoshop,
and therefore, it can't use it.
Now that we've gotten rid of him, we can bring back the vines
by simply right clicking on the mask and deleting it
or disabling it, whichever one you prefer.
I'm just going to delete it because I don't need it anymore.
Now my vines are back, the guy's gone, my image is skinnier.
I got everything I wanted from content aware scale and content aware fill.
I can hit the letter C, and we can go ahead and crop this image down, and I'm done.
So, that's it for for this episode of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast.
I hope you got something out of better ways to use content aware scale
and content aware fill when it doesn't work perfectly the first time.
Thanks for watching, we'll catch you next time.
