I did a little experiment today. I took one of my photos (sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico on New Years Day 2025) and stretched it to be twice as wide as it was originally. Here is the result.
Not bad, eh? I used the Seamcarve filter in the G’Mic-Qt plugin for GIMP. Here is the original photo.
I masked the sun and the text of my name and the oil derrick on the horizon. This prevented Seamcarve from stretching those elements. It would have looked really weird if the sun was oval instead of round.
You can click on either of those photos to see them full-size.
Pretty cool results, I think. And done with 100% free, open source software.
I learned how to do this from Davies Media Design’s video, GIMP Content Aware Scale Plugin Extends Photos Seamlessly. He has an incredible library of YouTube video tutorials for GIMP.
How vivid the sunrise on the stretched. And how expansive the horizon. One day when I retire from retirement, I hope to have time to do some of the incredible photo work you are doing. Just beautiful and oh so calming.