The software giant behind popular photo and video editors like Photoshop and Premiere will soon own the popular AI-focused photo and video software brand Topaz Labs.

On June 25, Adobe announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Topaz Labs, a move that Adobe says will bring more on-device AI tools into Adobe Creative Cloud and Firefly. At the same time, Adobe says that Topaz Labs apps will continue to be available as separate programs.

For Adobe’s Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere users, the acquisition means that their existing workflow could soon be updated with some of Topaz Lab’s popular tools. Adobe has already integrated Topaz Labs as a partner model for the popular Bloom and Gigapixel AI upsizing tools, but the integration likely means additional tech from Topaz Labs will make its way into Firefly and Creative Cloud apps.

The move could also bring more on-device AI into Adobe software, as Adobe notes that Topaz Lab’s Neurostream technology, which allows larger complex AI models to run locally on devices, is part of the acquisition.

Topaz Labs Studio is a multi-app suite of tools built around enhancing photos and videos using AI. Topaz Lab’s current portfolio includes:

• Video: A program boosting slow-mo, stabilization, and resolution in videos
• Photo: An AI program for correcting focus, removing noise, and increasing resolution
• Gigapixel: An AI software that can upsize low-resolution images by as much as 6x
• Image: A web browser application for correcting and enhancing images with beginner-friendly controls
• Mosaic: An AI program built specifically for restoring old photographs
• Bloom: A program for enhancing clarity and detail
• Astra: A generative upscaling program for video

Adobe expects the deal to close sometime in the second half of 2026, with Topaz Labs CEO Eric Yang continuing to lead the Topaz team after the transfer.

Like Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Topaz Lab’s software is subscription-based, though the company offers more than one type of subscription with an annual subscription, an annual paid monthly subscription, or a monthly subscription option.

Adobe and Topaz Labs have not yet commented on whether the acquisition will bring pricing changes, good or bad – though the companies have confirmed that the Topaz Labs apps will remain available separately.

When Adobe added Topaz Labs models into some Photoshop tools, the software giant added the tools as a partner model that requires generative credits. It’s unclear if additional Topaz Labs tools would follow the same pattern. While some Adobe-made tools, like the remove tool, do not use generative credits, others do.

Additional details about how the two separate software suites will interact will likely come once the acquisition is finalized, with the deal expected to be completed before the end of 2026.

Êditor’s note: This is a breaking news story; check back for updates

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Photoshop can now rename and organize layers, resize projects, or swap out a background with a simple text prompt. On June 18, Adobe launched an AI agent across several Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop and Premiere, allowing the long-standing editing programs to carry out multi-step processes with a text prompt.

The AI Assistant inside Photoshop and Premiere is rolling out beginning today, June 18, in public beta after Adobe previously teased that the feature was coming back in October during Adobe Max.

Photoshop’s AI Assistant was previously only available as a beta feature in Photoshop Web, the browser-based photo editor with a more limited number of tools. I tested the AI Assistant on Photoshop Web, and at times it felt like an overenthusiastic intern, but the experience left me with the impression that the AI assistant could perhaps one day handle the more boring photo editing tasks.

That’s exactly what Adobe is trying to do with the public beta rollout of AI Assistant across several Creative Cloud apps. Inside Photoshop, for example, the AI Assistant can carry out the process of resizing photos for different formats and platforms and even rename and organize layers.

In a demonstration, Adobe showed how the AI Assistant could also proofread graphic designs inside Photoshop, looking for more than spelling but factual inaccuracies as well.

Inside Premiere, the AI Assistant can help video editors organize assets into bins, batch rename clips based on their content, and add markers. Creators working with multiple camera angles of the same scene can also ask the AI to sync the time codes on those files and stack them inside the timeline.

When I tried the earlier beta version inside Photoshop Web, the potential to let the AI carry out more tedious, repetitive tasks felt like a modern AI take on Actions, the Photoshop tool that records your editing steps so that it can repeat them on another image – only the AI doesn’t need you to manually carry out the steps first.

But, the other feature that struck me about the Photoshop Web version of the AI Assistant is that it could also be used as a learning tool. When I asked the chatbot how to do something, it showed me the steps and where the tools were located – the AI Assistant doesn’t necessarily have to carry out the full edit for you.

When I tried that early AI Assistant back in March, the AI had some flaws and limitations. When I asked it for help editing flyaway hairs, for example, the chatbot removed the entire person – but at least apologized for doing so.

As a public beta, I suspect there are still some refinements left to do on Photoshop’s AI Assistant. But, one of my chief complaints was that using the AI bot was often slow – I’m hoping the rollout to the fully fledged Photoshop that isn’t 100 percent reliant on an internet connection will help create a faster experience.

Photo and video editors will be able to test out the AI Assistant as the feature rolls out on public beta.

The June 18 announcements also include news that Adobe is bringing its Creative Agent into Google Gemini. Like the tool already inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, the upcoming change will allow Gemini users to ask the AI to carry out a task using Adobe software, such as doing simple photo edits.

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Faster masks, film grain special effects and refreshed captions dot the list of updates to Adobe’s most advanced video editor.

Adobe released the latest edition of Premiere, updating the popular video editor with a handful of new tools that the company says are “built around how editors actually work.”

The June 2026 update adds new features and minor tweaks across the popular video editor, while Adobe’s After Effects also gains a handful of new features.

Adobe Premiere's summer update brings a handful of new tools without dramatically changing the way that editors work inside the software's beloved workspace, starting with the option to build in natural textures from the timeline.

A new Noise FX tool enables creators to add a film-like grain to footage. Located inside the Effect Controls panel, the tool can dial in grain with an intensity slider, along with functions for working the effect into the shadows, midtones and highlights.

Also in the Effect Controls panel, editors can now work with gradients, including a list of tools to feather, mirror, repeat and make other adjustments. Channel Blur is another new effect arriving in the update.

Video editors also now have the option to use single-word captioning, which shows one word at a time. Like the other June updates, the new captions are designed to fit in with existing tools and arrive by selecting the Single Word layout in the existing caption process.

Adobe says that Object Masks have been refined to improve both speed and accuracy. Masks can also now be regenerated without starting over if the connection to the media is lost.

The update also introduces some new panels and tools. Stock can now be licensed without leaving Premiere inside the new Stock Panel Checkout. Meanwhile, Adobe says the new Sequence Index Panel is designed for long-form editing with more controls.

A new A/V Display Mode will show the video and audio waveforms both in the Source Monitor for easier navigation. Meanwhile, video editors can mute all the existing clips with a press of the global audio mute button.

Markers – Premiere’s way to flag a certain part of the video for easy recall – are also now searchable by color and name.

Adobe also added a 3D Spinback and Slide option into the transition options.

The new Premiere tools come alongside a refresh to After Effects, which adds four AI-powered selection tools to replace the Roto Brush. A new list of tools also come to 3D effect editors, while imported SVG files are now editable inside After Effects.

The updates are rolling out now.

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Adobe Lightroom can now turn photos into videos using generative AI. The feature, coming as part of a long list in the June 2026 update, gives photographers who forgot to capture video an option to generate B-roll-like footage. However, the tool is only the second Lightroom tool to require generative credits – and the first native Adobe tool in Lightroom to use the credit system.

The update is part of a long list of Creative Cloud June 2026 updates across Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as video tools Premiere and After Effects. Among the photo features, Lightroom’s assisted culling leaves beta, and Photoshop gains the reflection removal tool from Adobe Camera RAW.

Lightroom desktop: generate video from photos

Inside Lightroom on desktop devices, the new Generate Video option will generate an AI video using either Adobe Firefly or Google Veo, using the photo as a starting point. The option is located by navigating to the top menu and selecting Photo, then Generate Video.

That brings up a pop-up that suggests a prompt like “add subtle motion” or “slow pan,” as well as a text field for typing a custom prompt. A drop-down menu allows users to choose from a four, six, or eight-second video.

While Generate Video is far from the first generative AI tool to come to Lightroom, the update is only the second Lightroom feature to use generative credits and the first native Adobe tool to do so. Previously, only the Topaz Gigapixel Generative Upscale used Generative Credits inside Lightroom; Adobe tools like Generative Remove do not currently consume credits in Lightroom.

Some generative credits are included with certain subscriptions, but after that requires purchasing additional credits. The Creative Cloud Photography Plan 20GB includes 100 credits a month, the Lightroom Plan 250, and the 1TB photography plan 1,000 credits a month.

The pop-up generative video box will show creators how many credits the process will consume and what the remaining balance is. That credit amount changes as the different options are adjusted – shorter videos, for example, will consume fewer credits.

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom: Assisted Culling

Lightroom previously gained Assisted Culling, a beta tool that helps photographers weed out the bad shots with tools like checking for focus and ensuring that both eyes are open. Now, that feature is migrating out of Early Access, which is Adobe’s term for a beta feature. The feature is rolling out to both Lightroom and Lightroom Classic.

The Assisted Culling tool will also now recognize faces and give each face a score as to whether or not the eyes are open and sharply focused, a tool designed to help go through photos with more than one person.

The update also offers more filters to give photographers more control over how they want the photos sorted and how strict the culling process is.

The Library module in Lightroom Classic will also allow users to filter photos that use generative AI or need AI settings to be updated, similar to the program’s ability to sort photos by things like shutter speed or what camera took the photo.

Select Subject has improved with a detail slider, which allows creators to refine the masks’ edges to improve accuracy around fine details like hair.

Lightroom updates also include AI sharpening using Topaz Labs’ Noise Aware and support for RAW files from the Sony A7R VI.

Adobe Photoshop: Reflection Removal

Adobe’s reflection removal tool from Adobe Camera RAW is now moving into Photoshop territory. Like the feature in ACR, the AI-based tool detects and removes reflections in photos shot through glass.

Unlike in ACR, Photoshop’s version of Reflection Removal will make the adjustment as a layer, allowing creators to go back and fine-tune later on, which creates a non-destructive edit.

Photoshop’s Remove Tool can now use on-device generative AI, allowing the tool to work without an internet connection.

The updates rolled out on June 15 across Adobe’s photo tools, alongside updates to Premiere, After Effects, and Illustrator.

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If you've been scrolling social media lately, you've probably seen the 'pixel stretch trend' all over your feed. If you don't recognize it by name, this trend does exactly what it suggests: it stretches a slice of pixels from a photograph to create a dynamic sense of motion – and even leading lines.

This isn't the first time the pixel stretch trend has done the rounds on social media. It first surfaced back in 2008, then it appeared again about four years ago. Now it's back a third time, thanks to Gen Z, and if you want to get in on the trend all you need is a photo editor like Photoshop.

It helps to have an image where your subject – specifically its color palette – is distinct from the scenery, as the effect will be far more pronounced than if the subject blends into the background.

The pixel stretch trend works with everything from landscapes to street photography, provided there's a sizeable subject or object to work with. I'm going to use one of my portraits for this example, which I'll edit in Photoshop – but the principles are the same whichever app you're using.

How to do the pixel stretch trend

1) Separate your subject

Use whatever tool does the best job or that you're most comfortable using. Photoshop's Select subject button does a pretty good job, but feel free to go freehand, use the Magnetic Lasso Tool or anything else that gets the job done. Once you've selected your subject, hit Ctrl+J on a PC or Cmd+J to duplicate it as a new layer.

2) Create a pixel strip

On the background layer, use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to create a thin strip down the edge (or close to it, if the edge of your subject is uneven). Then hit Crtl/Cmd +J to duplicate it to a new layer, which should be sitting beneath the subject layer you created in step 1. If you want to, you can repeat this process on the same or different parts of your image.

3) Stretch your strip

Hit Ctrl/Cmd +T to activate Free Transform, which will give you a bounding box with transform points around the strip. Click and hold the middle point and simply drag it to the edge of the image to stretch it out. (You might need to hold the Shift key while you do this, if dragging this point stretches the subject in all directions.)

4) Switch to Warp

For some images – such as those with a flat or geometric subject – a simple, straight pixel stretch might be all you want. But to create dynamism, there's more to the process. While in Free Transform mode, click the icon indicated in the image above to switch into Warp mode. Alternatively, with your stretched pixel layer selected, go to Edit > Transform > Warp.

5) Warp 9, engage!

Now you can get creative! Using the anchor points you can drag, stretch and twist your stretched pixel strip. There are no hard and fast rules here; your shapes can be subtle or spectacular. The only thing to bear in mind is keeping colors or other characteristics in line with their source points on your subject, to support the illusion that its individual pixels are being stretched from their origins.

