Tag: photoshop

Artificial intelligence

Photoshop AI image generation – is it any good?

5 minute read
Adrian Young Adrian Young

Generative AI feels simultaneously revolutionary and rudimentary. It’s an incredible, world-changing technology in some respects… but a glitchy, error-riddled prototype in others.

With regards specifically to image generation, there are now several tools on the market. Some are standalone applications and others are additions to existing software. Adobe, no stranger to the forefront of visual technology, is one of the players. Let’s see what Photoshop’s image generation functionality can do.

An impossible photoshoot

Photoshop offers two top-level categories of generative AI image: photo and art. We’ll try the former first.

I have to admit, I could not immediately think of any fauxtographic content that I might want to conjure up for an email in a real-world scenario. My first notion was a tropical beach, for a travel company I suppose… but why would they want to show an imaginary destination? Then I considered something as painfully generic as a person checking their phone. But come on, this is an AI image generator – we can let our imagination run riot.

With that in mind, I settled on something out-of-this-world, literally:

astronaut relaxing on a sun lounger on the surface of the moon

Why would we need that? Who knows. But it’s a good example of something that we could not obtain a real photograph of, no matter how nicely we asked NASA. Photoshop helpfully rattles off three variations whenever you generate an image, letting you pick your favourite, or opting to spin again if none hit the mark. Here are my three leisurely astronauts:

Photoshop has followed the prompt accurately but I can’t say I’m particularly enthused about any of the three pictures. Curiously they all have a second moon in the background. If you look carefully at the night sky in real life, you’ll notice we only have one. But this gives me an idea for enriching the image:

astronaut relaxing on a sun lounger on the surface of the moon, planet Earth visible in the background

These are far more pleasing to the eye. The composition in the first variation is lovely. We have a winner.

Selected image

Art-ificiality

Photoshop did an excellent job at generating photographic content. Now let’s see how well it performs at the other category: art.

Photoshop image generation categories - art or photo

Here’s what it came up with for the same prompt:

Each of these has a somewhat realistic digital airbrushing look. They’re alright, if a bit characterless. But let’s not blame Photoshop for that – we didn’t give it any styling guidance.

We need to be more specific about what we want:

astronaut relaxing on a sun lounger on the surface of the moon, planet Earth visible in the background, vector art, minimalist, green white and black colours

The results:

These are are getting much nicer, particularly the third variation. They still aren’t quite what I had in mind. It’s time to explore the effects options. Adobe provides a large array of pre-defined styling techniques. For our astronaut, I’m going for flat design plus bold outlines (you can apply multiple effects).

Photoshop image generation effect options

And here’s how it’s looking:

It’s still a lot more detailed than I had in mind. It’s hardly minimalist. Perhaps if I found just the right combination of words and experimented more with effects, then it might produce something more like a vector drawing and less like some kind of traced photograph.

Style-conscious

But we’re not going to sit here and experiment endlessly. There are deadlines to meet! Instead we’re going to feed Photoshop a reference image. We have a distinct illustrative style at The Email Factory, so let’s grab an image from our design team:

Example The Email Factory illustration

And we’ll load it in the image generator:

Photoshop image generation style reference

The wording makes it very clear that we are matching the style of the image – not its composition. Here goes nothing:

Multiple generated images

For each row I tried different phrasing and settings in addition to the source image. On the third row I kept the prompt simple, describing only the scene rather than the styling, selected no effects and did not even specify ‘art’. That final set is the closest match. The lesson here is to keep it simple when working with a reference image.

But are any of these actually usable? Does it emulate our style closely enough to be practical? The answer is no. Bottom middle is the best of the lot, and is a whimsically pleasant illustration in its own right, but it’s nowhere near authentic enough for us to consider using in a commercial sense.

Generative AI as a creative assistant

We’re forgetting a crucial detail – we’re working in the world’s most powerful image editing application. That means that we don’t need to use the AI-generated image straight as it comes. Instead, we can use it as a base to work from. And we could combine multiple generated images. We can do whatever we want.

This is how I see generative AI being actually useful rather than a novelty. Not as a magical do-it-all but as another creative tool in the belt.

Time to answer the question: is Photoshop’s image generation any good? Yes, it is – but so are you.

Artificial intelligence

The magic of Photoshop’s generative fill

5 minute read
Adrian Young Adrian Young

Someone famous once wrote: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And while I’m fairly certain that Adobe Photoshop isn’t secretly powered by wizards, its generative fill function really makes me start to question that.

Before we look at the wonders of which it is capable, let’s imagine a graphical challenge that we might face in day‑to‑day work.

Grass production

Here’s a picture of a dog:

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass

It came from Unsplash, but let’s say it actually came from a client. And it needs to fit a square‑shaped slot in a template, but they absolutely do not want to crop it. They need the full dog. Therefore we need to extend the grass at the sides.

