VFX Atlas
M 165 / 18307 Filters & Motionalgorithm output

Seam Carving

filters & motion

Typeface · Stint Ultra Expanded

Atlas demonstration: the free source photo and the computed Seam Carving. A man in a thick scarf and beanie stands against a two-tone wall. The subject's torso and lower body have been compressed into a narrow column while his head remains at a natural scale.
Atlas demonstration: the free source photo and the computed Seam Carving. A man in a thick scarf and beanie stands against a two-tone wall. The subject's torso and lower body have been compressed into a narrow column while his head remains at a natural scale.Image: Clem Onojeghuo clemono2 · CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons), processed for the AtlasView source ↗

Prompt

Apply a Seam Carving effect by modestly narrowing low-detail background spaces without squeezing the main subject. Preserve natural anatomy, object proportions, sharp contours, and existing textures; allow only subtle compression of empty sky, walls, or ground between important elements. Maintain their relative arrangement. Keep the original subject and composition.

Paste it into LetzAI with your own image to apply the effect ↗

Identify

You see an image that has been shrunk or expanded without stretching its most important visual subjects1.

Principle

The algorithm finds continuous paths of low importance, called seams2, from one side to the other. It repeatedly removes or duplicates these paths to change the overall image dimensions.

Try it out

Notice how empty backgrounds disappear first while faces and main objects stay perfectly intact.

Classification

Calculated image processing result.

Further examples · 9 images

Seam Carving, applied to “Fruit Of The Loom (Unsplash)”
02 Seam Carving, applied to “Fruit Of The Loom (Unsplash)”A woman in a black robe holds a pineapple in front of her midsection. The algorithm has heavily squeezed the center of the image, resulting in a surreal, impossibly thin waistline and distorted hands.Marvin Meyer marvelous (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Southbank traffic at night (Unsplash)”
03 Seam Carving, applied to “Southbank traffic at night (Unsplash)”This image captures a complex urban interchange at night with long-exposure light trails from traffic. The horizontal structures of the overpasses are heavily distorted into jagged, stair-step patterns where columns of pixels were removed.Mike Wilson mkwlsn (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Bird in flight over sea (Unsplash)”
04 Seam Carving, applied to “Bird in flight over sea (Unsplash)”A solitary bird flies across a vast, clouded sky above a dark sea. The manipulation is evident in the jagged, compressed transitions within the cloud formations and the unnatural condensation of the horizon line.Alex Wigan alwig64 (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Old steel bridge (Unsplash)”
05 Seam Carving, applied to “Old steel bridge (Unsplash)”A massive steel bridge spans a deep valley filled with autumn foliage. The effect is prominent in the irregular, pinched spacing of the vertical bridge supports and the unnatural repetition of forest textures below.Ashley Knedler aknedler (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Midnight train (Unsplash)”
06 Seam Carving, applied to “Midnight train (Unsplash)”A night scene captures the side of a bridge with a passing train creating streaks of light. Vertical seams have been aggressively removed, causing the bridge pillars to appear jagged and abnormally thin compared to the light trails.Ioan Radu Mester radumester (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Light painting on city street (Unsplash)”
07 Seam Carving, applied to “Light painting on city street (Unsplash)”The Manhattan Bridge is framed by brick buildings with long exposure light trails on the street. The horizontal compression has warped the cars and light streaks into condensed, pinched shapes while preserving the bridge's main structure.Osman Rana osmanrana (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Woman in Genoa harbor (Unsplash)”
08 Seam Carving, applied to “Woman in Genoa harbor (Unsplash)”A woman with a ponytail stands in front of a blurry harbor filled with sailboats. Vertical artifacts are prominent in the mast lines and the woman's shoulder, creating a disjointed, wavy appearance in the linear elements.Joseph Pearson josephtpearson (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Seam Carving, applied to “Kite and exciting beach (Unsplash)”
09 Seam Carving, applied to “Kite and exciting beach (Unsplash)”A man runs across a white sand beach under a clear sky while a kite flies high above. The kite's long purple ribbons exhibit strange, sharp breaks and missing segments caused by the removal of low-energy sky paths.Denin Williams deninwilliams (photo); processed for the Atlas · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sources