Sometimes you need to fit a too-small photograph into a too-large space in your layout. Here are a few quick ideas on how to do it without simply blowing up the image.

Have you ever had a 2″ x 3″ space for a mug shot in a layout, only to receive a web-resolution photo from the client that is only 1.33″ x 2″ when you set the resolution where it needs to be? It’s a real predicament, and designers come across it often. Here’s a Photoshop technique I like to use in certain cases that’s quick and simple—no cloning required! It works best on images where the subject is surrounded by a background or other flat area of color (dark suits also work well).

Here’s the image we will work with (Figure 1), a 120 x 200-pixel image that needs to fit a 170 x 250-pixel space. The original image is at center, and our task is to fill the white space around it.

Step 1: Select the gray background from the top edge to just above the subject’s head (Figure 2).

Step 2: Select Edit -> Free Transform (Cmd-T/Ctrl-T) and stretch the selected pixels up until they reach the top of the white space (Figure 3).

We are simply stretching background pixels to take up the space we need. Since the background is a flat gray, you won’t see a difference in pixel quality here. If you do, you can always use a Blur filter to minimize artifacts.

Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the bottom part of the image. This part is trickier because the white shirt and striped tie will be stretched noticeably. If you must use this technique here, the key is to find the right place to make your selection so there’s no clear indication where pixels are stretched. In this case, putting the top selection edge below the tie’s knot (Figure 4) allows us to end up with a convincing tie and suit; the only indication is a “fold” in the left lapel (Figure 5).

Step 4: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the left part of the image. My selection began just next to the subject’s right ear.
Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the right part of the image. My selection began just next to the subject’s left ear.

We end up with Figure 6, which is passable though not really desirable (it looks like the man is wearing football pads). In this case there wasn’t enough shoulder area to stretch to keep the slope of the shoulders; having more stretchable area minimizes warping, and this image was closely cropped to begin with. This technique isn’t for every image, and in fact only for a fraction of the images that will come across your desk, but when it can be used it can be a real timesaver.