6) Complementary stretches

If you're adding more than one pixel stretch element, make sure that they complement one another – or, at the very least, that they don't clash. You can use them to create leading lines, to help guide the viewer's eyes around the image, and you can even use the Dodge and Burn Tools to lighten and darken the image to create more depth and dimension. Just experiment and see what works best. Have fun!

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Lightroom Classic’s Lens Blur tool uses AI to achieve something rather remarkable, inferring depth and distance in a two-dimensional image. It’s designed to offer a digital simulation of the kind of shallow depth of field you get from very wide lens apertures.

It’s not just a stylistic decision but a compositional tool, too, because it can help separate subjects from their backgrounds so that they stand out more clearly with fewer distractions.

Early versions of this tool tended to struggle with areas of background seen through holes in the main subject, but as this tool has evolved with successive versions of Lightroom it has become much more capable. Here’s my guide to the main features of the Lens Blur panel, what they do and how they work.

Focus range

This is the central tool in this panel. After Lightroom’s AI analysis, it presents the distance range in the image from closest (left) to farthest (right).

Within that range it displays a bounding box, which Lightroom thinks represents the key subject in the scene. You can accept and work with this as it stands, but you can also drag this box left and right to change the ‘focus distance’ and you can also drag on the left or right handles to adjust the near and far focus distances.

It’s easy to adjust this sharp focus range manually, but it’s not always easy to improve on Lightroom’s initial estimate!

Blur Amount

You can use this slider to adjust the blur in out-of-focus areas, and you might find that you need to keep coming back to this adjustment as you make other changes (to the focus range, for example). It’s easy to get carried away, but it’s important to keep the results realistic.

Blur can backfire if you push it too far! In our sample image, the degree of background blur could easily make the motorcycle look like a model shot from close up

Bokeh shapes

Bokeh is a characteristic of lenses that can be replicated surprisingly well digitally. With this tool, though, the differences between the different bokeh shapes (such as circle, bubble, hexagon, ring, cat eye) are not always easy to see, so it’s up to you how long you want to spend on this.

Bokeh shapes show up most clearly with out-of-focus specular highlights or light sources in the background

Auto / manual subject detection

When you first use the Lens Blur too, Lightroom will attempt to identify the key subject automatically. These days it rarely gets this wrong, but there may be times when you want to shift the focus to a subject or area in the background rather than the foreground, so this is how you do it.

Visualize depth

You can generally see pretty clearly how the Lens Blur tool is focusing and defocusing different parts of the image, but if you need a little help, check this box. It adds a color-coded overlay to the image, which illustrates different distances and defocus amounts with different colors.

Focus and Blur tools

You’ll find these in the ‘Refinement’ section at the bottom of the Lens Blur panel, and you can use them to manually paint in or paint out areas of sharp focus. (Lightroom uses ‘focus’ to mean objects or distances in sharp focus.)

This is all done with a simple manual brush tool, but that’s fine – if you do need to alter the depth mask and subject selection, it’s because the AI hasn’t got it quite right and needs the skill and judgement of the human eye.

Do pay attention to the Size, Feather and Flow sliders. Very often you’ll be trying to blend in the focus adjustment subtly, building up the effect gradually rather than trying to achieve pixel-perfect masking

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Adobe’s Agentic AI – the AI that runs tasks for you – has only just arrived on scene, but Adobe is already bringing the ability to use apps like Photoshop and Premiere into Google’s AI. During Google I/O, the two companies announced that Adobe apps will soon connect to Gemini.

The move will allow Gemini users to describe what they want while the agentic AI moves through the steps inside Adobe apps, including photo, video, and design software. Adobe says that users will also be able to continue working on the project inside the Adobe app itself or with Adobe Firefly.

The Gemini-Adobe integration will arrive “in the coming weeks” and Adobe hasn’t spelled out details on exactly what the agentic AI can and cannot do yet. But a few examples of how the integration has been used in existing agentic options offers hints that using Gemini will allow photographers to edit images without the back-and-forth between Lightroom and Photoshop.

Photographers can already use Firefly AI Assistant to edit photos across both Lightroom and Photoshop without the constant switch between the apps. As Adobe explains, one photographer using Firefly AI Assistant “let the assistant work through it step by step, connecting the right Adobe tools, checking in for feedback, and moving forward only when he approved.”

The example of getting feedback at every step is an important one. I’ve tested the agentic AI inside the beta version of Photoshop Web, and it felt a bit like an overenthusiastic photo intern – I didn’t always get the results I had asked for.

I’ve also tried ChatGPT’s Photoshop integration and was surprised at how the chatbot leaned towards a learning experience rather than an easy fix – and I’m hopeful that the ucpming Adobe-Gemini could similarly be used to learn the steps of more complex edits.

Another important distinction is that while Agentic AI is built on generative AI, Agentic AI can be used without generating a new image. The AI assistant in the beta Photoshop Web, for example, walks through the same steps in Photoshop that I would manually adjust – it doesn’t generate new pixels unless using a generative tool like Generative Fill.

Gemini will soon join Adobe’s own Firefly AI Assistant and Claude as AIs that are capable of carrying out steps inside Adobe apps, including Premiere, Illustrator and Express as well as Photoshop.

Adobe says that “we’re just getting started" with agentic AI. “There’s tremendous momentum around agentic creativity and we have a great roadmap that we’re bringing creators,” Adobe’s Forest Key, Vice President for Agentic AI for Creativity & Productivity Business, wrote in a blog post. “But what excites us most is what creators are already doing with these tools. The workflows you’re inventing. The ideas you’re bringing to life that simply weren't feasible before.”

Adobe hasn’t yet shared the cost of the tool. However, it’s based on the existing connector that works with Claude, which includes around 40 tools free, with additional tools for creators with Adobe subscriptions.

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Lightroom Classic’s masking tools use a combination of AI subject recognition and regular brush and gradient tools to offer huge scope for local adjustments and enhancements. But you can get even more control by using masks in combination – in other words, with ‘sub-masks’.

There are many situations where this can be useful, but our sample image shows a very common one – where you want to darken a sky progressively towards the horizon but without darkening any buildings or other objects that jut up into the sky.

In our example, a linear gradient produces the right gradual darkening but would also darken the building. A sky mask would darken the whole sky, right down to the horizon without any natural gradation in tone.

But by ‘intersecting’ a sky mask and a linear gradient, we can get a gradual tonal gradation that affects only the sky. Our cheat sheet shows the location of the key Lightroom Classic masking controls.

Masking mode

To create and edit masks in Lightroom Classic you need to swap to the masking mode. This panel will give you a list of mask types to choose from. When you choose one, it appears in the Masks panel which opens out to the left of the tools sidebar.

Main mask

The Masks panel will show the area affected by your mask as a tiny thumbnail. Each new mask you add to your photo will appear as a new thumbnail. Any or all of these masks can include sub-masks.

Sub-masks

Every mask will have at least one sub-mask. If you’ve just used a single masking tool it will still appear here. Sub-masks become important if you want to combine or edit the masks that Lightroom has created.

Sky mask

To demonstrate this powerful ‘intersect’ command we’ve started off with a sky mask and used the adjustment tools in the right sidebar to darken it. This produced a very ‘flat’ adjustment that didn’t look natural. This is a common issue with sky masks if they are used on their own.

Sky masks identify sky areas very well but don’t offer any natural gradation towards the horizon.

Linear mask 'intersected'

The ideal way to darken a sky progressively is with a linear mask, but these are indiscriminate in that they darken everything at the top of the frame whether it’s actually part of the sky or not.

This is where an ‘intersected’ sky mask and linear mask can achieve what’s needed – a progressive darkening of the sky with other objects in the foreground left untouched. The linear mask achieves the gradual tonal adjustment, while the sky mask restricts it to the sky alone.

Gradient sub-masks remain editable, e.g. you can move them around even if they’ve been ‘intersected’, added or subtracted from the mask.

Add/Subtract buttons

The Masks panel can look pretty busy, especially if you have all your masks expanded to show sub-masks too – so how do the Add/Subtract buttons fit in? In fact, they apply to the main mask you’ve selected. When you use them, they add new sub-masks. They do not apply to sub-masks.

Adjustment tools

Keep in mind that Lightroom’s local adjustment tools apply to the main mask. Any sub-masks you create simply change the area covered by the mask. These sub-masks do not have their own adjustments. If you need to create a new set of adjustments for a different part of the image then you will need a new mask.

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TIME has named the Top 100 Most Influential Companies of 2026 – and unsurprisingly, the list includes a number of AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. But one software giant has been named to the list specifically for how it balances AI with creators: Adobe.

“The company has over 850 million monthly active users, and as part of its AI integration push, it has kept creators – 86 percent of which already use generative AI based on a company survey – in control of their process,” wrote Tharin Pillay, an editorial fellow at TIME.

While many AI platforms do not disclose where their data comes from, Adobe says that Firefly is trained on licensed work. That makes the AI safe for commercial use, but perhaps most importantly for creators, it wasn’t trained on data swiped from the internet without the original creators' permission – it was built on licensed Adobe Stock, openly licensed content, and public domain works.

Adobe’s Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro and other tools have long been industry-standard software made for creatives. TIME has selected Adobe for the list of influential companies largely for “creating with creators.”

Those tools are still well used even after the push into generative AI, TIME writes, noting statistics like 86 percent of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival premieres using an Adobe tool and 99 percent of Fortune 100 companies using AI inside an Adobe app.

Adobe’s push into generative AI hasn’t been without controversy among creators. In 2024, creators pointed out an update to the legal terms that said that Adobe “may access, view or listen to your content.” Adobe said that change was an effort to crack down on child sexual abuse material, but later updated the terms to state that Adobe “will not use your Local or Cloud Content to train generative AI.”

A price increase in 2025 for Photoshop and Lightroom further frustrated some users.

But, amid building AI tools like assisted culling in Lightroom and generative AI healing and removal tools in Photoshop, Adobe has climbed to 850 million users across all its platforms, which includes Creative Cloud as well as tools like Adobe Acrobat. That rise – and the number of creators still creating with Adobe – are one of the factors that led to Adobe’s nomination and then inclusion on the TIMNE 100 Most Influential Companies list for 2026.

The TIME list isn’t all about the newest tech – Fujifilm also made the list for standing out “in a consumer tech landscape saturated with AI tools” for its Instax film cameras.

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Like many photographers, I have mixed feelings about artificial intelligence – but Adobe Lightroom is getting one of my all-time favorite uses of AI in photography: the ability to search photos.

In a surprise end-of-April update that arrives just a few days after announcements for tools like new film presets, Adobe has finally brought the natural language search tool outside of Lightroom Web and into Lightroom CC (although sadly, the feature isn’t listed for Lightroom Classic yet).

The update allows photographers to search through their photos using natural language, and thanks to AI, the tool works even without taking the time to manually go through and add keywords about what each photo is about.

In an example, Adobe said users could search for what’s in a photo like “a man wearing a yellow jacket.”

Lightroom's search tool also works for cameras, lenses, people, and even photos shot with a certain exposure setting. These “facet searches,” as Adobe calls them, work by using the facet name with a colon, such as “camera:” followed by the search term.

I was making a Reel the other day, lamenting that I had to go through old footage to find what I needed, when I remembered one of my favorite all-time updates to Apple’s Photos app: the ability to search for what’s inside photos and videos. Now, Adobe is finally bringing that capability to Lightroom, which is where all my photos that I didn’t take with my iPhone live at the moment.

While the tool is AI-based, it’s not generative AI and uses Firefly, which was built on licensed images.

Inside Photoshop, the previously teased Rotate Object tool is now making its way to the photo editor outside of beta. The tool uses generative AI to make a 2D object rotate like 3D around a canvas.

Photoshop also gained a Layer Cleanup button that removes empty layers. Integration with Firefly Boards is also now supported in the latest version of Photoshop.

The new features are rolling out to Lightroom and Photoshop beginning today, April 28.

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Adobe Premiere has just introduced a “landmark” color-grading feature, “built from the ground up” and designed to make color grading more accessible for the average content creator. In Adobe’s briefing for its all-new Color Mode, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Video at Adobe, Jason Druss, called existing color-grading tools “very, very mathematical, scientific systems that were designed for full-time specialists.”

And indeed, color grading is an area that Adobe has arguably failed to fully harness in the past. Despite Premiere’s position as industry-grade video software that’s been used to edit the likes of Deadpool (2016), Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve is arguably the Hollywood go-to for color grading.

