Adobe is about to share a rare behind-the-scenes look. Watch the latest teasers live with Adobe Sneaks

Less than 30 minutes before Sneaks kicks off! Sneaks is one of my favorite parts of Adobe Max becuase it offers a behind-the-scenes look at what Adobe is working on. Last year, I watched an intern present and get a job offer right on stage.

There will undoubtably be a lot of AI tools teased at Sneaks – as well as across all of Adobe's creative apps. Let's see what Adobe has in store for photographers.

That's a wrap on the day two keynote, the next major event to tune in for is Sneaks, tonight at 5:30 PM ET / 10:30 PM GMT on November 11!

Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director and Designer and founder of JW Anderson, came to Adobe Max to chat about creativity and co-creating. Creating fashion may be a very different beast from, say, fashion photography, but he shared several insights universal across all types of creativity.

"If you are a creative, you either work for a company, or you decide you're too difficult and work for yourself," he said about his decision to build his own brand.

Anderson said that his goal is to learn something new every day. "Each time I do something, I have this curiosity to learn, and that's the thing that motivates me...I'm all about learning."

Here's some insight for anyone with imposter syndrome: "I'm a believer that nothing happens overnight. Even with my own career, it has taken a lot of positive and a lot of really negative moments. It takes time...Every single review on my first show was, 'this is not going to work.'"

Turns out, even famous fashion designers have a fear of putting their work out there. "You cannot please everyone," he said. "That's part of the creative dialog...if you look at great painters, some of the greatest painters, people did not understand them in their lifetime...If you can please two people in a room, that's the most important thing."

On navigating AI, Anderson talked about how when video editing first came out, it was heavily criticized, while today videographers can't live without it. "Creativity can work with technology. It always has," he said. "We have to work out what we want from it, and as a society we have to work out what we want from it...if you are applying the creative human brain, you will make it in your own way."

I've chatted with several photographers now who have recommended finding inspiration in art outside of photography, and that's one of the things that I love about coming to Adobe Max is that there are several types of artists here to draw inspiration from, from graphic design to fashion.

Omar S Kamara, award-winning filmmaker, writer, and director, took the stage to chat about his work and the Adobe Film and TV Fund.

His short film, Calabash, was shot in just two days, following his 2024 debut film, African Giants.

Digital artist Siobhán Maroney (@theyarecreative) took the stage to talk about creativity. Maroney, who was told by her art teacher that she was "not an artist," originally chose a traditional career path, multiple times.

But, then she started a fashion blog (including shooting with an Olympus Pen), which led to paid content creation. She upgraded to a DSLR and started working on location, before moving to building sets, then a green screen studio – and then fully AI adverts.

"Living life is a creative act," she said. "Everything changed, but the story. And the story? It's always you."

Drex Lee, film director, mobile cinematographer, and content creator, is known for popularizing the one-shot.

"In an epic one-shot," he said, "if you nail 28 seconds of flawless camera moves, ducking under props, running backyards, at second 29, if someone missed a cue at second 29, that whole take is dead."

Lee works with his phone – A Samsung Galaxy 26 Ultra – on a selfie stick rather than big cinema rigs.

His Premiere Mobile timeline looks quite a bit simpler than most filmmakers', with the shot and the audio. "The real dirty secret behind why one-shots usually fall apart?" he said, " ...it's communication. In order for everything to go perfectly, I have to have the talent understand exactly what they have to do at the exact time, along with the moves that go with it."

Lee says that trying to communicate his vision to the talent would cost him hours. Now, he works with Firefly Boards to build his vision ahead of the shot.

Next, he walked the audience through his process in Firefly Video, where he generated audio for the one-shot – including generating audio for the electric car. Then he worked with the AI editor to finalize the ending shot.

"The technology will keep getting faster, but it will never, never replace the single most important element in the creation: your imagination. Stay curious, keep playing like a kid, and go make something epic," he said.

Jason Levine, Head of Worldwide Creative Evangelism at Adobe, recapped the biggest announcements at Max. The updates to Premiere Pro were among the biggest requests from the creator community, including separate cross-talk, and new masking tools.

Stacy Martinet, Chief Content and Creative Officer at Adobe, has opened the day two keynote.

"This year Max feels especially important because it's been a hard year," she said. "The world is moving so fast sometimes its hard to find inspiration; it's hard to find a minute to daydream."

Good morning from Miami! The day two keynote is about to begin. Unlike the opening keynote, the second day presentation focuses less on new feature announcements and more on inspiration and insight.

That's a wrap on the day one keynote. Stay tuned for more Adobe Max updates, including Sneaks on November 11 at 5:30 PM ET / 10:30 PM GMT.

Here's a launch that was a Sneak at last year's Adobe Max: Firefly Graph.

Graph is a node-based tool for creating repeatable workflows across different apps. Think of it like Photoshop Actions, only Graph works inside Firefly and uses tools across multiple Adobe apps.

