# help from Photoshop experts to make picture extend and merge into color



## Tom75 (Aug 28, 2012)

Hi everybody,

I know this is a photoshop related question but I thought to ask the photoshop experts here because I don't manage to do this.

First some explanation, I have a relatively wide panorama-like picture but I would like to have it even wider and I dont want the image just to "end" on the left and right side. 

I would like that the picture for example on the left continues and merges into a color. On the left of the image are grey rocks and the color these rocks should merge into should be approximately an average or at least similar grey.

I hope I was able to explain what I mean but basically I dont want the picture to end right where it ends to extend it with this color more out.

I would really appreciate if some expert could help me or explain how I can do this.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Tom


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 28, 2012)

Ok, can you post a copy of the picture, and we'll have a play.  And which version of PS do you use?


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## Tom75 (Aug 28, 2012)

Thank you very much for the offer Victoria.

The picture is very big because it is a very wide panorama but maybe I could upload it as .psd file to google docs or so and post a link.... Will have a look at this tomorrow.

I have Photoshop CS 6.

Would really appreciate your help.

Thanks and regards,
Tom


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## Mark Sirota (Aug 28, 2012)

Just post a reasonably sized JPEG. People can experiment with this and explain what they did so you can do it yourself on the original.


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## Tom75 (Aug 29, 2012)

Mark Sirota said:


> Just post a reasonably sized JPEG. People can experiment with this and explain what they did so you can do it yourself on the original.



Yes, in the end I anyway need to do this myself but I would really appreciate some explanations regarding the process and techniques.

here is a small version of the picture..... I hope it works to post that.
What I actually want is to get this picture approximately double as wide as it is now but only with colors etc extending from the picture or maybe if these rocks etc would extend a little to the levt and become more and more washed out and go over into a gradient of light to medium grey.
The same I would like to have on the right side, meaning on the very right of th efinal image I would like to end up with the same shade of grey as on the left....... I hope you understand what I am trying to say 







here also the link to a little bit bigger version:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rcPCMiwYQAGzd4UGn-bbVbzhYpXNmB2NkuEIHPSQOEk?feat=directlink


Thanks and regards,
Tom


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## Tom75 (Aug 30, 2012)

Hi again,

would be nice if you could let me know what you think about the things I would like to do and how difficult this would be. I still hope I will manage to do it with some explanation.

Thanks and regards,
Tom


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## Victoria Bampton (Aug 30, 2012)

Hi Tom, sorry, last night got a bit manic.

I'm not sure I'm on your wavelength - but here are some really really really rough examples to give you some specific words to describe it.

This is what content aware does, when you ask it to fill the area.


Here's plain grey.


And here's a slight gradient running off into dark grey.


Obviously they all look quite odd, so would you like to try and explain what you're imagining in more detail?  Once I understand what you're aiming for, then we can do instructions.


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## Tom75 (Aug 30, 2012)

Thanks a lot for your efforts Victoria.

Your last example is the closest to what I am looking for or maybe something between the first and the last. I need to use this as a header so the first one is also not bad on the left side.

I'll try to explain it a little better. Looking at the last image it would be nice if the grey areas on the sides would be like a gradient, becoming a lighter grey on the very left (it should be same for the right side meaning going into a lither grey on the very right. In addition I thought not to have such a strong difference or "border" between the picture and the grey. The picture / rocks should merge more smooth over into grey..... something like becoming more and more transparent until they disappear into the grey gradient.
I think the grey you used fits already quite nicely with the rocks. However since the picture is more green on the right I think the color should start on the right side also with a color that is close to the average picture color BUT I would like that it merges into the same shade like on the left that I end up with the same light grey gradient on the left and on the right.

I hope this explains it a little better now ....... I really like your examples because they are not so far away.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards,
Tom


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## johnbeardy (Aug 30, 2012)

So are you trying to give the sense that this is a 360 degree panorama? What you might do is copy the far right side of the picture into its own layer, then move it over to the left, add a mask to the layer and paint on a gradient. But is that what you want to do?


