How to Make an Image Bigger in Photoshop (Step-by-Step)

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How to Change the Size of an Image in Photoshop

This quick tutorial will show you two ways for how to change the size of an image in Photoshop, including how to increase the size of an image by blowing up or enlarging a picture (how to make a picture bigger in Photoshop) and how to shrink images in Photoshop, both without losing quality.

These methods are useful if you want to resize the entire image, or resize a pasted image or any individual layer in Photoshop, while leaving any original layers the same size.

Photoshop is, in my opinion, the best software for photo editing, and along with Lightroom makes the photo editing workflow a breeze. If you don’t yet have a copy, then Adobe have an excellent value for money photography plan that I use everyday, and I recommend you check out.


How to Make An Image Bigger in Photoshop

The easiest method to enlarge images and photos in Photoshop is:

  1. Once you have opened your photo into Photoshop, go to the Image Menu, then choose Image Size.

  2. With the chain symbol active to denote that the proportions of the photo will be constrained, change the Width to Percent. The Height will also change to Percent if the proportions are correctly linked. If you are trying to set the picture to a specific pixel size, you can set the Width and Height to Pixels. DPI can be set in the Resolution box.

  3. Set the Width to a larger percentage to increase the photo size, ensure the Resample box is checked and is set to Automatic, and then press OK.

This is the preferred method to adjust image size in Photoshop without losing quality to any appreciable level.

You can use this same command for any general resizing in Photoshop, where you know what output you are looking for. If you want to shrink images in Photoshop, then use the same method, but reduce the Percent value below 100 (or set a lower Pixel value).

The shortcut key to resize images in Photoshop is Alt+I then Alt+E. This will bring up the Image Size dialog box for you to follow the above workflow. This is the easiest way for how to make an image bigger in Photoshop.


How to Make a Layer Bigger in Photoshop

To make an individual layer bigger in Photoshop requires a slightly different process than we used above to make a photo bigger in Photoshop.

The Image Size menu option will make the entire picture either bigger or smaller. To resize one layer while keeping the rest of the image the same size, you can use the Free Transform tool.

  1. Select the layer you wish to resize, and go to the Edit menu, then choose Free Transform

  2. With the proportions constrained through making sure the chain symbol is selected on the top toolbar, you can then directly enter new percentage sizes for Width and Height.

    Or, click and drag on the edges of the layer to enlarge or shrink it.

  3. Press Enter, or click the tick on the transform toolbar to accept your resizing

This method can be used to change the size of a layer, and to resize a pasted image.

The resize layer Photoshop shortcut is Ctrl+T (Cmd+T on Mac) with the layer selected, which will open Free Transform.

If you make a layer bigger in this way and it exceeds the bounds of the original photo, you will notice that it gets cut off at those bounds, as in the screenshot above. To view the entirety of the enlarged layer, you will need to increase the canvas size.

To increase canvas size in Photoshop:

  1. Select the Crop tool from the toolbar

  2. Single click on your photo, and you will see the crop guidelines appear at the current photo bounds. You will see the edges of your resized layer greyed out.

  3. Click on the corner of the crop guidelines and drag them to cover your enlarged layer. The tool should ‘snap’ to the edges of your largest layer.

  4. Press Enter, or click the tick on the crop toolbar to accept your increased Canvas Size.

You should now be able to view the entire resized layer, while any original layers remain at their original size.


Hopefully, you now know how to enlarge an image in Photoshop and are comfortable with the entire process. If this still seems a bit mysterious to you, then maybe you should go back to basics and learn the fundamentals of photo editing.

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Hi, I'm Tim Daniels, photographer and photo trainer, founder of Lapse of the Shutter and creator of the totally free Lightroom Develop System. I've travelled to (probably) 30 countries over the last few years, taking photos and licensing them around the world, and creating lots of free photography learning resources. Read More ...

2 Responses

  1. Simon
    | Reply

    Hi. You can use a free online tool to resize image https://freetools.site/image-editors/resize

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