Creators add Nodes that give the AI instructions to carry out repeated tasks. It works with the Adobe Creative Agent as well.

In a demonstration, Wes McDermott demonstrated creating a reusable, repeatable workflow to edit an input image using longstanding tools from Photoshop like hue and blur. The AI agent also added a lens flare effect into the workflow.

Then Firefly creates a published workflow that gives creators sliders for the different nodes added. The workflow is also shareable.

Creator Lucy Street demonstrated the newest features in Adobe Firefly. For video editing, some new features look quite a bit like existing Adobe tools, including blend modes and the properties panel.

Adjusting Camera angles is a new option that Adobe also listed in the new beta features of Photoshop – reimagining the shot using different camera angles and GenAI.

Inside the photo editor on Firefly, Street added text to customize a ferry arrivals board, then went back into Firefly Video to animate it. Enhance Audio, and captions have also been updated.

Inside the quick actions, the new thumbnail generator also speeds up the process of building a thumbnail graphic.

That's a wrap on Adobe Creative Cloud updates, next the keynote is moving to Adobe Firefly updates.

Ana McNaught, artist and compositor, has taken the stage to share updates to Photoshop. First, she's working on a composite using generations with Nano Banana 2.

Generative Restyle turns generated images into a new layer to offer more control over standard generations. That includes a slider to control the intensity of the effect.

There's a new Enhance Edge button in the contextual taskbar that helps correct selections around fine objects like feathers and hair.

Whoa, did Photoshop layers just go 3D? Rotate object layers allowed McNaught to rotate a bird she added to the frame to get a different angle.

Relight layer is another new tool that allows creators to drag and drop a virtual light around the scene to re-light the image. What's really impressive is that the tool worked when dropped inside a house and didn't add lighting outside of the house.

A quick compare tool is an easier before-and-after look inside Photoshop. It reminds me of the similar tool in Lightroom, and it means not having to click through layers to get a before-and-after look

Inside the Camera RAW Filter, McNaught further tweaked the composite, including adding lens blur.

Finally, she took an old graphic into Firefly Video to animate fireflies and create an overlay.

Topaz Labs, now acquired by Adobe, is also launching new models and updates, including Wonder for photos.

Starlight is now the most advanced upscaling video model, including VHS and old films.

The Topaz Bloom model can take generated images and upscale the resolution. Astra does the same for generated video footage.

“We’re giving you the keys to the rocket ship.” A new color mode workspace is a key upgrade for video creators in Premiere Pro.

The color mode puts color grading front and center, creating a workspace just for color. Previously in beta, the color mode starts with presets, which have additional color building blocks to customize the look. Color Mode also works to adjust color across a group of clips.

A heads-up display offers more in-depth info on each tool.

New features in Premiere Pro are rolling out now.

Video and mixed media artist Dacia Saenz is demoing the new tools in Premiere Pro. Generative Object Remove is based on masks and leaves the rest of the pixels untouched. From the demo, it can remove people walking across the frame.

The new AI Assistant in Premiere can help with administrative tasks, like splitting interview questions into their own tracks and adding markers. Saez says that helps creators get to the creative work faster.

Enhanced speech is also getting an upgrade, with new sliders and controls to split different elements of audio onto their own sliders, as well as onto their own tracks.

Separate crosstalk is a new tool that allows splitting two speakers into two different tracks, and you can adjust those individually to fix overlapping dialog.

A new Generative Media Taskbar houses the new GenAI tools.

Deepa Subramaniam, VP Product Marketing of Creative Cloud, is taking the stage to discuss the updates across Creative Cloud.

“When something we love changes so quickly, it is unsettling," she said. "AI is transforming professional creative work; that’s undeniable. Creativity is shifting away from time-consuming tasks…and shifting to higher creative tasks. At the same time, more is being asked of you, across the different formats.”

Current Adobe President Anil Chakravarthy will be Adobe’s next CEO. And, here's a good sign for creators: he's discussing how some creators don't want to use AI and how several Adobe Max updates will deliver on that.

But AI will be a key topic this week and here's the first one: Adobe is partnering across the industry to work with existing AI platforms, including Gemini and Claude, with Copilot coming soon. Native Model Context Protocol support is coming to Adobe Creative Tools to work with exsisting chatbots.

Adobe Creative Agent is also rolling out to several platforms, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro. Creative Agent is an AI agent that helps carry out tasks for creators, and it can also be used as a learning tool.

Adobe CEO Shantau Narayen has taken the stage to open Max 2026.

He's addressed the five pillars that Adobe is focusing on: Interfaces, Media, Surfaces, Productivity, and Workflow.

“Across every pillar, our goal has been consistent," he said, "how do we bring the best of technology and the magic of Adobe to the creative ecosystem?"

AI is bound to be a key theme today, but among the list of Adobe's "Innovation Agenda," Narayen notes that creators have choice on whether or not to use AI.

Adobe Max 2026 is about to kick off! The auditorium is filling up with creatives, and kick off is in less than half an hour.