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## Tom75 (Aug 30, 2012)

No, I don't want it to be a 360 degree panorama, I just need to create a really wide header that is at least double width of the picture and I got the ideas I described above when thinking how this could be done to look nice.

Regards,
Tom


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## Mark Sirota (Aug 31, 2012)

What happens if you put a rectangle of solid grey at the edges, then ask Content Aware Fill to fill in between the image and the grey?


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## Tom75 (Aug 31, 2012)

Mark Sirota said:


> What happens if you put a rectangle of solid grey at the edges, then ask Content Aware Fill to fill in between the image and the grey?



Thanks for your tip Mark, I will try that and see what happens and how it looks like.

Regards,
Tom


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## Tom75 (Sep 3, 2012)

Hi Mark,

I tried what you described above but didn't find out yet how content aware works.

Regards,
Tom


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## Tom75 (Sep 3, 2012)

Hi again, 

I managed now with the content aware however if I do as you described it fills everything just grey.

Regards,
Tom


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## johnbeardy (Sep 3, 2012)

Try applying it to a merged layer - Alt/Opt Merge Visible. That often gives it more pixels to use. Or maybe the problem is you're trying to use CAF in an area where the existing content is grey. So consider using the patch tool with its content aware option which effectively allows you to copy a selection of pixels and fill the target area in a content-aware way. You may then have more pixels in the wider target area and can go back to Content Aware Fill. But I don't understand exactly what you want to achieve!


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## Tom75 (Sep 3, 2012)

Thanks john, I will try also the patch tool and see what I get with that.

I have now already played around some more and with a combination of clone stamp and content aware I was able to extend the image quite nicely with rocks etc. My idea was now to lay a transparent grey gradient over this to make the rocks disappear to the left and merge into grey.

Basically what I want to do is: I want to use the above posted picture as a header but since it is not wide enough I am trying to find a good looking way to make it lets say 4000px wide. If it would be only 1800 px wide for example and you would view it on a screen with lets say 2500 px resolution, then it would not be wide enough for this screen............. and this I would like to avoid.

So if you have any other creative ideas to do this in a good looking way, please let me know.

Regards,
Tom


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## johnbeardy (Sep 3, 2012)

Have you looked at Content Aware Scale? It stretches the picture in a clever way.


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## Tom75 (Sep 5, 2012)

Hi all,

I have now played around quite much with content aware, clone stamp, patch tool, placing gradients over the rocks etc but I am not happy with the result at all so far. 

Does anyone have any other creative style ideas how I could make a wide nice looking header from the above image?

Thanks and regards,
Tom


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## Kiwigeoff (Sep 5, 2012)

How about this:


I think it works and I can tell you it was done in PSCS6
Open File
Canvas Size - add extra cm in width only (use about the same as current width) and canvas extension colour white
Select the white ends
Invert selection (now image is selected)
then use Content Aware Scale


 and there ya go!!

One other thing, it works much easier with a Nikon!!


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## Tom75 (Sep 5, 2012)

Thanks, but I think it is a little too stretched. I basically don't want to stretch the whole image, I would like to keep the original intact because that is the most important part.

Regards,
Tom


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## Kiwigeoff (Sep 5, 2012)

Well Tom you need to say exactly what you want then, creative is in the minds eye and we aren't mind readers:shock:
What is the header for????


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## Tom75 (Sep 5, 2012)

Sorry, I tried to explain it as good as possible in the above posts but I agree it is of course difficult if you don't know exactly what I need.

Basically I want to create a header by use of this image for a web site project. Since this header (in this format) will not be wide enough large screens with high resolutions etc I would like to make it wide enough in a nice looking way. (This means if my header is for example 1200 px wide and it is viewed on a screen with 2500px resolution then the header will not fill the whole width of the screen because it will not be scaled. Therefore I want to make wide enough for highest possible resolutions etc and on smaller screen it will just be cropped without affecting the image because that will be only about 1200px wide.)

My first idea was to extend the image and let it fade in grey color but I don't like really how that looks like, so could it maybe be possible to let it merge into a glossy looking grey bar or something........ I just wanted to ask  if somebody might have some good ideas.

Regards,
Tom


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