Skip to main content

How to Stretch Images using Content Aware Scale

Have you ever really needed to extend the background of your image, but not wanted to spend hours with the clone stamp tool? If so, today's episode is for you! Learn How to Stretch Images Using Content Aware Scale!

Preparation

We start out with a square image that we would like to extend. It is a great example because we want to stretch out the water and sky, but not the person standing in the center. If you have a highly detailed photo that you want to stretch, the content aware scale tool will not be the best option. If it's simple open space, however, like a sky or the ground, it will most certainly help you out! You can do this both horizontally and vertically.

Start by extending the canvas behind your image. You can do this by using the crop tool and just widening the background. Hold the edge and drag it to the left or right.

TIP: Hold Alt/Opt while doing this to extend out evenly from the center.
Duplicate the background layer by holding Cmd + J. To test out how incorrect the photo will look with the normal transform tool, you can press Cmd + T and stretch the image out to the new width. Yuck!! It will not look good at all. This is where Content Aware Scale comes in!

Content Aware Scale

Go to Edit - Content Aware Scale. Now, you can drag the edges of the images outwards and the most important information will stay intact (human figure and the pier) while the more simple information (sky and water) will be extended to hit the new borders. It creates a much more natural look than the previous example!

Protect Your Important Information!

You might notice that when you used the Content Aware Scale tool, there were parts of your image that were warped or slanted a bit. To truly make sure the items you don't want to stretch stay protected, it will just take a few extra steps.

Make a selection of the object you would like to "protect." In this case, it is the man and the pier.
Load this selection as a Channel. To do this go to the Channels tab, and create a new channel. Your objects should still be selected!
You will see a completely black screen with marching ants around your objects. Hold Shift + Delete and select Use - White. Now, your objects will be white on a black background.
Go back to your regular layers tab. Go to Edit - Content Aware Scale, and select your Alpha 1 channel under the Protect drop down menu.
Scale the image just as you did before! The objects you chose to "protect" should not move, and you will have a more successful final image.
As you can see in our example, the before and after images are only different in their cropped size. The goal is to have the end image look completely natural, and not give away the secret that you've stretched it out!

TIP: Sometimes you just can't scale as much as you'd like. A helpful hint is to scale it halfway, stop, and then start over and scale it the rest of the way.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for watching Phlearn! If you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss a thing!

Subscribe: http://goo.gl/LBIEQU

For more advanced Photoshop Tutorials be sure to check out our Phlearn PRO Tutorials. We offer the best Photoshop tutorials available starting at just $24.99.

http://phlearn.com/product-category/pro-photoshop-tutorials

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stock Images provided by: http://us.fotolia.com/

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM9sisF4OEI[/embed]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

C++ Programming Tutorial - How to Install Code::Blocks in Ubuntu Linux - Learn Online

Installing Code::Blocks How do I Install Code::Blocks HOWTO: Installing Code::Blocks 10.05 How do you install Irrlicht on Code::Blocks? How do you install CodeBlock on ubuntu? codeblocks /bin/sh: g++: not found Installing codeblocks on ubuntu Installing Code::Blocks on Ubuntu 10.04?

Eyeglasses and Lenses Prescription WooCommerce Wordpress Best Plugin

WooCommerce EYE Glasses and Lenses Prescription Wordpress Plugin builds your Eye Glasses and Lenses Website quickly and easily. It is powered by WooCommerce and it is fully automated so you don’t need to do anything. It features popular Presciption, Select Lenses and their Addons. You can also easily increase your sale by adding your this plugin. prescription glasses is the best plugin for your wordpress website. its Tested in All major Themeforest Wordpress & WooCommerce theme, Features Suits on every type of Eyeglasses and Lenses prescription Have multiple lens options  Compatible with Wordpress & WooCommerce  Anti Reflective Option  Sphere Select Option  Cylinder Select Option  Axis Select Option  Add Select Option  Pupils Distance Select Option Download

Google Fight Against Low Quality and Spammy Content

  Google's ongoing battle against spammy and low-quality content in search results is an essential aspect of maintaining the platform's credibility and usefulness. Here are some of the new strategies and policies Google is implementing to combat these issues: Improved Quality Ranking : Google is enhancing its core ranking algorithms to prioritize high-quality and original content while reducing the visibility of unoriginal or spammy content in search results. New Spam Policies : Google is updating its spam policies to address emerging tactics used by spammers. This includes targeting practices such as expired websites repurposed as spam repositories, obituary spam, and other manipulative behaviors. Reducing Unoriginal Results : Google is refining its ranking systems to identify and minimize unhelpful, unoriginal content. This includes pages created specifically to match certain search queries and content that prioritizes search engine optimization over user experience. Scaled C