If you’ve ever been editing a photo and wished you’d captured it from a step further back, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will show you how to extend a background in Photoshop in just a few steps.
Extending a simple background only takes a few clicks in Photoshop thanks to a tool called Content-Aware Fill. Here’s how to use it.
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What you’ll need:
- Adobe Photoshop
- A Creative Cloud subscription
The Short Version
- Open your image in Photoshop
- Select the crop tool
- Extend the canvas beyond your image
- Select the area you want to extend
- Click Edit
- Choose Content-Aware Fill
- Hit OK
How to extend a background in Photoshop
Step
1Open your image in Photoshop
This can be any image with a simple background you want to extend, such as a sky.
Step
2Select the crop tool
The first step is to extend your canvas.
Step
3Extend the canvas beyond your image
Click on the tick when you’re done.
Step
4Choose any selection tool and select the area you want to extend
For this, we used the rectangular marquee tool to select the existing image and inverted that selection to highlight only the extended parts of the canvas we just added.
Step
5Click Edit
This option is in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Step
6Choose Content-Aware Fill
This can be found in the Edit dropdown menu.
Step
7Hit OK
You can also make any changes at this stage.
Troubleshooting
If you change your mind, simply hold Ctrl/Cmd and Z or click Edit and Undo Content-Aware Fill.
If you’re working with more complex backgrounds, you can also extend an image using the Generative Fill tool in Photoshop (Beta). This means you can enter a text prompt or allow Adobe’s new Firefly generative AI model to do the work.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.