But Color Mode (now in beta) could be about to change the way creators think about color grading. The technology is said to be the first-of-its-kind and built entirely from the ground up. Jason explained that Adobe isn’t calling Color Mode a feature, panel or iterative update; it’s being referred to as “a complete reset for what color can be for video editors.”

During the demonstration, the ‘Color’ tab was dominated by a huge program monitor, with additional clips positioned in a vertical strip. At the bottom of the interface are the color controls; there are no hidden tabs or drop-downs. All of the color tools are visible from the get-go.

The tools aren’t just simple sliders either, but bi-directional circles. In the case of the contrast tool, up and down alter the contrast of the footage, while left and right control the pivot range. Upon clicking on the tool, a heads-up display appears, conveying video scopes, numerical information, and real-time animated overlays. Each ‘HUD’ is customizable, too, so you can alter elements such as the size and positioning to your taste.

The demo also demonstrated Operations, which Jason called “a completely new invented paradigm for grading, copying and moving color work throughout your timeline.” He proceeded to bring up a selection of Style Presets, making it clear that they differ from LUTs in that they’re essentially pre-graded presets that can be applied and tweaked further by the user.

There’s even a Film Color Module, with 90 film presets such as Fuji ETERNA 250 and Kodak SFX that can be directly applied to the footage. You can also group clips of footage together so you can quickly grade bundles of footage independently from one another.

Another Color Mode innovation is that it will intelligently identify the main colors within a piece of footage so you can edit that hue locally. The demo also combined the AI Object Mask with Color Mode by using the mask to pick out and track a moving vehicle and then color grade the object locally.

Ultimately, Adobe isn’t framing Color Mode as an incremental update. Jason called it “application-sized” and the “largest release in Premiere history.” Whether or not it’s going to compete with DaVinci Resolve remains to be seen, but it’s exciting to see Adobe attempting to innovate an area of video and, indeed, stills editing that's undeniably daunting for newcomers and seasoned editors alike.

The big Premiere news launches alongside some color-grading news for Adobe’s generative-AI editor, Firefly. Simple color adjustments will now be available in the software’s video editor, allowing users to tweak a range of tonal adjustments, including exposure, saturation, and color temperature.

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Netflix can stream videos without a long wait to download the full files – so why can’t creatives share photos and videos the same way? That’s the question that led to Frame.io’s Drive, a new desktop app that gives creatives the benefits of cloud storage in an app that acts more like a local storage drive.

While cloud storage allows for easier collaboration, downloading files – especially large video files and high-resolution RAW files – requires a wait. Frame.io Drive, however, makes the cloud storage act more like a mounted storage drive.

Read more: What is Frame.io?

How? The new app takes some inspiration from video streaming platforms like Netflix. Netflix doesn’t download the entire movie before you can watch it. It downloads in chunks, sending only the parts that you need in order to stream without the wait.

Frame.io Drive similarly “streams” media with Mounted Drive tech to teams using Premiere Pro, Photoshop, After Effects and other tools by chunking that data and sending only what’s needed at the time.

Adobe says that Frame.io Drive operates just like a local drive, including appearing as a drive on Finder for Macs and File Explorer for Windows. On Mac, Frame.io Drive also supports a Quick Share by right-clicking on the file from Finder. The app streams files as users need them, and updates are synced automatically without manual updates.

The new desktop app also supports comments, watermarks, and passwords – along with sharing to viewers who don’t have Frame.io.

The Frame.io Drive app is rolling out to Enterprise subscribers first, beginning on April 15, but will gradually roll out to all Frame.io users in the next few weeks.

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Generating video with AI typically involves typing in a prompt – and then starting over if the AI isn’t quite right. But software giant Adobe is building an AI that can adjust videos as they are being generated, allowing the user to change the camera angle or move objects around in the scene.

Adobe MotionStream is an experimental AI video creator that gives users real-time control over elements in the scene. The experimental technology allows users to change the camera angle and direct the movement in the scene using drag-and-drop style tools, along with sliders.

MotionStream, which was unveiled on April 10, generates the video in pieces in order to allow users to interact with the video near real-time.

All of this happens, Adobe says, as the video is being generated. MotionStream begins with a text prompt, but then offers “immediate visual feedback,” Adobe says the user can then move around the camera for a different angle, or move objects in the scene, watching the results adjust as those changes happen.

Adobe says that MotionStream is also designed to replicate more natural physical movements, which has historically been a challenge for AI.

“That’s where a lot of the magic happens—in the secondary effects that are really hard to control manually,” said Adobe Senior Principal Scientist and MotionStream researcher Eli Shechtman. “If you want to move an elephant, for example, you can click and move its body, but it’s a lot of work to manually make those movements look natural.”

“This currently requires skills and specialized software to rig, and animate or keyframe the animation, following a process that typically takes hours, if not days, depending on scope,” Shechtman added. “Instead, the underlying video generator behind MotionStream is basically simulating the world in real time. So, the elephant’s legs move naturally, and the ears flap naturally as the elephant moves. The model provides you with knowledge about the world, and you can interact with it.”

Generating videos with AI typically involves a wait, but MotionStream actually started from Adobe Research efforts to speed up the process by breaking it down into pieces. Users see the first piece while the latter pieces are being generated in the background.

“The natural next step, once we started breaking videos into pieces,” says Adobe Senior Research Scientist and MotionStream collaborator Richard Zhang, “was to ask for feedback from users as the video is being generated. That’s what brought us to MotionStream. It’s the fruit of a long line of research.”

Once the researchers overcame the delay, they worked to give users the tools to make adjustments, allowing users to interact using tools as the video is being generated to fine-tune the results.

MotionStream is, for now, only an experimental program, but Adobe is now sharing a preview of the program to the public.

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We as photographers spend thousands on modern digital sensors, then spend even more hours making them look like cheap film from the 70s and 80s. The irony is thick, but the trend is real. Film simulations are everywhere, from in-camera profiles to endless Lightroom preset collections promising that elusive "film look." 

Where does this come from? It’s partly Instagram aesthetics, and partly nostalgia for a format most digital photographers never got to interact with. There's a genuine reaction against the "digital look" too—that clinical sharpness and perfect color rendition that feels sterile compared to film's organic qualities. The problem is distinguishing between a legitimate creative tool and procrastination theatre.

The Fujifilm crowd understands this best. Its film simulations are baked into the shooting experience, informing how you see the scene through the viewfinder. That's different from the Lightroom preset collectors cycling through dozens of looks hoping something clicks. One approach shapes your vision. The other substitutes for developing one.

In the days of the darkroom, you chose your film to get the final look before you even took a photo. Using film simulations can be a legitimate technique when you understand what characteristics you're after. Grain structure, color response, highlight rolloff, latitude. Those are technical qualities that serve specific aesthetic goals. But blindly applying presets designed to match someone else's work most likely under completely different conditions? That's chasing aesthetics without understanding the whys and hows.

The workflow question matters too. Applying film looks in-camera forces commitment. You're making creative decisions while shooting, not deferring them to post. In Lightroom, film simulations can become another settings menu to obsess over rather than a tool that serves the work. How much time is spent tweaking grain versus actually shooting and improving?

There's a deeper issue about what we're really saying when we add grain and reduce sharpness to perfect digital files. Are modern sensors just too clean and sharp? Or have we just become accustomed to film's limitations as shorthand for authenticity? When does the film look actually serve your subject matter versus when it's comfort food for your post-processing?

The biggest trap, though, is chasing someone else's style instead of developing your own. Your lighting is different. Your subjects are different. Your camera processes color differently. Blindly applying someone else's recipe rarely produces the results you're expecting, and stunts your ability to (pardon the pun) develop your own recognisable style. 

Film simulations aren't the problem per se. The problem is treating them as a solution to not knowing what you want your images to look like. They become a substitute for vision rather than a tool to achieve it. 

If you consider Ansel Adams' views on previsualization, you should already know how you want the final photo to look. Yes, there is a creative gap initially, but blindly hoping for a look won’t get you there. 

If you shot actual film, you know what's being simulated. The latitude, the grain, the color shifts. You understand which characteristics matter for your work and which are just nostalgia. If you didn't, you're chasing a fantasy version of something you never experienced.

The honest question: does this film simulation serve your image, or are you just uncomfortable with what digital capture actually looks like? Sometimes the answer is the former. But, often it's the latter.

Your archive is full of them. Files from your first digital camera, 8MP shots that felt revolutionary at the time but now look soft and limited. You still hold on to them because the moment mattered, but cropping was never an option. Straighten the horizon and you'd end up with something barely usable for the web. Pull in tighter on the composition and forget it. 640 pixels of tears.

Super Resolution changes this. It's not magic, but it does allow you to make larger prints and crop much further in those older photos.

The feature lives in Lightroom Classic's Detail panel, using machine learning to quadruple your pixel count (and it can also be found in Adobe Camera Raw). That 8MP file becomes 32MP. More importantly, it means you can finally make compositional decisions in post that were impossible before. The wider shot you took because you couldn't get closer? Now you can crop in. That slightly wonky horizon you lived with because straightening would kill the resolution? Boom, fixed.

How it works

Open your raw file in the Develop module and find the Detail panel. You'll see Super Resolution as a toggle option. Click it, and Lightroom calculates the enhanced version. The process takes a few seconds, longer for older machines. Unlike the old workflow, this doesn't create a separate DNG file. The enhancement is applied non-destructively to your original raw file, saving drive space and keeping your catalog cleaner. The information is still stored within the catalog files, but you’re not creating the new file.

Once processed, you can toggle Super Resolution on and off without recalculating. Your edits remain intact whether the feature is enabled or disabled. This makes it easy to compare the enhanced version against the original without starting over.

For batch processing, select multiple images in Grid view, then enable Super Resolution from the Detail panel. Your settings sync across all selected files.

What actually improves

Super Resolution works best on sharp, clean files. Good glass, low ISO, proper focus. The algorithm can't invent detail that was never captured, but it can interpolate convincingly when the underlying data is solid. That landscape shot from your 8MP DSLR where everything was sharp? Excellent candidate. The high-ISO concert photo with noise and motion blur? Save your processing time. Perhaps in the future we might have Super Resolution and Denoise available for the same shot, but for now they are mutually exclusive.

The real test is cropping. Take that old file, enable Super Resolution, then crop to 50%. Compare it to what you'd get from the original. The difference is usable versus unusable. Even if you’re cropping to one quarter of the photo, you’re still back to the original 8mp, still fine for A3 or at a push A2 prints.

The practical reality

Super Resolution isn't going to turn your 2005 point-and-shoot files into gallery prints. But it might make them usable where they weren't before. It's particularly relevant if you're sitting on archives from early digital cameras that were perfectly capable but resolution-limited.

The sustainability angle matters too. Rather than constantly chasing newer bodies for more megapixels, you're extracting more value from files you've already shot. That 8MP file you took fifteen years ago suddenly has compositional flexibility you couldn't have predicted.

Try it on a few candidates. Open the Detail panel, toggle Super Resolution, see what's actually there. You might be surprised what becomes usable.

There are photos on my hard drive that I'm genuinely proud of. Technically strong, visually striking, and folks stop when they see them. They have absolutely no business being in my portfolio, and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to accept that.

We’re all guilty of it. You’ve made an image that earns real admiration, the temptation to make it the key photo in your portfolio is impossible to resist.

Here's the thing: a portfolio isn't a greatest hits compilation. It's a promise.

When a client opens your portfolio, they're not there to be impressed. They’re seeking an answer; can this photographer deliver what I need, and do it consistently? Every photo that doesn't fit your established style, no matter how good it is technically, introduces doubt where you need certainty. That stunning landscape you shot on holiday? The dramatic street portrait from a workshop weekend? If everything else you shoot is clean corporate headshots or crisp food photos, those outliers don't elevate the portfolio. They introduce doubt.

Impact and substance are not the same, and we shouldn’t confuse them. Impact is the immediate reaction — the sharp intake of breath. Substance is the strong foundation that gives confidence to a client when they scroll through your work and see the same eye, the same approach, the same excellent quality repeated image after image. Substance is what gets you hired.

The seductive part about a stunning outlier is that it feels like it can only help. But portfolios don't work on averages — they work on coherence. One image that doesn't belong shifts the viewer's attention from the work to the photographer, and not in a useful way. Instead of thinking "this person really understands corporate portraiture," they're thinking "this person has range, but what do they actually do?"

