{"id":1116,"date":"2012-10-11T23:07:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T23:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2019-04-13T11:29:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T15:29:08","slug":"content-aware-scale-cs6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/","title":{"rendered":"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"author\">Written by Steve Patterson.<\/div>\n<p>In this Photo Retouch tutorial, we'll learn how the <strong>Content-Aware Scale<\/strong> feature, first introduced in <strong>Photoshop CS4<\/strong>, can help us transform and reshape images from one aspect ratio to another without distorting, or &quot;squishing&quot;, our main subject and other important details in the image.<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.adslot-pr2 { display: inline-block; width:300px; float:right; margin: 6px 0px 12px 20px; }\n@media (max-width: 767px) { .adslot-pr2 { display: none; } }\n<\/style><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- 300x250 photo editing top responsive -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle adslot-pr2\"     \n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"4356542292\"\n     data-ad-format=\"rectangle\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n<p>The usual way to change a photo's aspect ratio is to simply crop it using the <a href=\"\/photo-editing\/cs6\/crop-image\/\">Crop Tool<\/a>, but that often means throwing away parts of the image we wanted to keep. With Content-Aware Scale, there's no need to crop anything away because Photoshop can   move people and objects closer together (or further apart) almost like magic so everything fits within the new shape!<\/p>\n<p>How does it work? With the Content-Aware Scale command selected, Photoshop will examine your photo and try to figure out, often with amazing accuracy, which areas are important (like your main subject) and which are not, and will do its best to protect the important areas as you're reshaping the image.  Content-Aware Scale can be a powerful and time-saving feature when it works, but (there's always a &quot;but&quot;) the problem is that it doesn't always work. In fact, it really depends on the image you're using.<\/p>\n<p>In general, Content-Aware Scale works best with photos that contain large areas of low image detail (blue skies, open fields, calm waters, and so on). The reason is that for Photoshop to  be able to move two areas of an image closer together, it needs to squish and compress the area between them. If the area between them contains too much image detail of its own, things can quickly turn into a jumbled mess. If, on the other hand, the area between them contains low amounts of detail, like a sky or open field, then it's easier for Photoshop to push those pixels together with fewer noticeable problems, giving you much better results.<\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned, Adobe first introduced Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop CS4, so you'll need CS4 or higher to follow along with this tutorial. I'll be using Photoshop CS6 here, but everything we'll learn applies to CS4, CS5 and CS6. Here's the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fotolia.com\/partner\/202479569\">photo<\/a> I'll be using:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/original.jpg\" alt=\"The original image. Image licensed from Fotolia by Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"440\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The original photo.<\/div>\n<aside><p class=\"members-ad-top\"><a href=\"\/print-ready-pdfs\/\">Download all of our Photoshop tutorials as PDFs!<\/a><\/p><\/aside>\n<p>Let's say I need to reshape this photo from its original 4x6 aspect ratio into something closer to a square, but I want to keep not only the couple and the heart shape in the lower right of the image but also the small island over on the far left. If I tried to crop the photo into the new shape, I'd be forced to throw away some of the areas I want to keep, so that's not an option. Fortunately, much of the area in the center of this photo is low detail, making it a good candidate for the Content-Aware Scale command.<\/p>\n<p>Before I do anything, though, I first need to take care of one minor problem. If we look at my <a href=\"\/basics\/layers\/layers-panel\/\">Layers panel<\/a>, we see that my photo is sitting on the <a href=\"\/basics\/layers\/background-layer\/\">Background layer<\/a>, which is a special type of layer in Photoshop with its own unique rules for what we can and can't do with it:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/photoshop-background-layer.gif\" alt=\"The Background layer in Photoshop CS6. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"265\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The Layers panel showing the photo on the Background layer.<\/div>\n<p>Before we can apply Content-Aware Scale, or any of the other Transform commands, to the layer, we first need to rename the layer to something other than <em>Background<\/em>. The quickest way to do that is to hold down the <strong>Alt<\/strong> (Win) \/ <strong>Option<\/strong> (Mac) key on your keyboard and <strong>double-click<\/strong> on the Background layer in the Layers panel. This will instantly rename the layer to Layer 0, which means we're now free to do whatever we want to it:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/layer-0.gif\" alt=\"The Background layer has been renamed Layer 0. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"206\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The Background layer has been renamed Layer 0.<\/div>\n<h4>Giving Free Transform A Try<\/h4>\n<p>To give us a better idea of just how powerful the Content-Aware Scale command really is, let's first see what happens if I try to reshape my photo using Photoshop's more traditional <a href=\"\/basics\/free-transform\/\">Free Transform<\/a> command, which I'll select by going up to the <strong>Edit<\/strong> menu in the Menu Bar along the top of the screen and choosing <strong>Free Transform<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/edit-free-transform.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Free Transform command from the Edit menu. