Figure 8-35.Figure 8-36.- Open an image that you want to
scale. Go to the Lesson 08 folder in-
side Lesson Files-PsCS5 1on1 and open
the file called Jumper.jpg. Captured by Andrzej
Burak of iStockphoto, the image in Figure 8-35
features clearly distinguishable, high-contrast
foreground objects—the leaping woman and the
foreground grass—set against medium-contrast
clouds and a low-contrast sky. These features make
it a perfect test project for content-aware scaling,
as we keep our theme of jumping subjects. This
is a small file, which means less work for Photo-
shop. (Larger images take more time to process
and may overwhelm the command.) But the final
result may look a bit stretched out of shape. - Convert the image to a floating layer. Like any transforma-
tion function, the Content-Aware Scale command needs a
selection or an independent layer to work. Give it the latter
by double-clicking the Background item in the Layers panel.
In the New Layer dialog box, name the layer “Jumper” and
click OK. - Add some height to the canvas. Let’s be ambitious and convert
the image from horizontal to vertical. We’ll start by making
the canvas square, which will give us more headroom. Choose
Image→Canvas Size. Turn off the Relative check box, set the
Height value to 1440 pixels (to match Width), and select the
bottom Anchor option, as in Figure 8-36. Then click OK to
add a healthy amount of empty space to the top of the image.
Content-Aware Scaling
Photoshop CS4 introduced a handful of “advanced compositing”
features that applied a high degree of automation to the task of
merging, blending, and transforming images. Far and away the sexi-
est and most practical of these features is the Content-Aware Scale
command, which transforms areas of low contrast while protecting
areas of high contrast. The upshot is that, in many cases, you can
scale an image’s background while leaving the foreground unharmed.
Content-aware scaling does not require elaborate multilayered com-
positions, nor does it work on multiple layers at a time. In fact, its
only relationship to layers is that it happens to work best when ap-
plied to an image that you’ve first isolated to an independent layer.
Here’s how the command works, best approach and all.
Content-Aware Scaling 287