Do You Believe in Magic?
For years, we've all watched TV Shows and Movies where the FBI "enlarges and enhances" different images to catch the bad guys. Where the criminal is nabbed because a computer lab rat sees a "reflection" that appears to be nothing more than a smudge, and enhances it to the equivalent of a professionally made head shot. Some of us are familiar with the requests that frequent sites like "Clients from Hell" (http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/), where clients ask if we can take picture X, and turn Uncle John's head to face the camera instead. All of these are fairly humorous suggestions. All of these, a few days ago, I would have put on par with what is in this video.Now, don't get me wrong. I'm DEFINITELY not a Photoshop Expert...AT ALL. I could pull off teaching Photoshop 101 at a community college, but that's the extent of my knowledge and abilities. I know enough to get by, and I try and learn more every day, but let's be honest....sometimes the whole "learning" thing is easier said than done. That being said, my ignorance or incapabilities may lend itself to my perception of magic (if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit, the less we know, the more magical something appears). Combine that with the fact that I am, in all honesty, WAY too lazy and impatient to accomplish what this tool apparently promises, and this "Content-Aware Fill" blows me away.
And just like with any innovation in any field, there will be three *general* types of people after it becomes common place.
1) The people who never take notice, or never attempt to "mess with it."
2) The people that use it as an excuse to get lazy in their composition, planning, and field work.
3) The people that use it for what it is, a tool. Not a crutch. As Scott Bourne (and any other photographer worth looking up to) says, "Do whatever you can to get it right in the camera."
So yes, it can and will be a useless bell or whistle, a crutch, and a vital tool, all at once.
I'd be very interested to know what more "Photoshop savy" types think about this, so comment away!
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PS. Here's the link to the Adobe Creative Suite 5 site. - http://cs5launch.adobe.com/ (ironically...I dont think they use Flash for their timer).
PSS - The Content Aware Fill isn't officially shipping in Photoshop as part of CS5, just in "a future version." But, I'd be surprised if it doesn't come in CS5 after this demo video.
This is truly amazing. This photo is a good example of the kinds of touch ups we do for clients all the time. I would buy CS5 simply for the time I could save doing these. Great find :)
EDIT: For some reason, I think the 'quickpost' field doesn't receive paragraph breaks right. I went in and put a few in. Probably not exactly where you had them, but at least it's easier on the eyes
Hm...I dont know why the paragraph breaks didn't go through. It wasn't supposed to be a giant block :/
BUT, yes, I'm pumped.
Wow! If they offer that in CS5, I will definitely be upgrading. So cool! Thanks for sharing. :)
Do they offter this for real life?
@Katie, yes they do. They call it the Matrix.
Lets be real...if I was walking through a park and a tree got content-aware fill deleted, or the sky got extended, I'd pass out. No doubt in my mind.