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"109\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Selecting Free Transform from the Edit menu.<\/div>\n<p>This places the standard transform handles (the little squares) around the photo. I'll click and hold my mouse button down on the left handle and drag it towards the right to reshape the image into more of a vertical, portrait orientation. As we can see though, Free Transform simply squishes the entire image together, making everyone and everything look taller and thinner (the checkerboard pattern appearing on the left is how Photoshop represents transparency). Not what we wanted:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/image-free-transform.jpg\" alt=\"Reshaping the photo with the Free Transform command. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The Free Transform command does a great job of squishing the entire image.<\/div>\n<h4>The Power Of Content-Aware Scale<\/h4>\n<p>That didn't work, so I'll press the <strong>Esc<\/strong> key on my keyboard to cancel and exit out of the Free Transform command. This time, I'll select the Content-Aware Scale command by going back up to the <strong>Edit<\/strong> menu and choosing <strong>Content-Aware Scale<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/edit-content-aware-scale.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Content-Aware Scale command from the Edit menu. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"123\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Go to Edit &gt; Content-Aware Scale.<\/div>\n<p>At first glance, things look very similar to the Free Transform command. We get the same transform handles on the top, bottom, left, and right of the image as well as in each corner. The difference with Content-Aware Scale is that Photoshop is now analyzing the image trying to figure out which areas are important and which are not. It does this by assuming that higher detail areas are more important than lower detail areas. I'll click and hold on the left handle, just as I did a moment ago, and this time, watch what happens as I drag the handle towards the right to reshape the photo. Photoshop is doing its best to protect the areas it thinks are important (the couple running through the water and the island on the left of the image) so they keep their original shape. Most of the &quot;squishing&quot; is being done to the sky, clouds and water in the center of the image, since this area contains lower amounts of detail and was therefore considered less important:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/image-content-aware-scale.jpg\" alt=\"Reshaing the photo with the Content-Aware Scale command. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Content-Aware Scale tries to protect the important (high detail) areas of the image and only compress unimportant (low detail) areas.<\/div>\n<h4>The Protect Skin Tones Option<\/h4>\n<p>There's a couple of things we can do to help out the Content-Aware Scale command. If you're working on a photo of people, try selecting the <strong>Protect Skin Tones<\/strong> option up in the Options Bar (it's the icon that looks like a little person):<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/protect-skin-tones.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Protect Skin Tones option for the Content-Aware Scale command. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"541\" height=\"79\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Selecting the Protect Skin Tones option.<\/div>\n<p>With Protect Skin Tones  enabled, Photoshop will try to protect any warm skin tones in the photo. However, again the results will depend on the image you're working with. In my case, since the people in my photo appear pretty small, selecting this option actually made things worse, giving me  one of those jumbled messes I mentioned earlier, but you may see better results with your own image so definitely give it a try:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/protect-skin-tones-on.jpg\" alt=\"The image with the Protect Skin Tones option enabled. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"384\" height=\"500\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The Protect Skin Tones option may or, in this case, may not help protect people in the photo.<\/div>\n<p>Since the Protect Skin Tones option didn't help me at all with this image, I'll click on it again in the Options Bar to disable it, and now the couple looks much better:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/protect-skin-tones-off.jpg\" alt=\"The image with the Protect Skin Tones option disabled. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"460\" height=\"500\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Simply disable the Protect Skin Tones option if you find it didn't help.<\/div>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.ads-middle { display: inline-block; width:300px; margin:6px 0px 24px 0px; padding-top: 16px; padding-bottom: 16px; }\n@media (max-width: 515px) { .ads-middle { margin:20px 0; } }\n@media (max-width: 480px) { .ads-middle { margin:20px 0; } }\n<\/style><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n<!-- photo effects 300x250 middle responsive -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle ads-middle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"4216941496\"\n     data-ad-format=\"rectangle\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n<h4>Using An Alpha Channel To Specify Important Areas<\/h4>\n<p>The Protect Skin Tones option can be useful at times, but the real power of the Content-Aware Scale command is that we don't need to leave it up to Photoshop to figure out what's important and what's not. We can tell Photoshop ourselves which areas of the image to protect, and we do that by first selecting those areas and then saving our selection as an <strong>alpha channel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I'm going to press the <strong>Esc<\/strong> key on my keyboard to cancel out of the Content-Aware Scale command for a moment. Then, to select the areas I want to protect, I'll grab the <a href=\"\/basics\/selections\/lasso-tool\/\">Lasso Tool<\/a> from the Tools panel (you can use any <a href=\"\/basics\/selections\/\">selection tool<\/a> you like but the Lasso Tool works fine):<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/photoshop-lasso-tool.