Content-Aware Egret

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sony A850~Sony 70-400G@400mm~ISO 1250~1/2000sec~F6.3~manual exposure~HH~overcast~1-4-2011~Houston, Texas~CS5

Considerable deviation from my usual. Very simple treatment. Started with a great egret on a white sky. Selected the bird, copied to a new layer, select the bird again, invert selection. On bottom layer appply content aware fill which will fill the area around the bird. CA uses the bird and its feathers as a texture to fill the surrounding area. Then colorized it to red in this case. Flattened. I was surprised; it wasn't what I expected. comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[Paul Lagasi]

I do understand how you did this using content-aware, I've gotten some pretty crazy things using that new feature in CS5. It is a very crazy pattern, you can see the feathers in the textures.

Content-aware really works well with some removal and saves a lot of time..

Good work..if it were mine and I wanted it as a keeper..I'd go around with the cloning tool and remove "what looks liks sharpening halo" but isn't around the legs, feet, bill.

[Dan Brown]

Interesting effect Bill. CS5 looks to have some nice features!

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Bill, that's definitely something new and interesting! Good idea to try it out and the results are pretty cool. Thanks for sharing the idea!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks guys! I also find CA fills to be extremely useful and time saving in removing unwanted things from images.This image was an experiment testing usefullness of CA fills for other than intended uses, and I've tried it with other images with varying degrees of success.This particular image doesn't make much sense to me. Is a bird flying upside down above a landscape? Of course images doen't necessarily need to make sense and it may just be my personal bias. It might just need further work, such as the area around the tail and legs having the same texture as the area that surrounds it. regards~Bill

[Brendan Dozier]

Great discovery Bill, and I like the effect you got. I think you are on to something, keep experimenting with it and take it further.

[denise ippolito]

Bill, I had to look twice at the name on the image-it is sooo different from anything else you do. I love this and I agree w/ you regarding the area around the tail. I would take the time to fill that in since this is very creative and original. Nice work.

[Steve Adkins]

Very enlightening, Bill. Thanks for experimenting and sharing the result.