In this Photoshop tutorial, learn how to use ‘Content-Aware Fill’ from a Natcoll instructor! This feature is new to Photoshop CS5 and allows you to remove objects from your image, leaving behind a natural-looking background.
Download the image for this tutorial.
In this sample image, we’re going to get rid of the woman walking on the beach. She’s not a part of the action in the bottom-left corner and distracts your eye when you look at the picture.
So let’s just get rid of her. First, select the lasso tool from the sidebar.
Use this tool to trace around the person. You don’t need to be completely accurate in tracing—just draw the general shape around the body. You can trace around the shadow if you like, but in this Photoshop tutorial it will be OK to leave it.
Once I’ve traced entirely around the woman, I just hit ‘Delete’ on my keyboard. This will cause a box to pop up, giving us some options. In the ‘Contents’ section, there is a drop-down menu where you choose the fill. Select ‘Content-Aware’ and click OK.
And just like that, the woman is gone and Photoshop has filled the space with natural-looking sand and shadows that blend in perfectly with the background. The shadow is still there, but without the woman, the shadow is barely noticeable and doesn’t really distract from the image.
Just one more thing to polish off the image…
If you look at the photo you can see that the horizon is on an angle because of the way the camera was held. If this bothers you, you can fix it with the ‘Ruler’ tool.
Click at the beginning of the horizon and use the ‘Ruler’ to follow the horizon along the angle it’s on. Click the ‘Straighten’ button on the top toolbar and the image will be re-oriented with the horizon running perfectly straight across the photo.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to use the ‘Content-Aware Fill’ tool in this Photoshop tutorial.
To pick up more skills in Photoshop and other design software check out our range of great resource books offered through Natcoll Publishing or see our range of short design courses. And keep checking back with the Natcoll blog for more Photoshop tutorials!
Related Posts
- New English & Design Course
- 6 Inspirational Design Galleries for Students at Web Design School
- What Makes a Great Digital Designer?
- New Features of Photoshop CS5: Content-Aware Spot Healing
- New Features of Photoshop CS5: Tutorial on Content Aware Scale
- New Features of Photoshop CS5: Refine Edge Tool Tutorial
- New Features of Photoshop CS5: Tutorial on Mixer Brush
- New features of Photoshop CS5: Puppet Warp Tool Tutorial
- Visual rebranding project