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Lasso Tool from the Tools panel in Photoshop CS6. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"72\" height=\"142\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Selecting the Lasso Tool from the Tools panel.<\/div>\n<p>With the Lasso Tool in hand, I'll first draw a selection around the island on the left of the image, since it's one of the areas I want to protect. It's okay to be somewhat loose with the selection. There's no need to be surgically precise, especially since we'll be feathering the selection edges  in a moment:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/select-island.jpg\" alt=\"Drawing a selection outline around the island with the Lasso Tool. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"500\" height=\"380\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Drawing a selection outline around the island.<\/div>\n<p>I also want to protect the couple on the beach, so now that I have my initial selection  around the island, I'll hold down the <strong>Shift<\/strong> key on my keyboard to <strong><a href=\"\/basics\/selections\/basic-selections\/\">add<\/a><\/strong> to my existing selection, then I'll draw a selection around the couple. I think I'll protect the heart shape in the bottom right of the image as well, so  again I'll hold down my Shift key and draw a selection around the heart:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/select-couple-heart.jpg\" alt=\"Adding the couple and the heart shape on the beach to the selection. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"441\" height=\"500\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Adding the couple and the heart shape on the beach to the selection.<\/div>\n<p>Now that we've selected all the areas we want to protect, let's add a bit of feathering to the selection to give us better results. We can quickly feather the selection using Photoshop's <a href=\"\/photo-editing\/selecting-hair\/\">Refine Edge<\/a> command. Click on the <strong>Refine Edge<\/strong> button in the Options Bar:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/refine-edge.gif\" alt=\"Clicking the Refine Edge option in the Options Bar. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"445\" height=\"87\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Click the Refine Edge button.<\/div>\n<p>This opens the Refine Edge dialog box where you'll find the <strong>Feather<\/strong> slider near the center. We only need a slight amount of feathering, so keep an eye on your image to preview the results as you click and drag the Feather slider towards the right. I'm going to set my Feather amount to around 3.2 px. Click OK when you're done to close out of the Refine Edge dialog box:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/refine-edge-feather.gif\" alt=\"The Feather slider in the Refine Edge dialog box. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"387\" height=\"172\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Use the Feather slider to add a bit of softening to the selection edges.<\/div>\n<p>All we need to do now is save our selection as an alpha channel, which is really just a fancy way of saying a &quot;saved selection&quot;. Switch over to your <strong>Channels<\/strong> panel, which you'll find nested in beside the Layers panel. Click on the Channels <strong>name tab<\/strong> at the top to switch to it:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/photoshop-channels-panel.gif\" alt=\"The Channels panel in Photoshop CS6. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"238\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Use the name tabs along the top of a panel group to switch between panels.<\/div>\n<p>Once you're in the Channels panel, click on the <strong>Save Selection as Channel<\/strong> icon at the bottom of the panel (it's the icon that looks like a rectangle with a circle in the middle):<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/save-selection-as-channel.gif\" alt=\"The Save Selection As Channel icon in the Channels panel. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"237\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Click on the Save Selection as Channel icon.<\/div>\n<p>A new alpha channel named <strong>Alpha 1<\/strong> will appear below the <a href=\"\/essentials\/rgb\/\">Red, Green and Blue channels<\/a> in the list. Our selection is now saved, so press <strong>Ctrl+D<\/strong> (Win) \/ <strong>Command+D<\/strong> (Mac) on your keyboard to remove the selection outline from the document since we no longer need it:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/alpha-1-channel.gif\" alt=\"The selection is saved as Alpha 1. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"225\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The selection is now saved as Alpha 1 in the Channels panel.<\/div>\n<p>Switch back over to your <strong>Layers<\/strong> panel by clicking on its name tab:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/layers-panel.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Layers panel. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"280\" height=\"207\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Switch back to the Layers panel.<\/div>\n<p>Then select the Content-Aware Scale command as we did before by going up to the <strong>Edit<\/strong> menu and choosing <strong>Content-Aware Scale<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/edit-content-aware-scale.gif\" alt=\"Re-selecting the Content-Aware Scale command from the Edit menu. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"264\" height=\"123\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Re-selecting the Content-Aware Scale command.<\/div>\n<p>If you look up in the Options Bar directly to the left of the Protect Skin Tones option, you'll see an option simply called <strong>Protect<\/strong>, with a selection box beside it that, by default, is set to None. Click on the word None to bring up a list of choices and choose the alpha channel we just created, which in this case was Alpha 1:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/protect-alpha-1.gif\" alt=\"Setting the Protect option to Alpha 1 for the Content-Aware Scale command. