Content Aware Fill

One of the major features that got people talking about Adobe Photoshop CS5 was Content Aware Fill. Essentially, this new functionality was going to provide the ability to remove parts of images in a way that “revealed” what was behind that part. Even my description does not fully explain it and the best way to understand the functionality is to simply watch the sneak peak video about it.

I’ve been using Photoshop CS5 for about two weeks now, and though I’ve used the new HDR functionality and Camera RAW updates pretty extensively, I haven’t had the occasion to use content aware fill. The other day, however, I went to a Durham Bulls game and took a few pictures. Two of the pictures had elements that were prime for testing out content aware fill.

This first image occurred just after a Bulls home run (if you look at the score, it made the game 14-0 in the bottom of the 3rd) and bullpen catcher is just staring at the flashing “Home Run!” sign (and probably the bull directly above the sign that’s out of frame). I like this picture, but in the lower left corner, there was a ball cap from a fan in a row in front of me inching into the shot.

Thankfully, Content Aware Fill made quick work of the ball cap.

This picture came during warm ups. I believe it’s of Red Sox prospect Lars Anderson, who is having a pretty good year for the PawSox. Since this picture was taken during warm ups, there was a bunch of stuff cluttering up the field. Most of it I just cropped out, but in order to really follow the “Rule of Thirds” for this shot, my crop had a baseball bat sticking up in the bottom.

Once again, Content Aware Fill made quick work of the baseball bat.

When I showed these images to a friend of mine, his first question was “how long did that take?”. Well, the answer is about 8 seconds for each example. In order to accomplish what I did, I used techniques that I’ve heard from the Photoshop Guys during their series of CS5 webinars. Essentially, I used the Quick Select tool to select the item I wanted to remove (i.e. either the ball cap or the baseball bat). Then, I modified the selection, expanding it 10 pixels (this was based on a tip from Dave Cross, I believe, who said that Content Aware fill just seems to work better when it has more to work with). Finally, I just hit “Delete” and made sure “Content Aware” was selected in the dialog box that popped up. That’s all there was to it.