How Anyone Can Resize Images in Photoshop Without Ugly Stretching

I used to find scaling images frustrating until I learned about Photoshop’s straightforward channel-based protection method. Now, I can resize images without any ugly stretching or distortion, making the process much simpler.

The Smart Way to Resize Without Stretching

Photoshop’s solution is the Content-Aware Scale. This tool intelligently stretches (or squeezes) only the background while protecting your main subject.

There are many scenarios when you need to change an image’s aspect ratio. The traditional Free Transform tool (Ctrl+T) stretches everything uniformly, which can squish or bloat people, buildings, and other subjects.

A Beginner’s Guide to Aspect Ratios in Photography

Aspect ratio is one of the first things you should consider before taking a picture. Here’s what you need to know about it.

However, Content-Aware Scale is intelligent and customizable. It helps you adjust composition, layout, and orientation. You can use the control to scale an image by dragging the image or protect subjects from distortion like people and buildings by using alpha channels.

Using Content-Aware Scale to Preserve Subjects

The method is best for images with a clear foreground/background separation and the background is not busy. For instance, plain backgrounds like a beach, walls, or curtains are ideal.

Choose either of the two content-aware scaling methods depending on the nature of your photo. Let’s start by opening an image in Photoshop and converting it to a layer in the Layers panel.

Method 1: Quick and Straightforward Direct Scaling

Start by using the Crop tool to expand the canvas so the background has room to stretch.

With the layer selected, go to Edit > Content-Aware Scale. Photoshop places a bounding box around the image with a reference point in the subject’s center. This is the fixed point around which the image is scaled.

Setting up Photoshop's Content-Aware-Scale tool

Drag a handle on the bounding box to scale the image in your desired direction. Notice that only the background stretches while your subject maintains its original proportions. Hit Enter to finalize the edit.

Finalized image with Content-Aware Scale applied — Saikat Basu/MUO | Photoshop | Signatureedits

Work with high-resolution images for best results and make incremental adjustments rather than extreme stretches.

Method 2: Protect the Subject With an Alpha Channel

Photoshop’s Sensei does a good job. However, there may be some instances where the subject starts stretching. So, you have to tell Photoshop explicitly which areas to protect. Convert the photo to a layer and expand the canvas as we did above.

Choose the best selection method for your image (for instance, the Object Selection tool or even Quick Masking). Make a selection around the subject you want to protect.

Select the main subject before a Content-Aware Scale step in Photoshop

Go to the Channels panel, and click Save Selection As Channel. This creates a new Alpha Channel with only the contents of your selection. Return to the Layers panel and deselect the subject.

Save selection as a channel in Photoshop

Choose Edit > Content-Aware Scale. Then, go to the Options bar at the top and pick the Alpha channel under Protect.

Drag the corner handles on the image to adjust its size. The background scales in the direction you drag it while the protected area stays the same.

Press Enter or click the checkmark button on the top to commit the transformation.

Choose a channel to protect the selected object before applying Content-Aware Scale

The Options bar for the Content-Aware Scale tool has a few settings to finetune the edits. For instance, you change the fixed reference point around which the image will scale. For simple image resizes, the defaults work well.

Bonus Tips for the Best Results

Whether you’re resizing for a PowerPoint slide or improving a composition, other Photoshop tips help.

Stretch a little and check the image. Resize in small increments (5–10% at a time) for natural-looking results.
Use the Amount slider in the Options bar to change the size of the subject relative to its original size when upscaling or downscaling an image.
Press Shift as you drag a corner handle when you want to scale proportionately.
When resizing portraits, enable Protect Skin Tones to preserve regions containing skin tones.
Content-Aware Scale doesn’t work on Smart Objects and Layer Masks.

Open an image and start experimenting. The Content-Aware Scale tool is a handy fallback when you want to fit an image into a presentation, an Instagram layout, or target the “Rule of Thirds” to compose a photo.

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