I’m thinking Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop has grown up. It helped tremendously in a calendar project with changing the aspect ratio of images.

Hummingbird calendar

Asked to prep images for a 2022 Hummingbird calendar, I agreed. I didn’t realize most images were horizontal and the calendar was closer to a square. If you were to expand the images important compositional elements in the environment would be left out. I dreaded replicating the scene for the images to fit the new aspect ratio.

Content-Aware Fill

Adobe Photoshop came to the rescue with the Content-Aware Fill tool. I had used this tool in the past, but felt that there was too much replication that looked as if it was cloned. It got you close but on critical inspection it needed extra massaging and cloning for it to be natural.

They’ve been working on it. The tool now seems to read and be more random in the replication of pixels.

Adobe Photoshop Content aware fill dialog box
Content-Aware Fill dialog: Result from selecting the empty pixels at top of image. The window to right shows what the result will be with the chosen pixels with which it will work (green area). I chose to output to New Layer in case I want to make any adjustments before flattening. Violet Sabre-wing male hummingbird (Campylopterus hemileucurus) at yellow Heliconia flower Heliconia latispatha – Costa Rica © Jose Haydu.
Photoshop Content Aware adjustment
You can help Photoshop choose which pixels to use and exclude to receive an even better result using the Selection Brush adding or subtracting pixels. The green field will be used to make up the new pixels.

It made my job much easier to employ Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill.

The artist and the calendar

Content Aware fill result
The bottom section of the image needed a little more work due to more complicated pixels. After this result was return which did most of the heavy lifting the Clone Stamp tool was used to build the missing pixels.

Hummingbird art

Image Jose Francisco Haydu https://www.jfhaydu.com
Final image after aspect ratio adjustments. Image Jose Francisco Haydu https://www.jfhaydu.com

A number of the hummingbird images were supplied by a team in Brazil, Jose and Veronica Haydu. You can check their website for more images. Since Jose is based in Brazil, the language is Portuguese. You can copy and paste using Google Translate if you would like to enjoy the text as well as the fabulous work.

Hummingbird image before aspect ratio change
Before image with white areas at top and bottom, ready for extension. © Jose Haydu.
Hummingbird photo © Jose Haydu
Calendar version © Jose Haydu. SAPPHIRE-SPANGLED EMERALD HUMMINGBIRD (Amazilia lactea) at the flower of the Vervain Vine (Stachytarpheta dichotoma) (Verbenaceae) Brazil.

Sedona Hummingbird Society

Wanna get you hands on one of these spectacular hummingbird calendars? To purchase the “Dance of Love” 2022 Hummingbird society Calendar, go to the Hummingbird Society and click on 2022 calendar. Unfortunately, the 2021 festival was canceled because of Covid-19. You might want to join us in Sedona in 2022 for the Hummingbird Festival; it’s an awesome event!

Yours in Creative Photography, Bob