The hardest edit isn't cutting your weakest work. Any photographer can spot the failures with enough distance. The hard edit is removing the work you love that simply doesn't belong.

Your portfolio should feel inevitable. Image after image builds the same case, creating trust rather than demanding admiration. A client should reach the end feeling certain, not dazzled.

Keep the outliers. Post them on social, enter them for awards, put them in a personal project section. Just keep them out of the room where hiring decisions are made.

The photographers who work consistently aren't always the ones with the single best image. They have a body of great images. They're the ones clients can predict. In commercial photography, predictability isn't a weakness. It's the whole job.

Adobe has launched a big Firefly update in a bid to make the all-in-one creative AI studio more personal to you. If you’ve ever used Firefly, or any AI image generator for that matter, you’ll know that while a prompt allows you a great deal of control over the subject matter, it’s a lot harder to convey the style that you have in your mind’s eye. That’s where Firefly’s new Custom Models feature comes in.

This function, now in public beta, allows users to train the artificial intelligence to replicate their own personal art style when generating images and is optimized for illustration, character, and photographic styles. All you have to do is feed the AI 10 to 30 of your own images to create a custom model. However, the quality of the training data matters, so Firefly provides you with a ‘Model Score’, telling you how effective your selection of images is at training your custom model.

Adobe tells me that the custom models are built on Firefly Image Model 4, with plans to implement Image Model 5 in the future. Not only will the model help you generate consistent-looking imagery, but it will also automatically generate tags and captions for your images. I got to sit in on a demo by Adobe’s Principal Director Evangelist, Paul Trani, who demonstrated his own custom model and explained how he uses it primarily for ideation, as well as sourcing components for his composite artworks.

No doubt the questions on most creatives’ minds will centre around privacy and copyright issues, but Custom Models is designed for commercial use. Adobe’s Vice President of Product Marketing for Creative Professionals, Deepa Subramaniam, made it very clear to me that “Your data is yours.” That means user data is not used to train Adobe’s models, and Adobe doesn’t claim ownership over user content from Custom Models, Firefly models, or third-party models.

However, Custom Models does raise the issue of users feeding Firefly content that they don’t own. Thankfully, Adobe is intent on combating this. According to Deepa, “When you’re using custom models and training custom models, it’s very clear that we expect you to have ownership over the content that you’re uploading and that it be yours.”

And indeed, Adobe regularly reviews users’ custom models and will remove those that don’t play by the rules. Content created by a custom model will also have that model embedded in the content’s metadata. Deepa also added that “this is definitely an area that we’re using the public beta to also get feedback on, ways to improve those protective measures as we look towards GA.”

As it stands, Custom Models is rolling out via Firefly Boards and Firefly Generative Image. However, Adobe is keen to point out that creatives are using more generative credits than ever and that, according to its recent survey, 86% of creatives use generative AI. And while Firefly is the home of Custom Models for now, there are plans to implement the technology within other Creative Cloud applications in the future.

It’s not all about Custom Models, though. Adobe has also introduced a Quick Cut video feature, which is said to organize video footage into a “structured first cut in minutes”. Adobe is also expanding access to its Project Moonlight private beta, which centers around agentic AI assistants that are designed to make prompts less passive and more active.

Instead of writing a prompt and setting the genAI to work, Project Moonlight’s AI assistants are designed to work with creators to deliver their vision, turning prompt generation into a conversation. According to Adobe: “Moonlight gets you. It understands your style and gives you control over the work, drawing from your own assets and libraries. You become the creative director of your own world”.

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Opening the Adobe Creator Live 2026 event in London, the Adobe's Simon Morris told the crowd that it was the "500 of the UK's to creators," and, while acknowledging that AI would be a big part of the conversation, "AI if just a tool. Creativity always starts with you."

Adobe Creator Live 2026 is a new event, replacing similar events, with a number of speakers known to internet creators speaking on subjects like strategies for generating income and using tools like Adobe Firefly – very much the focus of the event when it comes to software.

While, for photographers, it lacks the breadth of possibilities that The Photography and Video Show offers (the four-day event is in its last day, conflicting with Adobe's afternoon & evening event). It concentrates on a very narrow niche of creators in comparison to that broader exhibition (at which Adobe were also present with a large stand), but it makes sense for those looking to grow their subscriber base to come and hear from people with more than 10 million followers.

Adobe told us that what made the Adobe Creator Live event different is that the company was curating the crowd, picking between 400 and 500 people from those who applied in advance to the Adobe site.

These attendees were given advice about building audiences on social media who they could communicate with directly about anything they were developing by Sophie Muller.

Walker asked Niko Omilana what would be the first thing he would do if he was starting today. "I think, right now, the plan would be to make niche content – get people's attention in a smaller place... whatever you're interested in... niche down."

He also advised "Let a video breathe."

Some other interesting tidbits I picked up from the Creativity Zones is the fact that more TikTok users are trusting of AI, according to creator Sammy King, who might be behind some of the ads you've seen online. Hybrid ads – with some AI – "received just as many likes as those created by humans" but entirely AI ones only got half as many.

Jack Henderson, of About:blank, told people they should "treat their content creation like a business."

In what could be the end of a multi-year battle, Adobe has agreed to settle a lawsuit over the software giant’s cancellation policies – including offering free services for affected customers.

Adobe and the Department of Justice have agreed to settle an investigation initiated in 2024 with a proposed stipulated order that, if accepted by the courts, would have Adobe facing a $150 million penalty divided equally between a fine paid to the DOJ and free services offered to affected users.

The order has to be entered by the courts, and, as the settlement isn’t quite finalized, Adobe has not yet shared who qualifies or when qualified former customers will be receiving the free services.

In 2024, the DOJ filed a complaint against Adobe following a Federal Trade Commission investigation that the company’s subscription software violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. The lawsuit claimed that Adobe’s cancellation policy, which includes an early termination fee, wasn’t clear enough, alongside claims that the cancellation process had unnecessary steps and delays.

Adobe continues to refute those claims, but has agreed to the settlement. “We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements, have a simple cancellation process, and clearly disclose the details of our plans, which we carefully crafted to maximize value and benefits to our customers,” Adobe wrote in a statement. “In recent years, we have made our sign-up and cancellation processes even more streamlined and transparent.”

“While we disagree with the government’s claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter,” Adobe added.

While not quite finalized, the agreement means Adobe would pay $75 million to the DOJ and offer $75 million worth of free services “for customers that qualify.”

Because the filings are not yet finalized in the court, Adobe did not have any additional details about what customers may be entitled to those free services, nor did they comment on when those services would be available. “We will proactively reach out to the affected customers once the appropriate filings with the Court are made and accepted,” Adobe wrote.

While the agreement is set to give free software to affected customers, the agreement doesn’t offer any sort of refunds for cancellation fees. Adobe’s Creative Cloud software is now worded as an “annual plan, paid monthly.” Subscribers who cancel before one year is up – and after a 14-day grace period – pay up to 50 percent of the remaining balance.

The news of the settlement comes as Adobe announced a record $6.4 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2026 alone, $6.17 billion of which comes from subscriptions. Divide that revenue by the 90 days typically represented in one quarter, and the $150 million settlement is less than three days' worth of revenue.

The settlement also requires Adobe to clearly disclose the early termination fee and how it's calculated. The company must also send reminders when a free trial is about to end, along with offering an easy way to cancel those subscriptions.

Adobe’s move to a subscription-based service model remains a contested topic in the photography community. Supporters of the Creative Cloud platform welcome the more affordable monthly rate compared to the high cost of purchasing the license outright – for example, a Photoshop license cost around $700 in the US before 2013, and now the photo editor costs $20 a month as part of the Photography Plan.

Critics express frustration with the inability to own the software, leaving the only option to access the popular tools as a recurring subscription. The monthly payment structure on a one-year agreement with cancellation fees added fuel to that debate.

The internet’s reaction to the settlement has been mixed. Some took to Reddit to argue that the settlement should have been monetary to those who paid the cancellation fees, while others criticized the now widely used subscription model across tech and software as a whole.

Last week, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, who has led the company for 18 years, announced he will be stepping down, remaining as a board chair.

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Adobe reported record financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, highlighting strong subscription growth and surging demand for its AI-powered creative and productivity platforms.

The company, headquartered in San Jose and traded on Nasdaq under the ticker ADBE, said revenue reached $6.40 billion for the quarter ending February 27, marking a 12 percent year-over-year increase, or 11 percent growth in constant currency.

Adobe reported diluted earnings per share of $4.60 on a GAAP basis and $6.06 on a non-GAAP basis. Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR) exited the quarter at $26.06 billion, underscoring the strength of Adobe’s subscription-driven business model as demand continues to expand across its creative, marketing, and productivity ecosystems.

Dan Durn, executive vice president and CFO, Adobe had this to say:

“Adobe delivered 13 percent subscription revenue growth and record Q1 cash flow of $2.96 billion. As we accelerate AI-powered capabilities across creativity, productivity and customer experience orchestration, Adobe is well positioned for continued profitable growth.”

Operating performance also remained strong. GAAP operating income reached $2.42 billion during the quarter, while non-GAAP operating income totaled $3.04 billion. GAAP net income came in at $1.89 billion, compared with $2.49 billion on a non-GAAP basis. The company also generated record cash flow from operations of $2.96 billion and ended the quarter with Remaining Performance Obligations of $22.22 billion, with current RPO accounting for 67 percent.

Subscription growth was led by Adobe’s Customer Group business, which generated $6.17 billion in subscription revenue, up 13 percent year over year. Business Professionals and Consumers contributed $1.78 billion in subscription revenue, growing 16 percent, while Creative and Marketing Professionals delivered $4.39 billion, representing 12 percent growth.

During the quarter, Adobe also repurchased approximately 8.1 million shares and said its financial outlook assumes current macroeconomic conditions while excluding any potential contribution from its pending acquisition of Semrush Holdings, which remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

I’ve lost track of the number of hours that I’ve spent in Photoshop tackling tedious, boring tasks like resizing images and editing out powerlines and trash cans. But Adobe is working on a fix: An AI chatbot integrated into Photoshop that can tackle edits for you.

I tried the new Photoshop AI Assistant, which launched only in Beta and only on Photoshop Web earlier this week. While the chatbot did carry out a few pleasant edits for me, I was largely left with the overwhelming feeling that I had just worked with an overenthusiastic photo editing intern, from the chatbot not quite doing what I asked to laughable corrections to lengthy waits.

In short, I didn’t get the impression that professional photo editors should be worried about their future career prospects, at least for now. The AI Assistant was, at least, a much more flexible tool than the Photoshop built into ChatGPT that I tried. But, there are a few key areas where I think a Photoshop chatbot could be rather helpful in future renditions.

First, the AI Assistant is only rolling out to Photoshop for Web for now, which isn’t exactly a full version of Photoshop, and it also has difficulty handling larger, high-resolution files. Many of the new tool’s limitations lie just in the fact that it’s only for the web right now.

One of those limitations is that the web-based Photoshop feels slower than the desktop version. There were a handful of edits that I thought I could have already finished while the AI Assistant was still doing its thing.

The Photoshop AI Assistant works in two ways. First, you can click on parts of the photo and type in a prompt to adjust a specific part of the image. Or, you can talk to the chatbot in the dedicated AI Assistant sidebar.

I started out editing a landscape photo that I took with a film-inspired preset, exaggerating the purples. The AI Assistant scanned the image, then made suggestions, so even if I come into the program without an idea, it sparks some based on what’s in the image. The AI Assistant is eager to use generative AI, and in a few minutes, it added more glowing city lights to the scene and even a full moon (though the craters didn’t feel quite accurate, never mind that it wasn’t a full moon on that day).

Then, I moved on to trying to edit a few portraits. I asked the AI to help clean up flyaway hair, and instead it removed the entire person…twice. At least the AI owned up to the mistake both times, telling me “Oops, looks like the stray hairs AND the whole subject got zapped!” complete with emojis. The bot told me, “It’s really tough for me (and even for Photoshop pros) to accurately select just the stray hair strands.”

The overly enthusiastic hair selection wasn’t the only time the selection was off. When I asked the bot to help make the eyes pop, it applied the effect to the face instead, overbrightening and adding saturation that brought out the skin’s redness.

Because of those whoopses that I had to go in and manually adjust – and the slower pace of a web-based software – I was left with the impression that I probably could have just done it myself faster (and without wasting as many resources).

But, while I won’t be trying the AI Assistant again anytime soon, I was left with an impression that there are a few areas where such a feature could be rather helpful. After all, the AI Assistant is only in beta, which means Adobe is collecting feedback and still making changes.

