Speed Up Your Retouching With Content Aware Fill And The Spot Healing Brush

Every new version of Photoshop always has at least one new feature that shines through the crowd of new tools. Photoshop CS5 is no exception with the new Content Aware Fill process. Complex retouching has made a giant step forward in being able to let the computer replace areas of an image with what it thinks should go there. Does it work on every type of situation… No way…. but, it still is a quick option to try when enhancing an image and can do a surprisingly good job considering what it has to work with.

In this hand held stitched panoramic image taken with the Canon S-90 camera in Mykonos, Greece, you can see that I was unknowingly lowering the camera position with each movement missing some the image. Hard to tell that until you put the image together in Photoshop’s Photomerge.

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I selected the the Lasso Tool and drew a selection around the missing areas. In Photoshop CS5, I chose Menu>Edit>Fill and picked Content Aware in the dialog box.


The Software took a few minutes, but it completely retouched the sky and sea with a perfect blend back into the original image.


The same technology is also available in the Spot Healing Tool. Just pick the Content Aware option in the Options Bar and just paint over the area. In this example of a early morning scene in Venice shot with the Canon 1Ds Mark III and 70-200mm lens, I decided to paint out the boat in foreground. Just brush over the areas you want to remove, and poof… it's gone….

Images From Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy is a place that no matter where you look, there is a cool image waiting to be photographed. While I am sorting through the files, I thought I would post a few for you to see. We got up very early in the morning each day and worked late into the evening to get the best light.

We stumbled into a small shop of hand painted masks, and while we shopped around for some masks to ship back to Atlanta, I snapped a hundred shots with my Canon S-90 camera to create some interesting still life images.



After three days of great image making, we gathered with our friends in the lobby of the Hotel Marconi the to get ready to start our cruise to Greece… Lot’s more to come.

Photoshop TV Episode

Just getting home from our trip to Italy and Greece with the Texas School and I will have lots of new artwork to be posting soon... Here is a nice view from where we stayed in Venice.

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If you would like to get a preview and what my new Kelby Media digital photography training tutorials are going to look like, here is an advanced peek at a couple of the setups. While I was down recording in Tampa at NAPP headquarters I sat in on video taping sessions of Scott's D-Town and Photoshop User TV shows. I recorded some samples on the shows and they are now on line. check out the episodes by clicking on the links below.... Enjoy...

http://kelbytv.com/dtowntv/2010/06/18/episode-43/

http://kelbytv.com/photoshopusertv/2010/07/01/episode-236/

New Photoshop & Digital Photography Training Tutorials Are Coming

I wish I could figure out how to get more hours out of a day. If I could, I would be writing a lot more on the blog. Been busy getting ready for a lot of new digital imaging training. Our new studio has been busy with catalog work and is starting to shape up nicely. There’s always more to do, but it's getting more comfortable to work in every day. I just spent this past week in Tampa at Kelby Media headquarters taping my new digital imaging tutorial classes. We did the video parts for 2 new upcoming classes that will be out later this year. Class 1 is on small product photography in the studio as we taped several different camera and lighting setups from start to finish. Class 2 is on location photography and digital compositing techniques that go with it. A third class on my fine art and illustration montage techniques will follow soon. I had a great time hanging with all the Photoshop Guys at NAPP. Got the chance to tape a couple of segments for the Photoshop TV and D-Town podcasts, so be watching for those episodes this week.
This week Helene and I are headed for Italy and Greece with the PPA and Texas School for a cruise out of Venice through the Greek Islands with about 75 of our photographer friends. I am so set for shooting lots of new elements for digital paintings and I will post some new shots as soon as possible. Check out the time-lapse movie of how we do a basic tabletop lighting setup.

Creating New Digital Photography Training Videos at Kelby Media