In iPad app how to show photos outside working area

If you want the photo available for reference as you draw, another way is to use the Split View feature of iPad OS to keep the reference photo visible on the other half of the iPad screen, as shown below.

Unfortunately, Photoshop for iPad does not support multiple windows, so you have to use a different app in Split View to show the reference photo. Fortunately, the Files app can preview a photo using QuickLook (just tap the image in a Files app window), so it’s easy to use the Files app to show the reference photo. You just have to set up a folder in the Files app and put your reference photo in it. (If the reference photo is currently stored as a Photoshop cloud document, to get it out to the Files app, in Photoshop use Share > Publish and Export, tap Save to Files, and save it to a folder in the Files app, similar to how you’d save from Photoshop to the desktop on macOS or Windows.)

As the demo shows, when the iPad is in Split View you can adjust which app is on which side, and how much of the screen each apps uses. Split View starts by adding the second app (Files) on the right, but because I’m right-handed I later move Photoshop to the right side so that the photo is out of my way on the left. Later, I make the left view (Files app) smaller to let Photoshop have more room. Very flexible.

If you haven’t used Split View before, the Apple instructions for it are on this web page: 

Use multitasking on your iPad

If you would rather have Photoshop and your reference photo viewer as overlapping floating windows, the way it works on a computer, you can use the Stage Manager feature of iPad OS instead of Split View, if your iPad model supports Stage Manager. Below is a picture of the Files app and Photoshop arranged using Stage Manager.

@anne_louise_8139 

When you move something completely off the canvas you will not be able to see it on the canvas. You can still see it in the Layers panel, where you can select it an move it back,

 Photoshop for desktop works the same way and has for many years. In the very early days, if you moved an object off of the canvas, Photoshop would end up deleting the hidden part, but that's long in the past and does not happen anymore.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Jane