The feature that impressed me the most is that you can use the AI Assistant in two ways: First, by asking “do it for me” questions, and second, by using “show me how” prompts. The latter prompt I can see growing into a tool to help novices learn the program directly inside the app itself.

The chatbot walked me through the instructions for several common edits, such as adding more background blur and adjusting color casts. Hovering over the blue text in the chatbot’s response highlights where the tools are located, so I’m not searching through different menus and toolbars. (This would, admittedly, be more helpful if Photoshop for Web had more in common with the fully fledged Photoshop, as some tools are in different locations.)

When I asked the chatbot to carry out those edits for me, I could also see them being completed on the screen in real-time, so it actually shows me what’s happening and leaves me with the layers and tools to make tweaks to those AI-applied adjustments. Thanks to the Cloud, I could also open those files into the real Photoshop for further tweaks, directly from my recent files.

The other thing that I feel the Photoshop AI Assistant could actually be useful for – once it irons out the beta kinks – is as a sort of replacement to the software’s Actions panel. The Actions panel allows photo editors to edit one image and save the steps in order to apply those same changes to another image. I feel like if the AI could watch me carry out one edit, then apply it to other images, the results would feel more customized to my style.

The Photoshop AI Assistant is only in beta and, while I can see it becoming a learning tool and replacing some tedious tasks, the chatbot has a way to go before it feels more like an assistant and less like an intern.

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Adobe has launched the public beta of its AI Assistant tool for Photoshop on web and mobile, while Firefly has been treated to five generative AI tools that will allow users to be more specific with their AI-powered edits. Adobe has also introduced unlimited generations in both Photoshop's AI Assistant and Adobe Firefly. Here’s what’s in store…

Adobe Photoshop AI Assistant (web/mobile)

Adobe has launched the public beta of its AI Assistant tool for Photoshop on the web and mobile. This powerful AI feature analyzes an image and provides suggested edits, while also allowing the user to input “Do it for me” prompts to make bespoke changes such as removing objects, altering backgrounds, tweaking lighting, or adjusting color.

If you’re not keen on giving the AI free rein to edit your photo or you simply want to learn how to perform specific functions manually, you can also ask AI Assistant to “Show me”. Edits are placed on new layers, so you can operate via a non-destructive workflow and always revert back to the original image or easily tweak any changes. The Adobe Photoshop mobile app even allows you to communicate with AI Assistant via voice requests.

The web version of Photoshop is also getting a new feature called AI Markup, which is powered by AI Assistant and also available in public beta. This allows you to take a more direct approach to prompt-based changes by drawing directly onto the image in question, before inputting prompts to affect marked areas.

The example (above) shows how a simple illustration, a cross, and an arrow were used to convey the removal of distractions and the addition of flowers. You can also add a note to an object in order to input specific changes, as well as input broader changes that affect the whole image.

Adobe Firefly gets raft of new genAI tools

Adobe is also bringing a raft of new features to its all-in-one creative AI studio, Firefly. A range of powerful tools aims to give users more creative agency. The AI-powered image generator and editor will now include a range of generative tools: Generative Fill, Remove, Expand, and Upscale, as well as a Remove Background tool. Masks also allow you to paint onto the image in question to specifically target edits.

• Generative Fill: Add, replace, or refine elements with context-aware results
• Generative Remove: Quickly remove unwanted objects
• Generative Expand: Adapt images to new sizes and aspect ratios
• Generative Upscale: Increase resolution and sharpen details for export
• Remove Background: Isolate subjects and remove backgrounds with a click

Adobe is also introducing unlimited generations in both Adobe Firefly and AI Assistant in Adobe Photoshop web and mobile. Until April 9, paid subscribers to Photoshop web and mobile can enjoy unlimited generations for AI Assistant, while freemium users can make use of 20 free generations. Firefly customers can currently access unlimited generations also.

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Adobe Firefly, the software giant’s AI platform, can generate videos – but now the platform can also create an edited video from real camera footage. Firefly Quick Cut is an AI-driven tool that gives creators a jump start by creating a quick draft edit.

The new tool works by asking videographers to upload their clips and then describe what they want to create in a text prompt. Adobe notes that the instructions can be as simple as what type of video you want to create, such as a product review or interview, or as precise as uploading an entire script to work from.

Quick Cut comes with a few built-in tools to help guide that initial edit. Creators can choose the aspect ratio and set the pacing, or even set a specific final length for the video. Adobe notes that creators can also upload B-roll to a separate track in order to clearly identifythe main footage from the supporting shots.

Quick Cut is designed to be more of a starting point than a replacement for traditional video editing. Adobe describes it this way: “We designed Quick Cut to give Video creators a clear starting point they can shape, refine, and make their own. It’s a fast way to get from ‘I have clips’ to ‘I have an edit I can work with.’”

After the initial Quick Cut, videographers can then refine the results.

The tool is rolling out to Adobe Firefly, the software giant’s online-based AI platform, beginning today, February 25.

Adobe Firefly is free to try, but the free version limits the features and number of generations. Adobe is currently offering unlimited image and video generations up to 2K for Firefly Pro, Firefly Premium, and customers using the 4,000, 7,000, or 50,000 credit plans until March 16.

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Adobe has announced that three popular image adjustments (Clarity, Dehaze and Grain) are now available as proper adjustment layers in Photoshop. It's a workflow improvement that photo editors have been requesting for years.

Until now, these tools only existed in Camera Raw, either when opening RAW files or via the Camera Raw Filter. That meant working within a modal dialog box: make your changes, click OK, done.

Want to tweak your Dehaze setting tomorrow? Hope you used a Smart Object. Want to apply different amounts to different parts of the image? Prepare for layer duplication and complex masking workflows.

Adjustment layers change that completely. They're stackable, maskable and endlessly editable. You can apply different amounts of Clarity to different parts of an image using masks. You can adjust opacity to blend effects subtly. You can come back days later and modify your settings without degrading image quality.

This is how professional Photoshop users prefer to work and now these three tools finally support that workflow.

For example, you might want strong Dehaze on a distant mountain range but none on the foreground. Previously, this required duplicating layers, applying the Camera Raw Filter separately and masking carefully. Now you just add a Dehaze adjustment layer and paint your mask. Want to try a different strength? Adjust the slider. Want to blend it differently? Change the opacity or try a different blend mode. The flexibility is enormous.

AI improvements

Of course, it wouldn't be a modern Photoshop update without mention of those AI features that Adobe keeps telling me everybody loves. If that includes you, there's here's the skinny.

Generative Fill, Generative Expand and the Remove tool now output at 2K resolution with fewer artifacts and better prompt adherence. Reference Image with objects has been improved to better preserve object identity with geometry-aware adjustments for scale, rotation and perspective.

There's also Dynamic Text in beta, which wraps text along circular or arched paths with a click; ending the awkward workarounds required by traditional text-on-path tools.

For my money, though, it's the addition of these three adjustment layers that's most heartening. It feels like Adobe is actually listening to photographer feedback for a change, as opposed to content creators who just want quick content and aren't too bothered about the quality.

Sometimes the most valuable updates aren't the ones with the biggest marketing push, but those that remove friction from everyday work. These adjustment layers aren't flashy AI or cloud integrations; they're fundamental workflow improvements to tools photographers use daily. Here's what they can actually do:

Clarity enhances midtone contrast and structure, making images look crisper and more defined. It's particularly useful for bringing out texture in landscapes, architectural details, or any scene that needs more punch. The effect works by increasing contrast in the midtones without dramatically affecting highlights or shadows, which gives images that characteristic "pop" without looking overly processed. As an adjustment layer, you can now apply it selectively; adding clarity to eyes in a portrait while leaving skin smooth, for instance, or emphasizing texture in certain elements while keeping others soft.

Dehaze cuts through atmospheric haze and improves contrast in flat, washed-out scenes. It's invaluable for landscape photography but also works wonders on any image suffering from low contrast. Being able to mask it means you can target just the hazy areas without affecting the entire image.

Grain adds film-like texture to digital images. It's useful for black and white conversions, vintage effects, or simply making ultra-clean digital files feel more organic. The adjustment layer implementation means you can vary grain intensity across the image or blend it at reduced opacity.

The updates are available now in the main, desktop version of Photoshop, with AI improvements also coming to Photoshop on the web.

What better time for Adobe to announce that 85% of Sundance filmmakers use Adobe Creative Cloud tools, as well as major new updates to Premiere and After Effects, than the week of the Sundance Film Festival? That’s right, the bastion of independent filmmaking kicks off on Thursday, and Adobe is a recurring theme in the filmmakers’ productions.

The broad strokes of the creative software behemoth’s updates are designed to make post-production faster and more intuitive by way of, you guessed it, artificial intelligence. At the front of the pack is Premiere’s new AI-powered Object Mask, which would make Photoshop’s Magic Wand tool blush. This feature was in public beta, but is now available for all Premiere users.

With the tool selected, you simply hover over the scene in question, and colored overlays instantly highlight individual objects and people. What’s more impressive is that a selected mask will then track a moving subject. Perfection isn’t always guaranteed, of course, so you can still use fast lasso and rectangular editing tools to refine your selection. However, anyone who’s ever spent time rotoscoping will know that this is a tool with the potential to dramatically speed up workflow.

Adobe has also redesigned Premiere’s Shape Masks, with Ellipse, Rectangle, and Pen all allowing you to work with effects such as blur and relighting, while Adobe rates these tools’ tracking at 20x faster than previous versions of the software. They can be added via the toolbar, resized, moved, rotated, and feathered, while Adobe says that it’s redesigned Bezier curves for smoother customization. Crucially, you can mix multiple masks with different blending modes.

And indeed, during a demo, I got to see Adobe’s Jason Druss using Shape Masks and Object Masks in tandem to quickly color grade the sky, while removing the faces of two subjects that encroached on the original mask. When cutting out a fanny pack and animating it with a new motion-camera transition to fly towards the screen, he said: “As the fanny pack, not only comes out, but we can see the motion blur attached to it (...) if you want to accomplish work like this, you need to be a really, really advanced video editor.”

That’s not all, you can track bi-directionally and anchor masks to any object within the frame. Adobe says it has also implemented live tracking previews, as per community feedback. But what happens when you make manual adjustments? Well, a new Frame track-editing mode is designed to mitigate the need to manually adjust each keyframe, with the software taking adjustments and applying them accordingly.

Firefly Boards and Premiere have been brought closer together, too, with the ability to import multiple assets into Premiere with a single click. Similarly, the new Adobe Stock integration allows users to browse, preview, license, and import over 52 million clips within Premiere itself. Frame.io will also enjoy greater integration with Premiere, thanks to the presence of the new V4 panel (currently in beta).

Adobe After Effects 26.0

Adobe After Effects has also benefited from a raft of updates. Native 3D Parametric Meshes looks like a great addition for newcomers, while speeding up the workflow of seasoned creators. They allow you to create and combine a plethora of shapes, with new Spot and Parallel shadows said to boost the realism of a scene.

Adobe says that over 1,300 Free Substance 3D Materials can be applied to both native and imported meshes. I got to see materials applied to meshes in real-time during a demo with Adobe’s Victoria Nece, and as somebody with no 3D-modeling experience, the simplicity of this looked very appealing. So too did After Effects’ new Variable Fonts, with the ability to animate typography using keyframes, expressions, and up to eight axes per layer.

Finally, After Effects benefits from an enhanced vector workflow, with the ability to import SVG files directly into the software (commonly used in Adobe Illustrator). On the subject of Illustrator, gradients and transparency settings are preserved when converting Illustrator layers into shape layers.

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For years, I was a fully paid-up Adobe pro. Not “I dabble now and then” paid-up, but full-fat, all-you-can-eat access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud Pro suite. Twenty-four apps. Every tool. The lot. And for a long time, I did what many of us do: I rode the wave of discounts, retention deals, and loyalty pricing, convincing myself that I was beating the system.

Then reality landed with a thud!

Come April, when my deal expired, my monthly bill was set to jump to a massive 66.49 a month. That’s 797.88 a year, and at that point, I refused. No software – no matter how industry-standard, clever, or entrenched – gets a free pass at nearly eight hundred a year just because it always has.

Now, I could have gone nuclear. I’ve already started seriously considering Affinity as a long-term alternative for photo editing, and frankly, the value proposition is very hard to ignore. I also briefly considered “acquiring” the software from a corner of the internet populated by people with parrots, eye patches, and questionable morals – but as tempting as that moment was, I do actually like some of the newer features Adobe has been rolling out, and I prefer my karma, and my files intact.

