Photoshop How To

When one of our favorite image-editing instructors says, “This is one of Photoshop’s most powerful features,” it’s time to stop and listen. And when he demonstrates how to use this tool in barely five minutes, we’re definitely paying attention.

What we’re talking about here is Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill feature, and the quick tutorial below explains two ways to get the job done. The first method is automated and barely takes a click or two. The second approach is a bit more advanced, and takes a little longer, but it provides more control.

Regardless of which technique you choose, Content Aware Fill enables you to remove unwanted objects from your photos. And while there are other Photoshop tools to accomplish this task, Content Aware Fill does a great job and makes things as easy as possible.

Photoshop instructor Matt Kloskowski likes doing things efficiently, and he prefers a simple approach whenever possible. This video begins with an easy approach, where the first step is to make a loose selection with the Lasso tool around whatever distracting object you want to remove.

As you’ll see, there’s actually two ways to employ Kloskowski’s “simple” method: One that is super easy, and another that’s even easier. The option you choose really depends upon which you prefer.

Either of these simple methods works great for most types of images. But if you have a more difficult photo, or you want more control, Kloskowski has a technique for that too. He provides keyboard shortcuts for speeding up the process whichever method you use.

Don’t be put off by the idea of a “more advanced approach, because when you watch Kloskowski quickly clean up a nice shot of an osprey, you’ll realize there’s nothing difficult here either. So take a look, and add these techniques to your editing workflow.

After watching the video be sure to visit Kloskowski’s YouTube channel for more tips and tricks.