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You are here: Home / Kitty Wisdom / Caturday Art: The Polishing a… Ahem! Edition

Caturday Art: The Polishing a… Ahem! Edition

March 22, 2014 By: Sparkle Cat30 Comments

Not every terrible photo is salvageable, but every so often my human finds one that she thinks has “possibilities.” Case in point: the orange and white rescue kitten she photographed at some event a couple of years ago. Can you believe she actually thought this would make a good faux oil painting?

Can you even SEE him?

The photo is way too dark, it is out of focus, and once she cropped and lightened it, there were even more problems — the carpet the cat was on was a mess! Plus there was another cat’s foot in the corner. With a big object like that, it’s hard to erase it in Photoshop with the Clone Stamp or the Spot Healing Brush tool. But there is a quick way to get rid of these types of things. It’s as easy as surrounding it with the Lasso tool (its shortcut is L).

Easier than getting the other cat to move his foot

Once you have the marching ants around the offending object, go up to the Edit menu and click on the Fill command in the drop down menu.

I wanted to make it easier for you to find it

Now, here is the important part. When the next window opens, you want to make sure to use the Content Aware option. It will fill in the area to match everything that surrounds it.

This is one of my human's favorite tools

It works (most of the time), almost like magic!

It almost looks presentable already

My human cleaned up the rest of the photo with a combination of the Content-Aware Fill, Spot Healing Brush and Clone Stamp. Now it does not look half bad. This is what she refers to as “polishing a turd” (hence the title of this blog post). Then, she took the easy way out and filtered the photo through the AKVIS ArtWork software that she used for my Caturday Art post a couple of weeks ago. This time, she used the Oil Painting filter. And you know what? It does make a pretty cool oil painting!

She may put this on a card for my Zazzle store

For more Caturday Art, visit Athena!

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Comments

  1. Basil says

    March 24, 2014 at 4:04 am

    How clever is your humum!!

    Reply
  2. Flynn says

    March 23, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    Your human did a great job on that photo. It looks lovely as an oil painting.

    Reply
  3. Sue Brandes says

    March 23, 2014 at 6:48 am

    That is so pretty.

    Reply
  4. Diane Ricciardi Stewart says

    March 23, 2014 at 3:20 am

    beautiful!!! <3

    Reply
  5. Famous SpokesGoat Pricilla says

    March 22, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    That looks like a very sweet kitty. I think I should be art

    Reply
  6. Mark's Mews says

    March 22, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    The artiness of adjusting the picture is great, but the subject deserves some credit too. Thats a lovely kitty!

    Reply
  7. Baby Tali says

    March 22, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    Wowzers..that is pawsome!!

    Reply
  8. Lone Star Cats says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    Great job!

    Reply
  9. Susan and the gang from Life with Dogs and Cats says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    Very cool. Will have to try out that program. I was looking for something like that when i created my Caturday art picture.

    –Purrs (and woofs) from Life with Dogs and Cats.

    Reply
  10. Penelope says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:00 pm

    Oh Sparkle!
    Mes LOVES it! Your Mommy did a fabulishious job! It really does look like a old master.
    Kisses
    Nellie

    Reply
  11. Tiffany & the Cattle Aussies says

    March 22, 2014 at 3:59 pm

    Great job! That looks great 🙂

    Reply
  12. The Poupounette Gang says

    March 22, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    Pretty impressive!

    Purrs,
    The Chans

    Reply
  13. Katnip Lounge says

    March 22, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Mommy says she has plenty of poops to polish…she needs to get off her duff and do nice stuff like your Human!

    Reply
  14. Pawesome Cats says

    March 22, 2014 at 1:03 pm

    It makes a very elegant oil painting…we love it!

    Reply
  15. Maxwell, Faraday & Allie says

    March 22, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    Isn’t it funny how we use different tools in the same program to achieve the same effects? I rarely use Content Aware – and want to try it out now. Healing brush? check. Clone? Yep – often in partial flow and opacity to create a more authentic look.

    Reply
  16. Sometimes, Cats Herd You says

    March 22, 2014 at 12:32 pm

    This is one of the first Photoshop tricks the head peep hasn’t been able to follow along with in Elements. That content-aware fill is a really nice feature!

    Reply
  17. Caren Gittleman says

    March 22, 2014 at 11:08 am

    looks like a portrait! Love it!

    Reply
  18. Clooney says

    March 22, 2014 at 10:10 am

    Wow. Beautiful. We are in awe of your Human’s Photoshop skills and knowledge.

    Reply
  19. Cathy Keisha says

    March 22, 2014 at 9:49 am

    I always learn good stuff here. I should here TW pay your human, Sparkle. Actually, we just started using the lasso and fill stuff but didn’t know about the Contents award setting. For my Irish Cream, TW sampled the green on the label and filled with that color. For someone who never used PS, I think she’s doing pretty good.

    Reply
  20. Grace says

    March 22, 2014 at 8:16 am

    Not just a pretty cool oil painting, a fabulous one! It really was a great pic even when it was dark. The kitty’s face (head) is so perfectly captured – amazingly so. That Photoshop is a very nifty program!

    Reply
  21. Angel AbbyGrace says

    March 22, 2014 at 8:05 am

    Very good tutorial and excellent salvage on a picture you though was a t**D! 🙂

    Reply
  22. Georgia and Julie says

    March 22, 2014 at 8:05 am

    We like the result and Mom likes your Saturday tips.
    She is lazy about learning all the tricks her program can do.
    Your posts inspire her to learn a bit more and have fun.
    We like that as she is not taking pics of us 😉 heehee
    Purrs Georgia and Julie,
    Treasure, JJ
    and Angels Tiger and Tillie

    Reply
  23. Laila and Minchie says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:34 am

    Oh WOW! Your mom is very talented. Great job!

    Reply
  24. Brian says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:20 am

    That really is magical Sparkle!!!

    Reply
  25. Athena says

    March 22, 2014 at 6:09 am

    Your human was right. It looks great!

    Purrs xx
    Athena and Marie

    Reply
  26. Madi and mom says

    March 22, 2014 at 5:20 am

    Bravo what a wonderful arty Caturday! Your human has a very creative eye
    Hugs
    Madi your BFFF

    Reply
  27. Katie Bella says

    March 22, 2014 at 4:39 am

    IT does indeed, Sparkle.

    Reply
  28. Marg says

    March 22, 2014 at 3:56 am

    That is great stuff. Very interesting. I might have to try this trick. Sounds like something I might be able to do. Have a great day.

    Reply
  29. The Kitties of Purring Pines says

    March 22, 2014 at 3:31 am

    Wow! You mommy did some great work!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Caturday Art: The Earthquake Edition | Sparkle the Designer Cat says:
    March 29, 2014 at 12:11 am

    […] multi-step idea she had for today, she decided to do something a lot simpler — revisit last week’s Caturday Art project, only this time use a good photo. She picked the photo used for the cover of my 2010 wall […]

    Reply

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