Making Things Disappear

Magician Jay Fraser wanted some professional images for his web site (www.acmetricks.com). I wanted to capture the spirit of his skills as an illusionist and it made great sense to use playing cards as the theme for the shoot. 

Having cards suspended in midair is very easy as a digital image challenge, thanks to a simple and powerful tool found in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Jay stood within a frame where cards were taped to wooden sticks. The sticks were painted black at the edges to make it easier to prevent edges from showing during the photographic disappearing act. The cards were placed at angles that both composed the shot and also prevented glaring reflections from the studio lights. Once the image was captured, it was time for the disappearing act to take place.

Current versions of both Photoshop (~$700) and Photoshop Elements (~$70) have a feature known as Content Aware Fill. After isolating an area that you want removed from the image, you simply hit the Delete key and choose the option for Content Aware Fill. The program samples the space around the area to be deleted and fills that area in with what the program senses would replace it. Very magical.

These tools is not simply for special effects- they have far more practical application. Landscapes can be ruined by power and phone lines stretching across the sky- this is a perfect time to create the disappearing act.

The Content Aware Fill is far from perfect- the program will often sample the wrong area and create strange results- just undo and try a smaller portion of the offending area. And there are lots of other tools for the task- but Content Aware Fill is by far the simplest.