When using content-aware fill, how do you select a sampling area from another layer?

[Platographer]

I took night skyline photos from one location where there was a sign in the water between me and the buildings. I then realized that there was an unobstructed view a few hundred feet away, so I moved there. Unfortunately, by that time, the reflection of the lights in the water was much fainter and less defined--perhaps due to increased wind. So, I want to use the photos from the first location to create an HDR panorama, but I want to remove the sign. Unfortunately, I cannot get content-aware fill to do an acceptable job. While the second location provided a very slightly different angle, the relevant photos from there include the blocked area. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to use the pertinent part of one of those photos as the sampling area. I tried bringing it in as a layer on the same PSD document to no avail. There is a "sample all layers" option under "sampling area options," but that does not work, presumably because the area does not line up between the photos (they are bracketed series of vertical shots of a portion of the skyline for a Panorama). So, I need to simply make my sampling selection from the other layer, but cannot figure out how to do it. I would greatly appreciate the solution. 

[Sameer K]

Hi, 

Thanks for reaching out. We are here to help! We have some recommendations for you to try in this situation.  

While you can simply try & use Harmonization which is one of the Neural Filter which can help you harmonize color & luminosity of one layer to the other for compositions. Check here to know more  

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/neural-filters-list-and-faq.html 

Alternatively, you may try this workflow as well. For easier understanding, referring to the A – target image and B – source image.  

• Put target layer A on top in the Layers pane and make the selection of where you want to apply the content aware fill. 

• Reduce Target layer’s opacity from the layer panel to 0% as shown below which will reveal source layer –B.  

• Now go to Edit > Content Aware Fill. 
• The preview window should appear to be empty. When you select Sample All Layers, you will have the source image visible in the preview window. (Might have to play with the parameters as per your expected output)  

• Highlight the sampling areas & when we have taken the sample from the source press OK. Ensure Output to > New Layer is selected for harmonization filter later.  

• The output should have an Opacity of 0%, please increase it along with the target layer.  

We have created a patch you may adjust it further to better suit your composition. This workflow might be a longer route to something simple.  

As additional tip, for more sampling input for Photoshop, you can keep multiple layers with equal levels of opacity and then use sample all layers. 

Please let us know if this helps!  

Regards, 

Sameer K

[Platographer]

Thank you Sameer. The harmonization filter really isn't going to be helpful in this situation, but I tried your suggestion to set target layer opacity to 0% and then select "sample all layers" in the content-aware fill tool so that all I could see while making a selection was the other layer I wished to sample from. Unfortunately, this causes an inability to preview the results. More importantly, after several attempts, it seems to me that reducing the target layer opacity to 0% prevents the AI from taking it into consideration when building the fill, which resulted in far worse results than I could get without this method. It basically just selected part of the sampling area I carefully selected and shoehorned it into the selection area without any awareness of what was around it in the target layer.

Ultimately, the "sample all layers" option does not seem to be intended for this straight-forward application of the content-aware fill tool and using it as a clumsy work-around is not working. Is there really no way to simply select a sampling area from another layer? Not allowing that doesn't make sense and, as here, prohibits the content-aware fill tool from being able to do a good job when it would be able to perfectly fix the issue if it could use the photo of the unobstructed area and intelligently build a fill for the photo where that area is obstructed. Given the very slightly different angles of the photos, there is a need for AI, but the one photo has everything the AI would need to fix this perfectly.

[Sameer K]

Hi, 

We understand. There are more than a few ways to achieve what you are looking for in this case. Reducing opacity to 0% is just for example. Please feel free to try with different levels of transparencies with different layers as well. 

Also, if other images have the subjects which you would like to carry over to your target image, try other pixel manipulation tools like Content Aware Patch, Content Aware Move and other retouching tools (Spot Healing Brush). 

Regards,

Sameer K.

[Platographer]

Content-aware patch would be perfect, but how do you select an area from another layer for the fill? The instructions on Adobe's help page say to "drag the selection over the area you want to generate a fill from."