TechDuke

I have an image here (shown below - Zoomed to 12.5%), and i would like to add more canvas or area to it.

 
You can download this image HERE.

Canvas in Photoshop is roughly the image area, and that means I want to add more image area to this image in one of the sides.

First of all go to Image > Image Size , Uncheck the resample image. set the document size to 5.25/7 . Resolution will be set to 324.571. Shown below.

 
Click OK.

So my image is being resized.
Now go to Image> Canvas Size. Shown below.

 
It will open a Canvas Size Dialog Box. Shown below.

 
At the top it shows Current size of the document, width and height which is 5.25/7 inches. And we want to do a new size. (width and height). We also have a very important thing at the bottom , Anchor. So where is the image located?. If I make a new canvas right now, we see that new canvas will be added to all directions around it (in anchor). But if I want to add new Canvas to the left of my image. That means you need to move the arrows to the right, that means you can add new canvas to the left. To do this click on the right arrow as outlined below.

 
This will move the arrows to the right, as shown below.

 
You can also do above or below. but I only want to add canvas to the left side. Means if you click on the left cursor in anchor the empty boxes at the right will appear, that means is Canvas will be added to the right of the image. But for now Keep your canvas to the left. like the picture shown above.
Now double the width of the document. type 10.5 in the width field. Your settings must meet the settings shown below. (If you have opened the same image).

 
Now click OK on the Canvas Size dialog.
You will notice that a white canvas or image area is added to the left of the image. Shown below.

 
Now You may want to change the color of the canvas which is white by default. How do you do that ?
To do this first step backward by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Z, or by going to Edit menu then clicking on ‘Step Backward’. it will bring your image to the previous state of the image.
Now Select the eye dropper tool from the tools bar. Now go over the image and choose any color from the image you want by clicking on the image. Or you may select your own color by clicking on the ’set foreground’, in the Tools bar. If you have selected the color from the image with eye dropper tool then click on the ’switch foreground and background’ in the toolbar. shown below.

 
You can also use the shortcut key ‘X’ on the keyboard to switch colors. Or if you like to choose your own custom color click on the background color box outlined below.

 
Note that new canvas image color is dependant on the background color selected in the Tools bar.
Now again go to Image > Canvas Size. In the canvas size window move the anchor to the right. (Note that we are repeating the 2nd step of this lesson). Double the height to 10.5 inches. and Click OK. And you will get the new canvas or image area to the left of the image. shown below.

 
Now one other thing we can do with canvas size. I can actually crop image using the Canvas Size. Go to Image > Canvas Size. set the width to 10. Note the arrows in the Anchor. they now points inward. It shows that they it will cut your images from the size. This is because our document size is currently 10.5, but now we are selecting 10 which is smaller than 10.5. Now click OK. You will get a warning message, just click proceed. You will notice that your image has been cropped from the sides.
There are better ways to cut your image. (by using the crop tool). But for now this is what we did.