Adobe Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques

Content-Aware Scaling

Photoshop CS4 has introduced some new magic in the form of a scale tool. The Content-Aware Scale command allows you to take out unwanted spaces with the click and drag of a mouse. Every once in a while, you might have an image where the subjects aren’t as close together as you’d like (Figure 11.156). Make sure that the image is not the Background layer. (If it is, duplicate it, or double-click it to make it an editable layer.) Choose Edit > Content-Aware Scale. Handles appear around the image, like those you would see with a normal scaling operation. Click and drag.

Figure 11.156. Sometimes your subjects are too far apart. (©2008 Dan Ablan.)

Figure 11.157 shows the result: In this example, the three figures are now closer ...