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"442\" height=\"83\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Changing the Protect option from None to Alpha 1.<\/div>\n<p>This time, as I click and hold on the left handle and begin dragging it towards the right, Photoshop uses my alpha channel to protect the areas I selected. The island, couple and heart shape on the beach all retain their original appearance while the unprotected area in the center of the photo (the area I didn't select) is being squished together:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/reshape-image-left.jpg\" alt=\"Dragging the left transform handle to reshape the image with Content-Aware Scale. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">This time, Photoshop knows exactly which areas to protect.<\/div>\n<p>I'll also click and hold on the top handle and drag it downward to reshape the image vertically as well. Notice here that Photoshop is compressing the low detail area in the blue sky without touching the rest of the photo:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/reshape-image-top.jpg\" alt=\"Dragging the top transform handle to reshape the image with Content-Aware Scale. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The sky is being squished while the rest of the image remains intact.<\/div>\n<p>When you're done, press <strong>Enter<\/strong> (Win) \/ <strong>Return<\/strong> (Mac) on your keyboard to accept the transformation and exit out of the Content-Aware Scale command. Depending on the size of your image, it may take Photoshop a few seconds to complete the task.<\/p>\n<h4>Trimming Away The Transparent Areas<\/h4>\n<p>Now that we've reshaped our image, we need to clean things up by trimming away the transparent areas (the checkerboard pattern) around it, and we can do that using Photoshop's Trim command. Go up to the <strong>Image<\/strong> menu at the top of the screen and choose <strong>Trim<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/image-trim.gif\" alt=\"Selecting the Trim command from the Image menu. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"213\" height=\"111\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Go to Image &gt; Trim.<\/div>\n<p>When the Trim dialog box appears, select the <strong>Transparent Pixels<\/strong> option at the top if it's not selected already. Also, make sure all four options (Top, Bottom, Left and Right) are checked at the bottom:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/trim-transparent-pixels.gif\" alt=\"The Trim command dialog box in Photoshop. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"341\" height=\"229\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Select the Transparent Pixels option at the top of the dialog box.<\/div>\n<p>Click OK to close out of the dialog box, at which point Photoshop trims away all the transparent areas from around the photo, leaving us with our final result:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\" alt=\"A photo reshaped using the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"640\" height=\"530\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">The final reshaped image with the transparent areas trimmed away.<\/div>\n<h4>Tips For Getting Better Results With Content-Aware Scale<\/h4>\n<p>Here's a few quick tips for getting better results out of Photoshop's Content-Aware Scale command. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep Expectations In Check<\/strong><br \/>\n  First, keep your expectations realistic. No matter what we do to protect the important areas in a photo, we can only squish and compress an image so far before things start to get ugly. Exactly how much reshaping you can do with an image will depend entirely on the image itself. Photos with large areas of low detail will give you more room to work than will images with lots of detail throughout.<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.photoedit-middle { display: inline-block; width:300px; height:250px; float:right; margin: 6px 0px 12px 20px; }\n@media (max-width: 767px) { .photoedit-middle { display: none; } }\n<\/style><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\n<!-- photoedit-rectangle-middle -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle photoedit-middle\"     \n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"6428689099\"\n     data-ad-format=\"rectangle\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n<p><strong>Reshape In Smaller Steps<\/strong><br \/>\n  Also, rather than reshaping the image all at once, try breaking it down into smaller steps. Select the Content-Aware Scale command and drag the transform handle only part of the way, then press Enter (Win) \/ Return (Mac) to accept it. Choose Content-Aware Scale again, drag the transform handle further, then again press Enter (Win) \/ Return (Mac). Keep repeating this process until you've reshaped the image as much as you need to. This way, by breaking it down into smaller steps, Photoshop doesn't have quite so much work to do each time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blending Content-Aware Scale With Free Transform<\/strong><br \/>\n  Finally, if you look up in the Options Bar (when the Content-Aware Scale command is active), you'll find an <strong>Amount<\/strong> slider which, by default, is set to 100%. We can use this slider to actually switch the behavior  between Content-Aware Scale and the standard Free Transform command. With Amount set to 100%, we get the full power of Content-Aware Scale, but if we lower the Amount value down to 0%, the command behaves like Free Transform. By setting the Amount value to something between 0 and 100%, we get a blend of the two commands. That may sound a bit confusing, but if you find that certain areas of your image are starting to look jagged or broken, try lowering the Amount value which will reduce the strength of the Content-Aware Scale features and may help fix those problem areas:<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/photo-editing\/cs6\/content-aware-scale\/amount.gif\" alt=\"The Amount option for the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop. Image &copy; 2012 Photoshop Essentials.com\" width=\"507\" height=\"98\" \/>\n<div class=\"image-desc\">Lower the Amount value to reduce the strength of Content-Aware Scale.