The bigger issue was continuity. I didn’t want to break years of Adobe workflows overnight, or risk mangling countless Photoshop and InDesign files I still rely on. So instead of burning the house down, I did something far more effective: I opened my account and actually looked at what I was paying for. That’s when the penny dropped!

Out of the 24 applications bundled into my Adobe Creative Cloud Pro plan, I was regularly using just three. Photoshop, every single day, across both my laptop and desktop. Lightroom, almost exclusively on my phone for image editing on the move. And InDesign for flyers, posters, birthday cards, and assorted print work – because once a journalist, always a journalist.

Everything else? Untouched. Forgotten. Digital dust. So I clicked “Change Plan,” fully expecting a minor saving. What I didn’t expect was daylight robbery – in my favour. I ditched the all-singing Pro bundle, opted for the Photography Plan (which neatly covers Photoshop and Lightroom), and then added InDesign as a standalone app. That was it.

No phone calls. No arguments. No “Are you sure?” guilt-tripping. And just like that, I’d slashed my Adobe bill by 503 a year – 24.53 a month. Yes, 41.96 a month for three apps is still a chunk of change, and if you want to go fully free or low-cost, there are absolutely other routes you can take. But for my workflow, this was the sweet spot.

The cherry on top? Because I made this change mid-billing cycle, Adobe actually refunded me 22 dollars. So effectively, I got InDesign for free for a month – something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

The lesson here isn’t “Ditch Adobe at all costs.” It’s this: stop paying for software out of habit. Subscription creep is real, and Adobe is banking – literally – on you not checking what you actually use. Cull the apps you don’t touch, downgrade without guilt, and take back control of your monthly outgoings.

If you’re looking for a sign to save some serious dosh, this is it. Go and look at your Adobe subscriptions. You might be shocked at just how much money you’re setting fire to every year!

I’ve been using Photoshop for the better part of two decades – and there have been more than a few occasions where I realized I could have saved a lot of time using a newer tool instead of reaching for my habitual favorites. Sorry, Lasso and Healing Brush, but I think it may be time to go our separate ways.

I recently sat down with Stephen Nielsen, Adobe Photoshop’s Senior Director of Product Management, to talk about the longtime tools that are habitual favorites of longtime Photoshop users – but actually have a modern tool that will often get better results in less time.

Now, these tools do not necessarily need to be replaced 100 percent of the time, but there are a handful of tools inside Photoshop that tend to either get better results, faster edits, or both in a majority of scenarios. (And no, not all of these tools are AI either.)

Here are seven Photoshop tools that you may want to leave in the past.

Unsharp Mask

Try Smart Sharpen, or AI Sharpen instead

Unsharp Mask has been around about as long as Photoshop itself. The tool is actually based on a film developing technique where one image is intentionally blurred, then added to the original with a contrast mask to create a sharper image.

But, Neilson says that, in a majority of cases, Smart Sharpen is almost always better. (Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen). Why? Smart Sharpen looks for the edges and only applies sharpening at those edges. That leads to fewer artifacts and better results, plus there are more sliders for editors to fine-tune the results.

An even more recent tool for sharpening is the AI Sharpen, which is a partner model from Topaz Labs. Photo editors can find this option by going to Filter > AI Sharpen. Unlike Smart Sharpen, though, AI Sharpen will use generative credits.

Magic Wand

Try Select Subject, Select Object or Select Sky instead

Magic Wand is still helpful when you want to select one solid color, but Nielson notes that in most other scenarios, Magic Wand is the long and drawn-out way to make a selection. If you want to select the subject, try the Select Subject by going to Select > Subject.

If the object that you want to select isn’t the subject (or is perhaps only part of the subject, and you don’t want the whole thing), try the Object Selection too – it’s located in the same toolbox as the Magic Wand. Select that tool, then draw a rough box around the object, and Photoshop will detect the edges for you.

Or, if you’re trying to mask out the sky, try Select > Sky instead.

The Lasso tool

Try the Selection Brush Tool instead

Is it time to say “so long, pardner” to the lasso tool? Perhaps, but not because there’s a tool that’s better. There’s a tool that works just like the lasso, but also works as a selection paintbrush: the Selection Brush Tool.

You can find the Selection Brush Tool in the same toolbox as the lasso tool. If you hover over a subject, it will turn pink, and you can click to select it. You can also paint over the area to select. And, you can also use this tool exactly like the lasso and click to outline the area to select – you don’t need to fill in the center, Photoshop will do that for you. So the Selection Brush Tool really has a lasso built in, but does a few other tricks too.

The Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, and Content-Aware Fill (Sometimes!)

Try the Remove Tool instead

There are still several very good use cases for the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush, particularly when working with high-resolution textures, and some uses for Content Aware Fill. These tools aren’t something you need to 100 percent retire, but if you want to remove something from the photo, the newer Remove Tool will work better (and often faster) in many cases.

The Remove Tool is in the same toolbox as the Healing Brush and Clone tool. Once you select it, just click and paint over whatever you want to remove.

If you are Anti-AI, you can still use the Remove Tool. With the tool selected, you’ll see a drop-down box at the top near the options for brush size. Using this drop-down menu, you can choose not to use Generative AI, which will use more traditional algorithms to remove the selected area from the photo.

Upscaling with Image Size

Try using Generative Upscaler

Photoshop’s Image Size tool is still irreplaceable for tasks like making an image more web-friendly, but when it comes to making an image larger, Nielson recommends trying the newer Generative Upscale tools.

These tools are located in Image > Generative Upscale. Here, you can choose from a few different models to add more resolution. The Firefly Upscaler is available to all users, while Topaz Gigapixel and Opaz Bloom are available for premium subscribers.

Bonus: Three more modern tools to try

If you want to tweak color, try the new Adjust Colors Workflow. This (non-AI) tool is located on the Contextual Task Bar. What this tool does is select the six most prominent colors in the image. Then, you can select which color to adjust and use quick-access sliders to adjust hue, saturation, and lightness.

If you are correcting a tilted image or building a panorama, consider using Generative Expand instead of the Content-Aware fill to fill in gaps. You can do this by using the traditional crop tool, but at the top, go to the drop-down box that says Fill and select Generative Fill.

If you aren’t a professional graphic designer, Dynamic Text is a helpful tool for tasks like creating a photo quote for social media and similar projects. Dynamic Text creates a squared-off box of text but automatically adjusts the letter placement and sizes as you drag the corners of the box to fit the space.

Wait, why do outdated tools still exist inside Photoshop?

If tools like Unsharp Mask and the Magic Wand are nearly as old as Photoshop itself and are no longer the best option, why do they still exist? Well, for starters, there can be a few use cases for the longstanding tools, but Nielsen explains that Adobe likes to leave tools in place until they‘ve either been completely replaced or usage is very low.

“Generally, we care a lot about preserving customer choice,” Nielsen said. “This is a huge theme in Photoshop's history, and it's one of the reasons that people turn to Photoshop because there are so many choices and options. We want to preserve customer choice as much as possible. We generally leave tools in place until usage is really low or we can replace it.”

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If you're a photographer or filmmaker who uses Adobe software, 2025 was the year that the company stopped pretending that you were the main character in its story. You became the supporting cast.

That's neither an insult to you, nor shade at Adobe. But it is an honest observation that explains everything Adobe announced this year, from the genuinely useful (AI culling in Lightroom) to the bewildering (50,000 generative credits per month on the Firefly Premium plan).

The common thread? Photography and filmmaking are no longer ends in themselves in Adobe's universe. They're inputs into something larger: an industrial-scale content production machine designed for brands, agencies and marketing departments drowning in demand.

Serving enterprise, not photographers

Back in 2023, Adobe's research showed that creative and marketing teams were facing an insatiable demand for content that was likely to outpace their resources.

This is the problem that Adobe has spent the time since then solving. Not how to make your images better (though plenty of features do that incidentally), but how to industrialize content creation at enterprise scale.

Of course, photographers and filmmakers happen to create the raw materials that this machine needs: compelling imagery, authentic moments, professional footage. But we're now one ingredient in a much larger recipe.

Consider GenStudio, Adobe's "end-to-end content supply chain solution". Never heard of it? Most photographers haven't, but believe me: it's been a cornerstone of the company's 2025 strategy.

For the uninitiated, GenStudio enables marketing teams to plan, create, manage, activate and measure content with integrations spanning Amazon Ads, Google Marketing Platform, LinkedIn and TikTok.

But if you're a solo photographer, it's not designed for you. It's designed for the people who license your work. Or increasingly, generate approximations of it using AI.

Useful tools

Don't misunderstand me: Adobe has still delivered some genuinely useful tools for photographers in 2025.

The assisted culling feature in Lightroom – which uses AI to identify sharp, well-composed images and flag technical failures – could save you hours on every shoot. Automatic dust spot removal has finally arrived. Distraction and reflection removal tools expanded from Camera Raw into Lightroom proper. Fantastic.

For Photoshop users, the headline features included Select Details for isolating hair and facial features with one click, and Harmonize, which automatically matches lighting and color when compositing elements from different sources.

Then came the big one. Adobe Max 2025 introduced agentic AI: conversational assistants that can understand complex, multi-step instructions and execute them autonomously.

To put that in plain language: in Photoshop, you can now tell the AI assistant to brighten everything except the subject, and it will create non-destructive adjustment layers to accomplish the task. You can ask it to review your design layout and suggest improvements.

You can even tell it to rename all your layers based on visual analysis of their contents, which earned genuine applause at the keynote demo.

Premiere Pro updates, meanwhile, included AI Object Mask in Premiere Pro, which tracks people and objects across moving footage without manual rotoscoping; potentially you saving days on complex projects.

Generative Extend, which fabricates additional frames at the beginning or end of clips, graduated from beta to support 4K and vertical formats. Media Intelligence brought natural-language search to vast footage libraries, enabling editors to find a scene just by typing something like "shot of person walking on beach at sunset".

Double-edged sword

These are all real improvements. They all address tedious bottlenecks. But they're also somewhat of a double-edged sword. Because broadly speaking, while AI is often a friend to photographers and video editors, it's often trained on our content and increasingly set to replace our skills.

In one sense, Adobe has long stood apart as the white knight here. Its generative AI engine, Firefly, famously only trains on properly licensed material – and that's to its credit. Its creation of Content Credentials to identify ownership of content also puts it on the side of the angels.

But the most revealing development in 2025 was the company's embrace of third-party generative platforms. After years of promoting Firefly, Adobe suddenly integrated models from Google, OpenAI, Black Forest Labs, Runway, Topaz and others throughout its applications.

Models that, let's be honest, might well have been trained on your content without permission.

For anyone wanting to use these models, meanwhile, the main catch is the cost. While Firefly operations cost one generative credit, using partner models costs significantly more.

Gemini images cost 20 credits, ChatGPT images cost 60. For photographers on the basic Photography Plan with just 25 monthly credits, this pricing structure is almost comically punitive. But it makes perfect sense when you understand who Adobe is actually serving.

Enterprise clients with Firefly Pro or Premium plans, carrying 7,000 or 50,000 monthly credits respectively, barely notice these costs. They're investing in velocity and output quality at industrial scale.

To put it bluntly, individual photographers watching their monthly allocation evaporate after three or four generations are not the audience for these tools.

The Frame.io revolution 

To be fair to Adobe, it hasn't just been about AI this year. The most significant infrastructure development for working photographers and filmmakers was Frame.io's Camera to Cloud expansion.

Select professional cameras can now upload proxy files directly to Frame.io via network connection, allowing editors and clients to start working with footage before the shoot even wraps.

Fujifilm became the first brand to add still photography support for Frame.io Camera to Cloud, extending this capability beyond video. Photographers can make selections in Frame.io and instantly push files to Lightroom for real-time editing and retouching from any location.

This fundamentally changes production workflows but, again, notice whose problem it solves. It's brilliant for agencies coordinating distributed teams on tight deadlines. It's transformative for productions where clients need immediate feedback and approval. It accelerates the content supply chain.

For the solo photographer shooting a wedding or a portrait session? It's technological overkill addressing a problem you probably don't have.

A year of price hikes

Here's a problem that many solo photographers do have, though: paying for all this. At the start of 2025, Adobe hiked prices on Photography Plans for the first time in over a decade, with some plans increasing up to 50%.

