From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

896 Filling gaps with Content-Aware Fill

From the course: Deke's Techniques (2018-2021)

896 Filling gaps with Content-Aware Fill

- [Instructor] All right so here we are looking at that leopard seal that I captured using a GoPro HERO8, and then developed inside Camera Raw. Now what we need to do is give the image some additional headroom in order to accommodate the ice that we're seeing in the final version of the composition. And we're going to create that headroom, which you're seeing right here, using Content Aware Fill. All right so I'll go ahead and switch back to the image in progress. And then, here inside Photoshop, I'll go up to the Image menu and choose the Canvas Size command. Which allows me to modify the four walls of the canvas independently of this indestructible smart object. And so notice that my unit of measure is set to pixels, and that the Relative checkbox is turned off. At which point, I'll go ahead and change the width value to 2980, and I'll change the height value to 1862. And these are just values that happen to work well in our videos. At which point, I'll click OK in order to accept that change. Photoshop is going to tell me that the new canvas size is smaller than the current one, and as a result some clipping will occur. That's just not true. Because we're working with an independent layer and an indestructible smart object at that, we're not going to cause any damage. So you can just go ahead and click Proceed. And then I'll go ahead and press Control + 0 or Command + 0 on the Mac in order to center the image. All right now what I want to do is slightly scale this layer and reposition it as well. And so I'll go up to the Edit menu and choose Free Transform. Now, assuming that your width and height values are linked together, and if they're not, just go ahead and turn on that link icon, and then change either one of these values to 105% is what we're looking for. And now I want to go ahead and reposition the seal so that it's approximately down at this location. But approximately is not good enough, so I'm going to change these positioning values right here, X and Y, with this triangle turned off. So we don't want delta, which is what it is, to be turned on. And then just go ahead and change the X-value to 1142, and then Tab over to the Y-value and change it to 1422 like so. And then press the Enter key a couple of times here on the PC. That's going to be the Return key a couple of times on the Mac. And just like that, our seal is in the right location. We do not, however, have the headroom that I'm looking for. And so what I'm going to do is zoom out just a little bit. And I'm going to select this region using the Rectangular Marquee tool. And then what I'd like to do is call on the Content Aware Fill command. However, if you were to go up to the Edit menu, assuming you're using the most recent version of Photoshop, then you'll see that the Content Aware command is dimmed. And that's because this command does not work with smart objects. And so what you have to do is temporarily convert the smart object to a pixel-based layer. And you can do that by escaping out of that menu and then pressing Control + A or Command + A on the Mac, and then you just want to jump the selection by pressing Control + J or Command + J on the Mac. And as a result of the fact that you jumped the selection to a new layer, as we're seeing right here, it is not a smart object. So notice that this layer has a little page icon in the bottom right corner of its thumbnail, indicating that it's an indestructible smart object, and this guy does not. All right now I'm going to select that region once again using the Rectangular Marquee tool. And I just want to slightly overlap into the top of the actual photographic image. At which point, I'll return to the Edit menu and choose Content Aware Fill, which is now available. And that, again, assuming you're using the most recent version of Photoshop, is going to bring up this Content Aware Fill workspace. All right now you control how this command works over here in the left-hand preview, and you preview the effects of the command over here on the right. All right so anywhere that's coated with green, at least by default, and you can change the color of that coating if you want to, but anywhere that's covered in green means that's an area that Photoshop is going to source from when determining how to fill in the top area of the image. And so I'm going to make a few changes here. I don't want to source from the animal's tail. And so I'll go ahead and grab the sampling brush up here at the top of the tool box. And then notice that by default, that circular brush has a tiny minus sign inside of it. That's exactly what we want. However, I'm going to reduce the size of the brush by pressing the left bracket key a few times. And then I'll just paint away the tail like so. And you don't have to do it all in one brush stroke, by the way. You can apply as many brush strokes as you like. And then I'm going to paint a margin around the seal's body and around this fin as well. And I'll go ahead and paint along the top of his head. And then if you want to add to the area that Photoshop can source from, then you press the Alt key or the Option key on the Mac, so that we're seeing a tiny, tiny plus sign inside of that brush. And that will allow us to paint in more green like so. However, we're going to be able to get more work done at a time if I increase the size of the brush by pressing the right bracket key a few times. And then I'll go ahead and Alt or Option drag like so. And I'll go ahead and Alt or Option drag down here as well just to give Photoshop as much water to work with. All right now notice over here in the preview, if I Control + Click or Command + Click on the Mac over in this region right here, that we have some detritus that I want to get rid of. And so I'll switch to the Lasso tool, which you could get by pressing the L key just as you can inside Photoshop proper. And notice that we have a little plus sign by default next to the cursor that shows me that I'm going to add to the area that I am filling away. So notice, that goes ahead and gets rid of that trash right there. And then I might kind of drag around close to this tail right here, and drag over on this side of it as well. You don't want to drag around the tail like that because then you'll end up messing it up, as we're seeing over here on the left-hand side. So I'll press Control + Z or Command + Z on the Mac to undo that change. Let's go ahead and drag this guy over so that we can see we have some problems over here. And so I'll just go ahead and create a pretty big selection like so around this region in order to heal that stuff away. And I'll just drag around and see if there's anything else that's really bothering me. Maybe down here near the fin, or whatever part of the animal that's called. And so I'll just go ahead and spacebar drag like so. And I think it's right around here. It's kind of hard to tell with that green overlay. But once I draw that selection I do get rid of that gunk right there. And assuming you like what you see, then you want to make sure Output To is set to New Layer. And then click OK in order to create that new layer as we're seeing right here. And now I'll just go ahead and double-click on its name and I'll call it C-A-F for Content Aware Fill. And then I'll press Control + D or Command + D on the Mac in order to deselect my artwork. And I'll take that Layer 1 right there, go ahead and click on it, and I'll press the Backspace key or the Delete key on the Mac in order to get rid of it, because we no longer need that layer. And that's how you use the dedicated Content Aware Fill workspace in order to fill in this region up here at the top of the image so we have a little more room to work.

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