How To Stretch Images Using Content Aware Scale In Photoshop

On this video tutorial by Aaron Nace from Phlearn we take a look at how to extend an image using the content aware scale feature in Adobe Photoshop.

Nace start by showing the limitations of the regular transform tool in Photoshop (basically your image will stretch but create issues as you can see in Nace’s demo).

The content ware scale (Edit>content aware scale) is a pretty straight forward type of tool it will (sort of) stretch your image but will use content aware and preserve the main part of your image from stretching and fill the rest. You have a few options for amount and protect which is one of the most powerful parts of the content aware scale.

The idea behind protect is that you can select any specific area of your image – and if you select it (and save the selection – Nace actually save this as a channel – which actually seemed a bit longer – check Bryan O’Neil Hughes video in the link in the next paragraph for a simpler faster way for doing the same thing).

We have also looked (more briefly on the content aware scale in the past in a video by Photoshop senior product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes in one of our most popular videos here on LensVid on “Changing Orientation From Portrait to Landscape in Photoshop“.

You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.