Extend the background of my photo to suit a crop

Aperture cannot extend the canvas size like Photoshop. If you have Photoshop, you can setup Photoshop as an external editor (in the Aperture Preferences > Export panel) and then edit the image in Photoshop, by using the command "Photos > Edit with Adobe Photoshop...".

Or use a plug-in. The free BorderFX plug-in lets you add a border to your image. But I am not sure, if a version for Aperture is available.

Regards

Léonie

If you add any "canvas" to the left or the bottom, you have to invent "coat".

For task like this I like to use inpaint:

http://www.theinpaint.com

If you add to the borders of your image file, you can fill them automatically with inpaint based on statistically texture criteria:

• select the area you want to fill
• let inpaint find the best matching samples in the image and replace the area by these samples

For example: Selecting the white border in inpaint

Automatic replacement:

OP: And, fwiw, note that the color of the border can be anything. You can even select a pixel from the Image. And you can set the width top and bottom and side borders independently. The side borders are always the same width.

I see that BorderFX plug-in does do a version for Aperture, but I'm not allowed a border (as in a frame) …

I meant, "I am not sure if an Aperture 2 plug-in is available - when I posted my answer, the letter "2" was lost - sorry.

WIth my BorderFX version the border can be added as a frame, like this:

Does your version not allow it?

I set the "Image Size" pop-up to "Frame surrounds image".

Yes, "coat" = jacket. "Coat" is not, here, jargon. "Jacket" would have been a better choice -- but I'm glad you understood.

Inpaint looks very useful. Thanks Léonie.

And thanks musingmusic for your kind appreciation.

musingmusic wrote:

It's surprising that Aperture, which has Spot & Patch, doesn't also have its own tool to do what inpaint and BorderFX do.

Aperture almost rigorously adheres to a design paradigm of _adjusting_ digicam files. It does not _add to_ files. That means creating, cataloguing, and storing new graphic entities, which is not how Aperture is set up to work. For that, you generally turn to graphics programs (built from the ground up as compositors). In some cases plug-ins provide enough of this functionality to meet the needs of photographers. Used as such, they introduce, in a non-standard way, additional Originals, which complicate the Aperture workflow. (Here on the forum these are often refered to as "quasi-Originals".)

Your need is to create a new graphics entity (of a larger size, and perforce containing data that is not in the original). The proper tool is Photoshop of any of its many excellent competitors. The "proper tool" however is not always the best, easiest, or least expensive 🙂 .

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger -- attempts at clarification.

If you add any "canvas" to the left or the bottom, you have to invent "coat". So the easy thing to do is add canvas to the right so that the width = 81/103 x the height. The problem there is that the background isn't evenly colored, so even though you don't have to add "coat" you have to somehow add "background". This can still be done with Aperture and BorderFX (which, importantly, is free). BorderFX adds a border, but the border is then saved as part of the image. Since you need "canvas" on the right, and BorderFX only allows non-mirrored borders on the top or the bottom, rotate the Image (lets say counter-clockwise 90°). Then edit it with BorderFX and add a border to the top only (formerly the right side), equal to the number of pixels you need. Sample a color near the edge, and use that for the border color. Save the new Image. Now back in Aperture, rotate the Image back upright. use the Blur brush to smooth the transition from the old background to the newly added background. You could even use the Repair brush to clone some of the old over the new. Then maybe add a light vignette to the Image to hide you work even more (you can brush it out of the non-new corners), and you are left with just finishing up to suit.

Et viola! (Sorry about my silly watermark -- I forgot it was preset in BorderFX. And the sloppy blur work -- but you see the possibility.)