This is Part 2 of the Photoshop CS6 Review of new features. If you missed the first part, you’ll find it here: Photoshop CS6 New Features Review Part 1.
New content-aware tools
In previous versions, you were able to take advantage of two incredible content-aware features, the content-aware scale and content-aware retouching. Now in Photoshop CS6, you have the content-aware Move tool and the improved Patch tool that includes content-aware features. Locate the Patch tool by clicking and holding the Spot Healing Brush tool in the Tools panel, and then selecting the Patch tool.
The Patch tool is helpful when patching (or replacing) large areas of an image. This could be the background of a scratched image, or a section of someone’s skin. To use the Patch tool, click and drag the Patch tool over a section of an image that you want to clone (and blend) into another section of your image. After making your selection, click and drag that section to another part of the image. Follow the next steps for hands-on experience of this tool.
1 Choose File > Browse in Bridge, locate the PSCS6Beta_lessons folder, and open the image called ps1401.psd. An image of a soldier appears.
2 Choose File Save As and name the file ps1401_work. Keep it in the .PSD format and save it into the PSCS6Beta_lessons folder.
3 Use the Zoom tool to zoom into the lower-left part of this image. Notice some artifacts in the image: a random dot and a stain. You will use the patch tool to replace those sections.
Zoom into the lower-left section of the image.
4 Select the Patch tool that is hidden in the Spot Healing Brush tool.
5 In the Options bar, select the Patch drop-down menu and choose Content-Aware.
6 Click and drag around the area of the image that contains the black spot.
7 Drag the patch selection to a part of the image that is not marked with artifacts. The original selection is not only replaced with the clean section of the image, but it is blended in a manner that makes it difficult to see your original selection.
Click and drag to replace the selected patch area. The result.
As a default, the options for this tool are to replace the source with the area that you are dragging to.
8 On your own, try replacing the stained section of the wall with a clean section. When you are finished, choose File > Save, and then File > Close.
Investigating the Content-Aware Move tool
This new content-aware tool is likely to become a favorite. Using the Content-Aware Move tool, you can select and relocate a section of your image without leaving a hole in your image. Try it by following the next steps.
1 Choose File > Browse in Bridge and locate the image called ps1402.psd in the PSCS6Beta_lessons folder. An image of a bird appears.
2 Choose File Save As and name the image ps1402_work. Keep the format as .PSD and choose to save it in the PSCS6Beta_lessons folder.
3 Select the Content-Aware Move tool located under the Patch tool, and click and drag to select the bird that is sitting on the branch.
Click and drag to create a selection around the bird.
4 With the Content-Aware Move tool still selected, click and drag the bird selection to the left, and then release. The image area behind the bird is replaced with sky image.
Clicking and dragging using the Content-Aware Move tool leaves no hole in your image.
5 Choose File > Save and then File > Close.
Stroke and fills
Even though you have been able to apply fills and different types of strokes in previous versions of Photoshop, it was not very intuitive, and many options were lacking. In Photoshop CS6, you can now take advantage of features that you would expect in Adobe Illustrator, such as applying a stroke to the inside, middle, or outside of a vector shape, the creation of dashed strokes, and the ability to change the caps and joints of a stroke.
If you want to experiment, try the following steps:
1 Choose File > Open and open the image called ps1403.psd.
2 Choose File > Save As, name the file ps1403_work, and keep the file in .psd format. Choose Save and an image of someone typing appears. Next, you will create a vector shape using the custom shape tools.
3 Click and hold the Vector Shape tool (the default is the Rectangle tool) and select the Custom Shape tool.
Select the Custom Shape tool.
4 From the Shape drop-down menu in the Options bar, select the shape called Arrow 9.
Select Arrow 9 from the custom shape drop-down menu.
5 Click and drag to create an arrow shape anywhere on the image; any size is fine.
6 Look for Fill and Stroke in the Options bar at the top of the workspace, and then select Fill to see the swatches appear. In this example, you will sample a color from the image, so you will need the Color Picker.
7 Click the Color Picker icon; the Color Picker dialog box appears.
Open the Color Picker to select a color.
8 With the Color Picker open, choose any of the blue tones in the shirt on the right side, and then click OK. The fill of the arrow now matches the blue tone.
9 Now click Stroke in the Options bar and select Black from the Swatches panel that appears.
10 Type 1.33 into the stroke Width textbox, and then click the Set shape stroke type drop-down menu; the Stroke options appear.
You now have additional stroke options in Photoshop.
11 Choose Center from the Align window. The Align feature allows you to align your stroke on the inside, center, or outside of a shape.
Notice that you can also change the caps and corners in the Stroke options window.
12 Take the graphic one step further by applying transparency to the fill only. If you do not see the Layers panel, choose Windows > Layers now. Make sure that the shape layer that you just created is active, and then change the Fill to 50% by clicking and dragging the slider to the left until you reach the 50% mark. Note that the fill is semi-transparent, but the stroke is still at 100%.
Continue reading: Photoshop CS6 new features: Part 3 which discusses these new Photoshop CS6 features; layer panel improvements, additional options for creating patterns, and 3D features.
) to define the area of an image that you want to define as a pattern.
