How to Easily Move Objects in Photoshop With the Content Aware Move Tool

Move Objects in Photoshop With the Content Aware Move Tool

In this video, we’re going to talk about how to easily move objects in Photoshop with the content aware move tool. The content aware move tool allows you to move an object in an image to a different location. Photoshop will automatically fill the hole left behind by the object. In this tutorial, I’m also going to show you how to duplicate, expand, objects in an image with the content aware move tool.

How to Move and Extend Objects with the Content Aware Move Tool

First thing you want to do is come up here to the toolbar and grab your content aware move tool. It is up here. The icon looks like this and if you don’t see it could be that you need to hold down the spot healing brush. Select that and come up to the top of the toolbar.

Make sure that the first square is selected. That’s a new selection. Mode, make sure it is in MOVE. For Structure, start off with four. Color, start off with zero. Make sure sample all layers is checked and make sure transform on drop is checked. And we’ll go through what these mean. When you’re using your content aware move tool, you’re going to make a selection around the subject and it can be done loosely and it is a lasso, so there’s a selection that it makes.

So another feature of this tool is if you hold down the ALT key and click keep the ALT key held down, it acts like the polygonal lasso tool. And if you ever need angles like this, you can also work with it like that. So back to making a selection. Sometimes you may have to make this selection again depending on how this comes out.

And once you have selected it and then I’m going to click move my object over and let go, and that’s where I want my object. I come up to the top and click on the checkmark there. Photoshop took care of it. So I’ll say this is where I want my object, my bar stool in this case. And before I say command+D to select notice up here structure and color.

So structure has a value between one and seven. These values represent how closely the patch will represent existing patterns. If you enter seven, the patch adheres strongly to the existing image patterns. If you enter one, a patch adheres very loosely to the existing patterns. As long as you still have a selection, you can change this. So I’m going to change this all the way up to seven and you can see the area around the selection, how it didn’t change much.

So the movement of this object, it didn’t have any issues with the patterns behind it. And if I change it to one, you see what it did down here at the bottom. So structure helps you get these patterns and everything matching after it is moved. As long as you have it selected. Now you can change the color. The color goes from 0 to 10 and these values control the color blending of the patch. Zero means the blending is disabled ten means maximum color blending.

So if I change this all the way to ten, you could see that there was no change all the way to zero, there’s no change. So this was a good move. The patch did not have to interact with the background that much. And then you just say command D to deselect. So if you make a content aware move and things are looking right, make sure that you adjust the structure and color right after you make the drop.

Now I’m going to change the mode to extend. I’m going to make a selection around this bar stool right here. I say you may have to redo it if the move doesn’t turn out well. So I’m on extend right now. So I’m going to move this bar stool over and come up to the top and hit the checkmark.

Now, again, as long as I have a selection and if things don’t look right, I can change the structure and the color to see if that will improve things. Structures all the way up and color zero. I don’t think I need any of that. This is a pretty good move. I hit command + D, but still on extend. Think I want to raise the bar a little bit so I’ll make my selection.

If that selection bothers you, you can hit command +H and this window pops up. Click on Hide Extras. Selection is still there so I can lift this up. And now this is a little bit more obvious since it’s bigger, but you have like a transform window here, this square. That’s because you have the transform on drop checked here. So with that, you can actually take any of these handles and make here selection bigger or smaller, you can also rotate it, and see how you have the arrows like this.

You can rotate it. I click the checkmark. I’ve raised the bar, the command+H to bring back my selection, say command D and it’s not 100% perfect, but it’s a pretty good tool. Now, so far, this is kind of a complex background you’re going to see where this even works even better with a simpler background. Here’s a nice, smooth background.

How to Use the Transform On Drop Option

I’m going to give this guy a little bit more room here. So on and click on my crop tool and my content aware is clicked and drag one of these sides out here and could be a checkmark and give him some more space. Go back to my content aware move tool, select this guy I’m on, move up here and I’m going to drag him over here like this.

And just like the transform tool, I’m going to right-click and say flip horizontal. Then click on my checkmark. And so now maybe I want to adjust the color a little bit up here. It was more outlined in white and I moved this to four move it up a little bit kind of clears up that kind of stuff. I’m going to make a new selection. And this time

it will be on extend. So now I can drag him over here. Then right-click and say flip horizontal. And because I have transform on drop checked I can take this handle and resize him a little bit like he’s standing farther away. Hit my check mark because I’m still selected. I can come up here and change my color.

See how that does that’s a little bit better. And I could say command +D. so if you don’t have a busy background with a lot of patterns, this works really well. I know you can do this kind of thing with selections and layers, but this is a pretty quick way to move using the content aware move tool. Here’s something useful.

How to Make Use of a Simple White Background

If you’re going from a white background to a white background, I can make a selection with my content aware move tool loosely around this guy here Flying Dog. And make sure this up here says, let’s try this on extend and I want to move this copy or copy this to a blank document. Normally you would have used the move tool. I’m going to grab this would make content aware move tool come up here hold and drop and yeah it’s way too big.

So right away I would change this to a smart object, the layer that I just dropped in, and say, command + T, zero. Here are my handles, make this a little bit bigger and click on my check checkmark. So I was able to make my selection with the content aware move tool from one document and into a blank document.

Copy that in. It created this layer similar to what you would do making a selection using the MOVE tool with nice, smooth white backgrounds. That works out pretty well too.

Read the previous blog post here ➡️ Whats New in Lightroom June 2022 Release

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