Patch Tool Content Aware

Quick reference

• 00:04 In Photoshop cs5 Adobe introduced Content Aware Fill:
• 00:08 A tool that uses witchcraft to magically remove items from your photo.
• 00:12 Okay it's not actually witchcraft but rather an algorithm
• 00:15 that none of us will ever understand. Now in Photoshop cs6 Content Aware has been
• 00:20 brought to the patch tool.
• 00:21 Let me show you why this is such a big deal. In this photo taken at Disney I'm
• 00:26 quite happy with the overall photo
• 00:27 except for the bottom right corner. A bunch of trees and lights have ruined my photo.
• 00:31 Let's first try out Content Aware Fill. I'm gonna grab my standard lasso tool
• 00:36 and draw a selection around the cluster I don't want. Once a selection is made
• 00:40 Shift-Delete or Shift-Backspace to bring up the field dialog box.
• 00:44 Here we want to make sure to choose Content Aware from the drop-down.
• 00:47 When we press OK, Photoshop will start to analyze the information around the
• 00:51 selection
• 00:52 and do its best to create an acceptable result. Well, it works well
• 00:55 most of the time.
• 00:56 In this case because our selection is so close to the castle
• 00:59 our result isn't exactly what we were expecting. Sure we can go the extra mile
• 01:03 create a smaller selection and try again
• 01:06 but there should be an easier way now there is with Content Aware.
• 01:10 Now available as part of the patch tool
• 01:12 certain edits will be that much easier. Going back to when we made our initial
• 01:15 selection
• 01:16 on our toolbar on the left let's find your patch tool. It may be hiding with
• 01:20 the other healing tools.
• 01:21 Hold your mouse button down to reveal the other tools. With that done at the top on
• 01:25 your options bar,
• 01:26 make sure you choose the Content Aware option. Now instead of Photoshop deciding
• 01:30 what will be sampled
• 01:31 we get to boss Photoshop around for a little bit. I can simply drag my
• 01:35 selection to the area I want Photoshop to sample
• 01:37 and once it's complete you'll notice that the result are near perfect.
• 01:41 Another change may have noticed is the adaptation setting on the Options bar.
• 01:44 This essentially tells Photoshop how much freedom in has when replacing your
• 01:48 selection.
• 01:49 Let's hop over to this picture I'm a crazy I'd lemur to show you how this
• 01:52 works.
• 01:53 On the left side of this image there's a stray tail which is distracting my
• 01:56 eye from the Lemur.
• 01:57 Creating a very basic selection around the tail, let's take a look at the
• 02:01 different adaptation options.
• 02:02 starting with very strict. You'll notice that when I release my mouse
• 02:06 overtop of these leaves, Photoshop will replace my selection with almost exactly
• 02:10 what was chosen:
• 02:11 with very little concern for the surrounding area. Now let's look at the
• 02:14 extreme opposite.
• 02:15 Choosing a very loose option will get Photoshop much more breathing room when
• 02:19 it attempts to fill the selection.
• 02:21 This time you'll notice that it uses the same leaves, but it also uses much
• 02:24 more from the surrounding area
• 02:26 which can result in a much better blend. I found that the medium setting usually
• 02:29 works quite well but in certain situations
• 02:31 the other settings may provide better results. And that's a new patch to with
• 02:35 Content Aware available in Photoshop CS6.

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