Adobe adds new AI-powered image editing features to Photoshop

Adobe is bringing more AI-powered image editing and enhancement features to Photoshop using its Firefly models. The company said today that it is rolling out an image upscaling feature, an object blending, and an upgraded object remover to Photoshop.

The company said that the Generative Upscale feature will enhance an image up to 8 megapixels. This is useful for restoring details to old photos, upscaling images for prints, or adopting assets for various platforms.

In 2024, Adobe teased a feature called Project Perfect Blend, which works on correcting colors, shadows, and lighting for newly added objects to an image. The idea is to have the new object, such as a sofa chair in a room, blend in with the environment.

Now, Adobe is rolling out this feature under the Harmonize moniker, letting you place an object in a scene, remove its background, and have Photoshop use Firefly models to adjust color, lighting, shadows, and visual tones to fit the object in the scene.

The company is also rolling out an improved object removal tool. Previously, when you used generative fill to remove the object, the tool considered the whole scene to fill in the gap of the removed object and at times, that resulted in unwanted artifacts in the image. The company has reworked the algorithm to have it focus on just removing the object and filling the gap with the background.

In a demo seen by TechCrunch, when Adobe’s director for product management at Photoshop, Joel Baer, tried to remove a small bowl of Pico de Gallo from a picture with an earlier version of object removal, the tool just added a green blob. The new version was able to successfully remove the object and replace it with the background.

Adobe is also adding a few small features to Photoshop, including a better way to manage putting assets in a shared and organized space. Plus, the company lets you choose the version of the Firefly model you want to choose while using AI features.

“We have talked to photographers, designers, and content creators to understand what are the pain points in their workflows and what slows them down. These new features will help them save time, remove friction from their workflows, and take on some of the time-consuming tasks on their behalf,” Shambhavi Kadam, senior director of product management for Photoshop, said in a briefing.

The Generative Upscale, Harmonize, and improved object removal features are available in beta for Photoshop on desktop and web versions. The Harmonize feature is also available on the new Photoshop iOS app through an early access program.