Turn a portrait photo into a landscape, make room for text, or give a tight composition more breathing room. Generative Expand uses AI to fill in new space around your photo automatically, so it looks like it was always there.
Generative Expand is an AI-powered feature that lets you resize a photo’s canvas and fill the new space automatically. It’s found in the AI tab, and it uses AI to generate new content that matches your photo’s existing scene, such as continuing a sky, a field, or a wall.
It’s especially useful for turning a portrait photo into a landscape (or the other way around), creating room for a title or caption alongside an image, or rescuing a photo that was cropped a little too tight.
Time required: About 3–5 minutes. Skill level: Beginner-friendly.
Before you begin, make sure you have:
Open your photo in Photoshop Elements and click the AI tab at the top of the screen. In the panel on the right, click Generative Expand.
Drag the handles around your photo to expand the canvas in any direction, or enter exact width and height values. A grid overlay appears to help you judge the new composition as you resize.
If you want a specific aspect ratio, choose one from the Aspect Ratio menu. Then, in the Prompt box, you can optionally describe what you'd like to see in the new space, such as “sandy beach” or “open sky.” Click Generate. Photoshop Elements fills the new canvas area based on your description, or, if you leave the prompt blank, with content that matches the surrounding scene.
Once you’re happy with the result, go to File > Save As and give your expanded photo a new name. This keeps your original photo safe and untouched on your computer.
Open sky, grass, a beach, or a plain wall are the easiest for the AI to continue. Busy or highly detailed backgrounds may need a few tries to get right.
If you need a lot of extra space, try expanding in two or three smaller steps rather than all at once. Each pass gives the AI more to work with.
Generative Expand can produce a different result each time. It’s worth generating more than once and comparing before you save.
Zoom in along the border of your original photo and the newly generated area to make sure the transition looks seamless.
