AV News 182 - November 2010
In this example I chose to use the Pen tool to make all my selections, all ten
of them at the same time whilst ensuring that the Pen Icon at the top of the
workspace was set to the Path command. Using the Pen tool set to Paths has
two distinct advantages; selections can be made of any shape or size without
any pre shaped restrictions, and multiple selections can be achieved simply
without losing any of the previous selections. Whilst drawing around the
required areas the Pen tool isn't actually making a selection but is creating a
simple Path. After completing all required lines clicking on the Paths Tab will
clearly show a highlighted tab named 'Work Path', the path thumbnail icon
situated on the left of this tab will show the drawn lines. Right click on this
highlighted tab with your mouse, then from the menu provided click on 'make
selection'. At this point another menu offers the opportunity to feather the
edges of the selection if needed. In this example I chose not to feather any
edges and therefore set the 'feather radius' to zero. On most selections in
readiness for Content Aware Fill I find that zero feathering gives the best
result. Now simply click OK and the lines previously drawn around the image
edit areas become selections indicated by the traditional marching ants. Click
back
onto
the
Layers palette and
ensure that the
layer onto which
the Content-Aware
Fill' is going to be
applied is active i.e.
selected. None of
this so far is new,
but the next bit
most certainly is.
With your mouse
click on Edit, then
on Fill (Shift + F5),
at this point you will
be offered another
menu option, click
the drop down tab
within this menu, then select Content-Aware, then set Blending Mode to
Normal and Opacity to 100%, make sure there isn't a tick in the Preserve
Transparency box, then click OK. Now sit back and watch all your selected
faults removed and filled to match the surrounding area just as though the
faults had never been there. In this example all faults were removed
satisfactorily and immediately except for the two small TV aerial parts on the
right side of the chimney, each of these required an additional couple of quick
dabs with the clone tool to complete.
Like many written procedures this seems at first to be complicated, but in
reality it is very simple and very quick. It took little longer to edit this entire
image using the described method than it has taken to read this page.
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