Brecon Beacons & PS Content Aware function

[Paul Heester]

The below shot was of Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf waterfall on our recent Brecon Beacons trip. The reason for posting is that I decided to use Photoshops "Content Aware" option and it was extremely impressive. In the top left hand corner Keith had setup his tripod but I liked the swirling leaves so decided to take the shot anyway. I found using Content Aware has done a great job of removing him (sorry Keith!) and also an old bit of blue rope also in the scene. Has anyone else used this option and was it successful?

Keith.PNG (229.79 KiB) Viewed 3637 times

Sgwd Ddwli Uchaf by Paul Heester, on Flickr

[davidb]

Has anyone else used this option and was it successful?

I've not used it but it's certainly worth a serious look.

And I can see what you mean about the swirling leaves - I like it [where's the LIKE button?]. I think it's a winner although I might have cropped a little more off the top!!

[Paul Heester]

With the amount of shots you got David with photographers in you could test this function and try to remove us!! And if you are on Flickr you can always add it to your favourites

[davidb]

Yes I could remove the other members of the group but then that would defeat the purpose of taking the photographs in the first place! The function looks very much like cloning (I can see where PS cloned to cover up Kieth).

And yes I ought to put some of my shots on flickr. I'll take a look and see if there are any worthwhile.

[Peter Boughton]

We appear to have differing definitions of "successful".

Not using Photoshop, I haven't used Content Aware Fill specifically, but I do sometimes use equivalent functionality (and have seen the results of CAF).

It can be fine in simple situations - basically where the task is nothing more than cloning/etc and there's no real decisions to make - but for anything remotely non-trivial it is not a substitute for a human doing it properly.

Why? Because a human can read a scene and know what fits / looks right, and someone who was at the location can know what was obscured - both are things that these algorithms currently lack, and cannot reliably infer from a single non-patterened image.

[Peter Boughton]

With the amount of shots you got David with photographers in you could test this function and try to remove us!!

Reminds me of Garfield minus Garfield - a site that re-posts the original comic but with the cat removed...

[Mike Farley]

My experience of the Content Aware functions is much like Peter's. Sometimes it is very good and although a similar result could have been obtained using the Clone or standard Heal tools, it can be much quicker. Then are times when it makes a complete klartz of the task and picks up artefacts which are not required, which is fair enough, it is only an algorithm after all. If using the Spot Healing brush, it can be better to remove the unwanted element in small chunks, rather than in one go. Sometimes I extend the canvas to alter the composition and use Content Aware Fill to fill in the blank area, with varying degrees of success. I could also use Content Aware Scale to do something similar. As often happens with Photoshop, there is frequently more than one way to achieve a result.