What's New In Photoshop Beta (April 2024)

I shared this blog post last May after Adobe released an update to Photoshop Beta introducing Generative Fill technology powered by Firefly, the company's AI text-to-image generator. The company didn't take long to continue adding improvements, including the Generative Expand functionality, which was especially helpful for photographers. In September, Adobe officially rolled Generative Fill out of beta and into the production version, making it available to all Photoshop users.

Whether or not this technology appeals to you is clearly a matter of personal preference. My stance on AI is pretty straightforward. This train has left the station and is rapidly gaining speed. It is one of the most disruptive types of technology since the internet, and it will be one of those things you will not be able to avoid. As such, I believe it's important, even critical, to understand how it works and whether it should be added to your photo workflow.

You shouldn't take that as me advocating for you to begin using AI as part of your editing workflow. Rather, you should first familiarize yourself with its capabilities and then decide whether it has a place in your toolkit.

Of course, you can ignore my recommendation and write this technology off for philosophical or moral reasons, and that's fine. Just know this train is moving very fast, and you may as well keep your eyes open to see where it's headed.

This leads me to Adobe's most recent update to Photoshop Beta (April 2024). The headline feature is that Generative Fill and Generative Expand now use Firefly 3, allowing you to "create higher-quality images with better composition, photorealistic details, and improved mood and lighting." You can now also use your own files as reference images, helping to guide Firefly in the objects it generates from your text prompts. There's even more to it than that, and the implications for photographers keep getting larger.

Fortunately, I've got this video showing you all of the biggest improvements. Enjoy!