PHOTOSHOP FEATURES
How to add an image in Adobe Photoshop.
If you’d like to transform an image, bringing it into Photoshop is the place to start. See how you can add an image to your project in seconds.
Image-adding tools for everyone.
Add images to a new document easily and then move and adjust them to create your ideal layout.
Start with an image.
You can create a new Photoshop document that starts with an image as the background layer, which makes editing and resizing fast. The canvas automatically adjusts to the size of your image.
Bring an image in as a layer.
Alternatively, add images one at a time as their own individual layers within a single file. This way you can adjust their size and positions separately. Many complex collages or composites start this way.
Transform it.
When you bring an image into your work, it comes ready to be transformed. Simply choose Edit › Free Transform to rotate, warp, skew, and resize an image to just the way you want it. You can then experiment with other tools to enhance your image or even add text and fonts to it if you like.
Preserve the original.
You can turn imported images into Smart Objects, which means you can revert changes and prevent irreversible damage to the original image and its quality. Simply right-click on Windows or Ctrl-click on Mac on the image’s layer and choose Smart Objects › Convert to Smart Object.
How to add and edit an image.
Whenever you open a new image in Photoshop, it becomes a background layer, the lowest layer in your document. It’s locked, meaning you can’t change its stacking order, blending mode, or opacity. Here’s how to change a different layer to a background for the same effect.
1. Unlock it:
If you already have a background layer, click the lock next to it in the Layers panel to make it no longer the background layer.
2. Select it:
In the Layers panel, select the image layer you want to be the new background layer.
3. Background it:
Navigate to Layer › New, and select Background from Layer.
4. Edit it:
The new background layer will automatically be moved to the bottom of your layer stack, and you can keep editing from there.
Inspiration for adding and transforming images.
Explore these photo editing and graphic design projects to take your images further.
Make pixel-perfect collages.
With assistance from selection tools and the Move tool, you’ll be able to select and change different images to create photomontages.
Tell a color story.
Using tools like Layer Masks, adjust the hues and background colors in an image in controlled ways for visually stunning looks.
Learn more about what Photoshop can do.
The only limit is your imagination — learn basic and advanced techniques that will empower your next project.
Lightroom or Photoshop?
Adobe Lightroom offers many of the features of Photoshop, with an emphasis on certain types of editing. Learn the differences and which will work best for you.
Erase a background.
Easily cut an object out from its background using this how-to. AI-powered selection tools help make it manageable.
Shrink a big file.
Large image sizes can hog file space unnecessarily. Discover how to resize images to a more manageable volume.
Expand and contract.
Cropping an image is an essential skill in Photoshop, and you can also use the Crop tool to make a canvas larger — see how.
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