How to Give your image more space

1 Find an image that works

Not all images are great candidates for Content-Aware cropping. Lots of really fine detail, or faces, at the edge of the frame can cause problems. Landscapes like this, with lots of areas of sky, are likely to work better. If only it were straight…

2 Set up the crop tool

Press C to start the crop tool, and note the new options immediately above your image. The first thing to check is that the first drop-down box, which lets you choose the aspect ratio of your shot, is set to Original Ratio.

3 Use the straightener Photoshop’s Straighten tool allows you to draw a line along the horizon and straighten the image to it automatically. Hold ç, then click and drag across the horizon of your image and, when you let go, your image will straighten up.

4 Where the magic happens

With your image straight, you’ll notice you now have grey and white checkerboard at the corners. Ordinarily, you would simply delete these, along with a bit of the image itself. Instead, make sure Content-Aware is checked, and hit ® .