<\/div>\n<p>And there we have it! That's how to reshape and transform images using the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop! Check out our <a href=\"\/photo-editing\/\">Photo Retouching<\/a> section for more Photoshop image editing tutorials!<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.ads-bottom { width:300px; padding-top:16px;padding-bottom:16px; }\n<\/style><div align=\"center\"><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n<!-- 300x250 page bottom responsive -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle ads-bottom\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6601556224092982\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"2879809098\"\n     data-ad-format=\"rectangle\"\n\t data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/div>\n<p><div class=\"members-ad\"><a href=\"\/print-ready-pdfs\/\">Get all of our Photoshop tutorials as PDFs!<\/a> Download them today!<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn how Photoshop&#8217;s Content-Aware Scale command can reshape and transform photos from one aspect ratio to another without distorting your main subject or other important areas of the image!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-editing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Reshape Images With Content Aware Scale In Photoshop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Photoshop Essentials\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photoess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Patterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Patterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"13 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Patterson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2\"},\"headline\":\"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2643,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/newsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Photo Editing and Retouching\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/\",\"name\":\"Reshape Images With Content Aware Scale In Photoshop\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/newsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2\"},\"description\":\"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/newsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/newsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg\",\"width\":250,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/content-aware-scale-cs6\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Photo Retouch\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/photo-editing\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Content-Aware Scale\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"Photoshop Essentials\",\"description\":\"Where everyone can learn Photoshop!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/newsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2\",\"name\":\"Steve Patterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Steve Patterson\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.photoshopessentials.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reshape Images With Content Aware Scale In Photoshop","description":"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop","og_description":"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/","og_site_name":"Photoshop Essentials","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photoess","article_published_time":"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":250,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steve Patterson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Patterson","Est. reading time":"13 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/"},"author":{"name":"Steve Patterson","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/#\/schema\/person\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2"},"headline":"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop","datePublished":"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/"},"wordCount":2643,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg","articleSection":["Photo Editing and Retouching"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/","url":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/","name":"Reshape Images With Content Aware Scale In Photoshop","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-11T23:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-13T15:29:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/#\/schema\/person\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2"},"description":"Learn how the Content-Aware Scale command in Photoshop can reshape images without distorting your main subject or other important areas in the photo!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/photoshop-content-aware-scale.jpg","width":250,"height":250,"caption":"Reshape Images With Content-Aware Scale In Photoshop"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/content-aware-scale-cs6\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Photo Retouch","item":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/photo-editing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Content-Aware Scale"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/","name":"Photoshop Essentials","description":"Where everyone can learn Photoshop!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/#\/schema\/person\/338424c7775908e1c0a190d02a6564f2","name":"Steve Patterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c05e0a155b18857f3546fca45eecd1d28c2e7d51953f67b40ea76ac49c3cfcc0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Steve Patterson"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27245,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/27245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.photoshopessentials.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}