Spotlight on... AI

Generative AI is fast becoming more powerful, but what does it mean for photography? Writers from our website explain more

In the four months since Adobe Firefly launched, users have already generated more than one billion images. Firefly is a new text-to-image generator that seamlessly integrates with several Adobe programs including Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator, and enables creators to use simple text prompts to edit and manipulate images. Here, our reviews editor Gareth Bevan gives us an overview of how it works.

You may have used Content Aware Fill in Photoshop but the new AI version is mind-blowing! Adobe has been adding AI-powered tools to its suite of editing apps for several years now, but none has been nearly as powerful as the generative AI Adobe added to Photoshop (Beta), which is powered by Adobe’s proprietary AI engine Adobe Firefly.

There are many ways to use Photoshop’s new AI, but the simplest, and most effective one is the ability to expand the background in a photo – perfect for when you couldn’t quite squeeze out the perspective that you wanted or if your image doesn’t quite fit the ratio for a particular use. From the selected photo (above) to the final image (opposite) literally took a few minutes.

To use Adobe’s generative AI tool, you will need to install the Photoshop (Beta) app from Creative Cloud; this app should be available to anyone with an active subscription to Adobe’s Photography Plan or Adobe’s All Apps plan.