Once upon a time, this would have meant using Photoshop’s clone stamp tool. That lets you manually ‘grab’ regions of an image, to paint in elsewhere. With some smoothing and layering – not to mention a considerable amount of patience – the results can be quite convincing. But who has time for that when deadlines are looming?

It’s not necessary in this example, but sometimes this process would entail the tricky masking of objects. Hair in particular could be a nightmare. You might even want to grab portions of other images, like a kind of pictorial Frankenstein’s monster.

For old time’s sake, let’s complete our challenge using only the clone stamp. Here’s my somewhat rushed effort:

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass. Photoshop's clone brush has been used to manually extend the grassy background

There is obvious blurring. It’s almost like an impression of grass rather than actual grass. A patient Photoshopper could painstakingly labour over such a task until it looks natural, but that isn’t practical in the real world of business.

We need a faster option.

Had your (content-aware) fill

In the early 2010s, Adobe introduced content‑aware fill. I always found this an oddly unassuming (if accurate) name for such a powerful tool. After all, this is a piece of software that sports a magic wand. Anyway, I digress.

Content-aware fill is an ‘intelligent’ tool that can remove items or extend images in a mostly‑automated fashion. You just need to make the selection, and optionally adjust the sampling data area. Sometimes it may take a couple of sweeps or some manual finishing touches, but essentially content‑aware fill does the work of a clone stamp without human intervention. And in a literal fraction of the time.

Here’s what it did with our dog photo:

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass. Photoshop's content-aware fill has been used to manually extend the grassy background

That’s not bad. Gone is the unsightly blurring from my clone stamp version. But in its place is some fairly noticeable duplication. There are clusters of identical patterns here and there.

I’m looking for defects of course. A customer browsing a website or glancing over a marketing email is going to focus on the cute dog rather than scrutinise every blade of grass.

Even so, wouldn’t it be nice if this was perfect?

The big one: generative fill

Now for something state‑of‑the‑art. Generative fill is a recent addition to Photoshop’s toolkit and is powered by AI. Let’s try it on our photo:

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass. Photoshop's generative fill has been used to manually extend the grassy background

No blurring. No duplication. Blades of grass and leaves have been completed in a realistic manner. You’d be hard pressed to spot anything artificial in that expanded area.

But we’re only scratching the surface of what this tool can do. While it’s possible to make a selection and click the button and trust the tool to know what to do, you can also guide it with written prompts. Should that dog really be out there without a collar? Let’s fix that.

Step one is to use the lasso tool to very roughly draw a selection around the dog’s neck. Next, we can enter a simple prompt: dog’s collar, red.

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass. Photoshop's generative fill has been used to manually extend the grassy background, and add a red collar on the dog

And what spaniel is complete without a ball to chase? We can provide that too:

Stock photograph of a dog lying on grass. Photoshop's generative fill has been used to manually extend the grassy background, add a red collar on the dog, and place a tennis ball next to the animal

Pushing it further

Ok, so we expanded a little bit of grass and dropped in a couple of simple objects. In this day and age of generative AI, you might say: big deal. Let’s demonstrate what this tool can really do.

Here’s another image from Unsplash:

Cropped stock photo of two businesswomen at a desk

It’s a stretch, but what if we just loved that particular depiction of corporate life and wanted to develop the image beyond that stylised crop? Well, all we need to do is bump up the height and hit the generative fill button once more:

Cropped stock photo of two businesswomen at a desk, expanded with Photoshop's generative fill to show their faces

Actual people, believably sewn on to the original image. By default, Photoshop returns three variations. They’re not always so perfect, but that’s ok – pick the one you like, or spin again. Make no mistake, this is an impressive piece of technology.

Starting from nothing

Generative fill is very closely tied to Photoshop’s generate image functionality. You don’t need a base image. You can start from scratch.

So, technically speaking, I didn’t actually have to go stock photo‑hunting in the first place. I could simply ask Photoshop for:

Photoshop's generative image panel, being prompted to create: 'Overhead photograph of a cute, tan-coloured spaniel lying on its back on the grass. The dog is wearing a red collar. A yellow tennis ball is lying on the grass nearby.'

I flicked through six variations and decided on this one:

Photoshop-generated image of a tan-coloured spaniel lying on its back on grass, next to a tennis ball

Curiously, fake turf was present in all six images. That’s an eerie preference for the artificial!

What’s next?

AI will only become further engrained in Photoshop, and software in general. Perhaps more and more tasks will be accomplished via a prompt interface rather than a traditional tool panel.

It may not be sorcery, but the distinction might not be that important when you can perform half a day’s work in seconds.