Photoshop and AI

Adobe Photoshop Beta Boggles

Adobe’s new generative fill feature is one of the most valuable tools in the Beta box.

What’s wrong with this picture? — All photos herein ©Charles G. Haacker, Author.

I recently wrote a story where I highly commended Adobe’s brand-new Beta AI generative fill tool.

You need to have a subscription to get it, but surely Adobe’s competitors will quickly deliver theirs, and some will be free. I am astounded at what it can do and have only scratched its surface. […] I am so utterly impressed that I can’t stop yapping about how awesome it is. Of course, we [already] had content-aware fill, patch tools, clone stamping, and so on; this is frighteningly better.

If you are insufficiently intimidated by Photoshop to use it, congratulations! I am first to admit it is daunting as hell. On the other hand, I often find Lightroom Classic daunting, too. The learning curves for both and other apps are straight up into the stratosphere, but I am a strictly raw shooter; post-processing is not an option for me, and I think Adobe is the pacesetter, challenging as it is.

I’ve started using the beta version of Photoshop exclusively, as I can see no reason not to. My 37₵-per-day subscription includes it with current Photoshop 2023, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), Adobe Bridge, and more. As nearly as I can tell, Beta Photoshop is exactly the same as regular, just with more bells and whistles. Some are really good. Some are not so great, and some (IMHO) are why-would-anyone-ever-even-need-this? But the tools are there, fun to play with if nothing else, and all the standard tools are right where you expect them. I will keep both updated, but I will now use the Beta exclusively.

Adobe Photoshop Beta Generative Fill was needed! I am so glad to have the use of it.

You saw what was wrong with the banner photo: my subjects were a tad too close to the projection screen, and the spill from the ceiling projector made a “nice” white stripe across their foreheads. I did see it, but too late to reshoot this pair at this event that went galloping along. I moved all the following awardees a couple of feet toward me and shot the rest of the job (while inwardly fussing about how I would fix my obvious and deeply embarrassing misteak).

These pictures have been cropped for detail.

Good retouchers know there are many, many ways to fix this in any number of editing apps. But I am not a good retoucher. I am competent at best. In most situations, I can brush away oopsies with the best of them, but sometimes there’s a lot of trial and error to match the surround precisely, and it must be exact.

Every retoucher knows that if you can see what’s been done, it’s done badly.

After culling and editing the whole job, I took these few flawed frames into Photoshop Beta to repair. It was beyond simple. In Generative Fill, I used the lasso tool, feathered five pixels, traced a loose outline around the offending area of white, told the tool to “generate” without making any written instruction, and in seconds the job was done as you see it.

Or don’t see it.

Which is the point. No fuss, no muss, and frankly, no real skill required.

Here are some other examples of my use of Photoshop Beta Generative Fill:

Shot from the passenger window of a slowly moving car. I hated the fence in the background.

I wanted Devils Tower framed between the two trees. I wanted the composition I chose! But there was that furshlugginer SIGN! (Grrr.)

Note especially how generative fill differs from and improves on content-aware fill. It is far more sophisticated, rebuilding, for example, the base of the tree that was behind the sign, even getting the direction of light and shadow right. Content-aware fill can’t do that. You would never know that (stupid) sign was there were I not to disclose it.

When I was in school some thousand-odd years ago, we were taught never to have an obstruction in the frame that would prevent the viewer from “walking in.” But to get the composition of the Three Sisters I wanted, I was stuck.

The obvious on-the-spot solution around — or rather over — the fence would have been to walk up and shoot over it, but there is a deep ditch right at my feet, and I use a rollator to get around. I had to shoot from where I was, and these are already cropped to 16:9. Generative fill removed the fence and added a pretty patch of wildflowers. It even got the perspective right!

I showed this pair before, but here it is again.

I liked this view of Devils Tower from the ranger station in the parking lot, but not the cars. I made the shot anyway, previsualizing how Photoshop Beta 2023’s generative fill would flawlessly obliterate them.

Adobe Photoshop Beta’s generative fill is astonishing, and I have not even tried typing in a prompt. To learn it I need to go further than using it as a glorified content-aware fill. When I do, I’ll write a follow-up on my progress.

📸As always, gratitude for looking in. I sincerely appreciate it! 😊👍