The company justified this by pointing to hundreds of innovations delivered across Photoshop and Lightroom without previous price increases, plus the computational costs of running AI models. Fair enough.

But the timing crystallizes the tension. Adobe is charging solo photographers more for software that's increasingly optimized for workflows they don't actually use. They're embedded in an ecosystem designed for different priorities.

None of this means Adobe's software has become useless for photographers. Quite the opposite: Lightroom and Photoshop remain the industry standard, and many 2025 updates directly improve core photography workflows.

The dust removal tool alone may justify the subscription hike for anyone who's spent hours spotting clone-stamping sensor dust across a wedding shoot.

But 2025 clarified something that was already becoming apparent: Adobe isn't a photography company that happens to make software. It's a content production infrastructure company that counts photography among its many inputs.

Your images, whether captured through a lens or conjured from pixels, are raw material for a vastly larger economy built around feeding brands' bottomless need for content.

Conclusion

So what have we learned? I'm not saying we shouldn't continue using Adobe's tools – which remain excellent for what they do. But I do think we need to recognize our changing position in the ecosystem they're building.

Adobe spent 2025 building infrastructure for a world where content creation scales exponentially through AI augmentation, where brands generate thousands of variations from seed imagery, where marketing teams run content factories that would have required armies of creators just a few years ago.

Individual photographers and filmmakers aren't being eliminated from this ecosystem, but we're being redefined within it. Our role is increasingly to provide the authentic raw material – the real moments, the genuine human perspective, the original vision – that gets multiplied, modified and distributed through AI-powered content engines.

Whether that's progress or setback depends on your perspective. Either way, that's what Adobe's 2025 was actually about.

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Adobe’s online space for generating AI video now feels a lot more like the brand’s longstanding video tools. On Tuesday, December 16, Adobe announced the public beta of the Firefly video editor, along with prompt-based editing, AI video upscaling, and support for the third-party model FLUX.2 from Black Forest Labs.

Firefly video editor is a browser-based software

Adobe’s online Firefly can now do more than generate. The new Firefly video editor is a web-based video editing software meant to assemble and tweak AI-generated video. Previously, Firefly generated videos in the web app that could be later taken into Premiere Pro, but the update brings prompting and editing into one online workspace.

The Firefly video editor, which is now in public beta, allows creators to combine generated clips using a multi-track timeline, a lightweight version reminiscent of similar tools in software like Premiere Pro.

Users can take advantage of the timeline to edit, or can also use the text editor to shorten, trim, and rearrange interviews and other talking-head videos.

The web-based software also supports exporting in multiple formats, including vertical and widescreen.

Firefly can now edit videos with prompts, rather than regenerating

Previously, if Firefly didn’t get a clip just right, the only option was to try again and regenerate the entire clip. Now, Adobe has introduced prompt-based editing, which allows creators to correct part of a clip without regenerating the entire thing.

Adobe demonstrated using the tool to swap one object out for another, replace the background, or even change the weather, while keeping the rest of the clip intact.

The update also allows users to adjust the “camera,” asking the AI for a wider shot, a bird’s-eye view, or perhaps a closeup.

The updates also give users more control over how the “camera” moves during a clip. Inside the Firefly Video Model, users can upload one image as a reference for the starting point, and another for the end, in order to direct the AI how to move the "camera" between those two perspectives.

AI upscaling for video is now available in Boards

Adobe is also adding the ability to upscale videos using AI, a feature that’s done using Topaz Astra. The feature has echoes of the new Photoshop tool to upscale images using Topaz AI, however, the video upscaling is only headed to Firefly Boards for now, not the new Firefly video editor yet.

Adobe says that the AI upscaling in Boards can be used to push a 1080p video to 4K.

Firefly adds FLUX.2 to third-party models

The update also brings another addition to Adobe’s list of supported third-party AI models with the addition of Black Forest Lab’s FLUX.2. FLUX.2 is a photo generator, not an image generator, however, which means the support is rolling out to Firefly Text to Image, Firefly Prompt to Edit, Firefly Boards, and Photoshop’s Generative Fill. (In January, FLUX.2 will also be available in Adobe Express.)

To give users more flexibility to experiment with the new tools, Adobe is giving current Firefly Pro, Firefly Premium, and 7,000 credit and 50,00 credit generative AI plans unlimited photo and video generations on the Firefly app until January 15, 2026.

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As 2025 is coming to a close, software giant Adobe is making predictions for the biggest creative trends in 2026. As a photographer and tech journalist, I was expecting to find trends heavily influenced by AI, instead, it feels like half the predictions are anti-AI.

Adobe recently published its annual predictions for creative trends. Two of the four trends feel like an evolution of the brand’s 2025 trend report. Visuals that Engage the Senses feels a bit like a visual-focused take on the immersive art installations that Adobe highlighted in last year’s report. Similarly, the surrealism trend that Adobe called Fantastic Frontiers last year feels revamped in the 2026 trend Surreal Stillness. The Surrealism trend discusses using AI to create images that defy the laws of physics.

But, the other two of the four trends feel focused on authenticity and emotions – and as a photographer, I think those two trends are key to standing out in a world that now feels heavily focused on AI.

Connectioneering

Adobe describes the Connectioneering trend this way: “Images that Stir Emotions and Spark Connection.” Or, as Adobe Principal of Creative Services and Visual Trends Brenda Miller puts it, “People really want to feel what connects us all to the special, valuable things that make us human.”

A trend that focuses on human connections in an AI-saturated world is refreshing – but I think this trend will always be integral to photographers standing out in a world where computers can create images, not just in 2026.

Computers can’t feel emotions; they can’t feel the things that make humans human. Sure, AI can try to mimic these emotions by generating images based on a database of human-created images, but emotional photographs by creators actually capable of feeling such emotions will always have an advantage.

I was reading an article a few weeks back about a photo studio that specialized in photographing couples on a blank background and then generating a background of a popular travel destination behind them. My first thought was, why would I want a photo of myself in a place that I never got to experience?

This trend is why I think it’s important for photographers to consider not just the photos that they are getting, but the experience that clients are having in front of the camera. Are they stuck in bored poses in forced smiles? Or are they genuinely enjoying the photoshoot? I think both photos that spark emotion in the viewer and emotion in the person in front of the camera will be key to standing out in an AI world.

Local Flavors

“Local Flavors” is all about authentic experiences from around the world, Adobe says. The tech company has noticed an uptick in enterprise customers looking for authentic local and regional images, which is another positive trend for photographers moving into the coming year.

Along with the growing number of businesses looking for local photographs, Adobe also ties the trend into Gen Z and “appstinence,” or taking a break from the constant connectivity. I’m already seeing this in screen-free cameras and the resurgence of lo-fi compact cameras.

But I think the desire to take a break from constant connections applies to not just taking photos with devices that don’t have notifications but to the photos themselves. Adobe says that when brands work with local creators, the content feels more authentic and memorable.

“Embrace the culture’s authentic voice – no translators, no filters,” Adobe wrote. Like the Connectioneering trend, I think this speaks to photographers finding inspiration in their own culture and what makes them unique – and human.

Many of Adobe’s launches in 2025 have focused on AI (although not all, like the new Color Variance tool or Photoshop’s new color adjustment layer). It’s refreshing to see a list of 2026 predictions that is both a mix of AI and anti-AI.

“Some are telling stories that move us. Others are using AI as a tool to explore the world in ways we've never seen before, bringing bold ideas to life,” Adobe writes. “The real opportunity lies in embracing authenticity and innovation together — while recognizing that people remain at the heart of the creative process.”

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As a pro photographer, I listened to Adobe’s announcement that Photoshop would be available free inside ChatGPT with a note of trepidation. But when I opened ChatGPT to try out the new integration for myself, the results weren’t at all what I expected – and that’s both good and bad.

This week, Adobe announced that some Photoshop tools would be available directly inside ChatGPT. Admittedly, I was expecting the chatbot to churn out a fully AI-generated image – but that’s not at all what’s happening here. ChatGPT is now able to help users apply select Photoshop effects, including colors and brightness, to photographs.

On the one hand, I took these photos in June and still haven’t found the time to edit them; I’m always looking for ways to speed up photo editing. But on the other hand, I’m a bit wary of AI. Here’s what I found when I tested Photoshop inside ChatGPT.

Photoshop inside ChatGPT is not generative AI

The Photoshop-ChatGPT collab is Agentic AI, where a chatbot does something for you, but it is not generative AI, where an AI creates something completely new. That means the resulting image applies edits, but does not generate new pixels. It also means that Adobe doesn’t apply Content Credentials to the image.

This is an important distinction. I don’t have an issue with AI that can help me quickly mask out a subject (provided that AI is trained on licensed content that pays the original creators). But I don’t want an AI to create for me – and that’s not what the ChatGPT Photoshop integration is doing.

Photoshop inside ChatGPT is meant to be a learning tool…

If a chatbot can handle all the editing for me, is there any reason to learn photo editing techniques? Admittedly, I was also expecting the Agentic AI to remove the learning process entirely, but I was relieved to see that that is not at all the case here.

When ChatGPT adjusted the colors of this photograph for me, the chatbot explained a bit of the difference between the saturation and vibrance sliders, for example.

I think this tool could potentially be a boost for new photographers learning the jargon of the photo editing industry, as the chatbot doesn’t just handle the edit without explanation and doesn’t entirely remove specific photographer terms either.

Another important distinction is that ChatGPT gives the user sliders to control how much (or how little) of the effect to apply.

… but ChatGPT can use the wrong terms

I got pretty excited when ChatGPT said it could apply a Kodachrome look to my photo. Imagine my disappointment, then, when ChatGPT instead delivered a slider for the tritone effect.

Kodachrome is a popular film stock; trione is an editing process that maps the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows to three different colors. The two things are not at all similar.

That, I think, is one of the downsides to trusting an agentic AI to teach the ins and outs of photography and photo editing: AI can be wrong, and mistakes aren’t exactly rare.

ChatGPT’s Photoshop is a very lite version of the photo editor

The initial launch inside ChatGPT contains only a few Photoshop features. Users can adjust color, brightness and contrast. It can apply a few special effects, like tritone and halftone dots, but that’s pretty much it, offering a very small taste of the longstanding pro photo editor.

The Photoshop ChatGPT app feels more like Photoshop Elements – and even that isn’t exactly correct, as Photoshop Elements can still do things like crop and retouch acne, while the ChatGPT collab cannot (at least not yet).

It's also important to note that while Photoshop is free, it's subject to the same limitations as the ChatGPT payment tiers. I don’t have a paid account, so I was only able to upload one image a day, and I ran out of thinking space towards the end.

Photo editing with ChatGPT wasn’t faster than doing it myself

Here’s my biggest sticking point: I tweaked the photo's colors in Lightroom far faster than ChatGPT edited the photo for me. Of course, as a pro photographer, I’m not the intended audience for this tool, but it’s a distinction worth noting.

It took some time to upload the image to ChatGPT, some time for the AI to think. And it probably took me a bit longer because there were a few things that I couldn’t figure out. I still haven’t, for example, found the ability to export a full-resolution file of the edit, though Adobe previously indicated that it was possible.

Part of this is that the feature still feels a bit glitchy. ChatGPT told me on a few occasions that the Photoshop tools were temporarily offline.

Will Agentic AI be part of the future of photo editing?

Many software brands have gone all-in on AI, but I think some AI is more ethical than others – and AI is better suited for some tasks over others.

After trying out the ChatGPT-Photoshop integration, where I see Agentic AI fitting in the industry the best is to carry out tedious, non-creative tasks. I feel like agentic AI could eventually replace things like Photoshop’s batch editing and Actions tools.

I also think Agentic AI could perhaps be an updated form of in-app help, though this is still subject to some AI inaccuracies.

Photoshop’s integration into ChatGPT isn’t going to replace pro editing – it’s not even close. But it could give new users a taste – and may indicate where future sedition automation and in-app learning may be headed. (And I’m so very glad that its not generative AI.)

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Adobe has revealed its “record” financial results for both the fourth quarter and the fiscal year 2025. At face value it would appear to be very good reading for the editing software behemoth and its investors. Such is the uncertainty surrounding AI profitability, Adobe has been reluctant to publish AI-driven financial results, directly, but is now including what it calls Total AI-Influenced ARR. This is Annual Recurring Revenue “from the product offerings and tiers (...) enhanced by AI features and functionalities embedded in the product.”

