I am trying to increase the canvas size of a pic to make a gallery print. I start off by duplicating the background layer then use the canvas size to add 1 inch of white around the entire pic. Then the plan would be to add an additional inch to the bottom and then to add an inner stroke. The problem I am having is when I increase the canvas size, it only adds the white to the background copy. The duplicated copy extension is transparent. What am I doing wrong?
I assume you're working in photoshop. In that case, i don't think photoshop can add a color to the canvas extension to any layer other than the background. If you delete the background, it can only add transparent space to the image.
I don't think it would make a difference for what you are doing though... Unless you are doing something like a drop shadow, I don't think you'd need the canvas extension on a separate layer.
I'm trying my hand at making a gallery frame. So far the extra canvas on the background layer has not poised a problem but I am still working on it.
if you want to change the canvas extension size, you can always use the fill tool with a pre-selected color. i have an action that will make a gallery frame. perhaps a new article is in order?