Adobe’s revenue rose to a record $6.19 billion in Q4, which is 10% year-over-year growth, while cash flows from operations hit a record $3.16 billion. The Digital Media segment, which includes Creative Cloud, boasted 11% year-over-year growth with revenue at $4.62 billion.

Total Customer Group subscription revenue enjoyed 12% year-over-year growth, with $5.96 billion in revenue. And despite rising subscription costs drawing the ire of the Creative Cloud community, the numbers add up, with Business Professionals & Consumers subscription revenue rising to $1.72 billion, for 15% year-over-year growth.

And while Q4 was a highlight, it was a strong year overall, with Adobe exceeding targets for FY2025. Revenue hit $23.77 billion, representing 11% year-over-year growth. $17.65 billion can be attributed to the Digital Media segment, with Total Customer Group subscription revenue drawing in $22.80 billion.

Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen, said “Adobe’s record FY2025 results reflect our growing importance in the global AI ecosystem and the rapid adoption of our AI-driven tools,” and that means high hopes for the current fiscal year. “By advancing our innovative generative and agentic platforms and expanding our customer base, we are excited to target double-digit ARR growth in FY2026.”

Adobe has an awful lot riding on its optimistic adoption of AI, and according to Reuters, monthly active users for its free-to-use AI offerings have surpassed 70 million, translating to a 35% increase year over year. The outlet quoted Adobe CFO Dan Durn who revealed that embedding generative AI into core Creative Cloud plans was paying off.

But while Adobe’s financial results are certainly moving in the right direction, a large degree of uncertainty regarding the profitability of artificial intelligence still exists. At the time of writing, Adobe stock is up, but an article from TipRanks has highlighted reticence from some analysts, despite financial results exceeding Wall Street expectations.

This is something we’ve seen before. Only a couple of months ago, stock market analysts Morgan Stanley downgraded Adobe’s stock rating amid record-breaking profits. Ultimately, publishing financial results within a bubble is one thing, but Adobe’s strength within the AI sphere rests on how it compares to the performance of its competitors.

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Learning Adobe Photoshop comes with an entire mini dictionary of photo-editing terms – but using Photoshop within ChatGPT requires knowing none of those. Photoshop now exists within ChatGPT, opening up natural language agentic photo editing, all without a Photoshop subscription.

On Wednesday, December 10, Adobe announced that Photoshop – alongside Adobe Express and Acrobat – are now available inside ChatGPT without a subscription. Importantly, those adjustments are "standard Photoshop edits and not generative edits," an Adobe spokesperson told Digital Camera World, which means the resulting image is AI edited, not AI generated.

The announcement rolls out first in the US, using ChatGPT on desktop, web, and iOS apps. Adobe indicates that the tool is expected to come to the UK and EU in the "near future," along with Android support coming soon.

The software giant already has plans for bringing additional programs into ChatGPT, adding that “this is just the beginning, we will continue to add new capabilities to our apps in ChatGPT in the coming weeks.”

The launch gives ChatGPT users the ability to ask for photo edits using natural language, such as “make this photo brighter” without knowing photography jargon like “exposure.” The Photoshop that’s integrated into the chatbot can tackle both edits to the entire picture and adjustments to only a small portion of the image.

The chatbot doesn’t stop at just making the requested adjustment though – the tool gives users sliders to tweak the results. Users also have the option to open the image in the web browser version of Photoshop for further adjustments.

ChatGPT users can call on the longstanding photo editor to edit their work by starting a prompt with “Adobe Photoshop” or by choosing Photoshop from the + icon dropdown menu.

The ChatGPT integration doesn't come with all of Photoshop's tools, but it is meant for those new to Photoshop and includes adjustments to contrast, brightness, and exposure, as well as adjustments to the background and applying creative effects. The integration also has a shortcut to continue editing inside Photoshop Web, or to open the image in the full-featured Photoshop.

I watched a demo of the tool ahead of the announcement. Adobe Principal Director Evangelist Paul Trani showed how users could ask for something specific, such as taking a photo of New York City and asking “give it a vintage look, except for the taxis.”

Trani also demonstrated how the AI could respond to less specific requests. When asked a simple “add special effects,” ChatGPT-Photoshop came up with a few different suggestions, showing a preview of the different ideas on the photo.

The ChatGPT partnership isn’t the first time Adobe has added agentic photo editing – an AI agent that edits photos for you – to Photoshop. In October, Adobe announced agentic photo editing for Photoshop, but the feature is still only a private beta and only in Photoshop Web. Integrating the longstanding editing software directly into ChatGPT brings agentic photo editing to the AI’s 800 million users.

"This builds on the foundational investments we've made in AI assistants across our own apps and allows us to meet customers where they already are as working with AI agents become the starting point for accomplishing everyday tasks. And for anyone who wants the full power of our tools it's seamless to move from ChatGPT into our native apps,” said Adobe Digital Media Chief Technology Officer Ely Greenfield.

Adobe says the feature "preserves the quality of the image." The company notes that ChatGPT performs Photoshop edits for the user, but it does not regenerate a new image. The original resolution of the image is also preserved, unlike some of the resolution limitations on some generative AI.

Because ChatGPT is applying Photoshop edits and not generating a new image, Adobe says that Content Credentials and other AI watermarking tools are not added to the image.

A perk for ChatGPT users may also be a point of contention among photographers, as Photoshop inside ChatGPT is free. Meanwhile, using generative AI inside Photoshop requires generative credits, which can drive up the cost of Photoshop (beyond the subscription alone) for heavy AI users.

Photoshop inside ChatGPT is rolling out on December 10 to the AI chatbot.

Editor's note: This post was updated with additional comments from Adobe.

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In September, Adobe squished the popular video editing Premiere Pro down to smartphone size – and just a few weeks later, that free app is getting tools tailored for YouTube Shorts. On Monday, December 08, Adobe announced a partnership with YouTube that brings a dedicated YouTube Shorts space in the free video editing app on iOS.

The new YouTube Shorts space gives creators tools geared to YouTube’s platform for short-form vertical videos, including sharing directly to YouTube Shorts from the Premiere mobile app in a few taps.

The new space tailored to Shorts also includes access to exclusive effects along with transitions and title presets, Adobe says. The Shorts-dedicated workspace also includes pre-made templates for quickly creating videos.

But the update also allows Premiere mobile users to customize their own templates, including sharing them with the wider Shorts community for reuse in hopes of sparking a new trend.

While the YouTube Shorts dedicated workspace is new in the young mobile app, Adobe notes that creators can still use standard Premiere mobile tools to create short-form videos, including the multitrack timeline.

Adobe re-imagined the popular desktop video editor in September when it launched Premiere mobile on iOS. The app is free to download from the App Store, through limits some features to paid users, including generative credits and cloud storage. While the app launched on iPhones first, the company said an Android version is in the works.

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Subscriptions aren’t as attractive as perpetual licenses, but when you’re paying just £98.99 at Amazon UK for 365 days of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom (PC/Mac), I think that’ll give even the most ardent subscription naysayers pause for thought. That’s roughly £4 apiece per month for industry-standard photo editing software. And if you just want Lightroom, you can get an entire year for just £61.99 at Amazon UK, which is about £5 per month.

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There’s little to say about Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and Adobe Lightroom Classic that hasn’t already been said. Heck, Photoshop is so popular it’s become a verb in its own right and is known across the world by people who haven’t ever edited a photograph in their life. It’s the OG, the industry standard by which all other photo-editing software is judged.

And while Adobe has drawn the ire of many a photographer over the years for what some have considered hefty prices and unwanted subscription models, Photoshop and Lightroom are still my go-to for editing my own images because the Creative Cloud ecosystem just works. And at £98.99 for Photoshop and Lightroom, and £61.99 for Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, you’re probably paying less than your Netflix subscription!

If you’re having trouble deciding which one to go for, it all comes down to how much you’re going to use Photoshop. If you’re new to Adobe software, you might think Photoshop is essential (it’s the grandaddy after all). But most photographers, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic have become the go-to. That’s because they’re designed for batch editing, that’s to say, you can edit lots of images simultaneously, in batches, whereas Photoshop’s layer-based workflow is largely designed for editing one image at a time.

Lightroom has also become more like Photoshop over the years. You can locally edit images using masking and even clone or heal to remove unwanted objects. Personally, I spend most of my time in Lightroom. I turn to Photoshop for things like focus stacking and to make the most of its layer-based workflow so I can make more intricate and involved edits.

Ultimately, if your editing workflow is extremely simple, adjusting a few sliders here and there, you can probably make do with Lightroom. If you anticipate doing heavy cloning, focus stacking, frequency separation, exposure blending, etc, then be sure to pick up the bundle with Photoshop.

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Lightroom is about to speed up the process of retouching acne using a simple slider.

Tucked among the updates introduced during Adobe Max, Lightroom Mobile gained an early preview of a new blemish removal slider. While the slider is only an early preview and only on the mobile app for now, when I sat down with Adobe to demo the new Lightroom tools, the company indicated that it's planning to bring the tool to desktop versions of the popular photo editor in the future.

The blemish removal tool trades the often long process of manually using the healing brush to select each zit for a simple slider. Lightroom first analyzes the image to detect acne. Then, moving the slider to the right will automatically remove the acne.

Putting the tool on a slider gives photo editors the ability to choose how much retouching to do, choosing whether to remove just the largest acne spots or as much as the AI-based tool detects.

I tried out the new tool, using an image from Adobe Stock, and I was impressed at how quickly the slider managed to clean up acne on a portrait. The tool allows editors to select which person to edit in group portraits as well, or editors can choose to adjust everyone at once.

What’s perhaps most impressive, however, is that even moving the slider as far as it could go, the app still left a few freckles and moles intact. My personal editing philosophy is that I edit out anything that’s not there every day, like acne, but I leave in permanent marks like moles, freckles, and scars.

Sometimes, differentiating between a freckle and acne is difficult to do, so I’m glad to see that the slider doesn’t overdo the retouching.

For now, the early preview of the tool is only available on Lightroom Mobile. First, make sure you are using the most recent version of Lightroom Mobile. To find the slider, open an image in the app and tap the retouch menu. Select blemishes, then use the slider to adjust the result.

While I don’t typically edit much on my smartphone, the early preview on the mobile app has me eager for a similar tool to arrive in the photo editor’s desktop apps.

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A lot of Leica shooters will have been triggered by the headline, I realize that, and I acknowledge your reaction. Prime lenses have long been associated with classic street photography, and users of systems such as the M-series from Leica have been producing masterpieces with fixed focal length optics for decades.

In fact, many devotees of street and reportage photography swear by them and won’t shoot with anything else. So, with such a pedigree for taking images that stand the test of time and that have achieved iconic status, why have I developed such a heretical opinion against primes?

Social media is to blame (isn’t it always?), at least in part. No doubt a consequence of the influential status of photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Steve McCurry, and others in that elite group, content creators across the Instaverse have spent years proclaiming their devotion to the prime focal lengths favored by the Masters.

If you look back about seven or eight years, it seemed every young person on the internet was shooting with a 24mm or 35mm lens. For everything. It’s like owning a prime became a symbol for being artsy and edgy.

I’m sure many of these photographers genuinely liked using a prime, but I do wonder how many of their most-liked shots were captured using a zoom they switched out before filming some B-roll video. I’ve just never believed in using any piece of kit purely because it’s in vogue. So what happened to change my mind?

I have always preferred zoom lenses for my paid photographic work because I enjoy the freedom to capture many different compositions in quick succession. This is especially true when I have limited time to shoot the images I need, which is almost all the time for editorial assignments. But more recently, I’ve had the unusual experience of shooting quite a lot of street photography for work, much of it with prime lenses.

Have you ever had a eureka moment, where something suddenly just makes sense and you wonder how you’ve been misunderstanding it for so long? Well, that’s where I am in my prime journey. Never before have I been specifically asked to capture images using primes, so I’ve never felt I had the freedom to miss shots because I had the ‘wrong’ lens mounted. Most paying clients don’t give a hoot what kit you shoot with, and won’t take the purity of vision as an excuse for delayed image delivery.

Working with the Zeiss Otus ML 85mm and Otus ML 50mm f/1.4 lenses forced me to be super precise with my focusing technique due to the shallow depth-of-field. Missing three backup shots in the pursuit of one beautifully sharp subject against a field of creamy bokeh was suddenly completely acceptable.

Meanwhile, the Leica Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4 ASPH, mounted on a Leica M-11 Monochrom body, meant I had to get much closer to my subject to fill the frame, requiring a slower approach to remain inconspicuous. It afforded me the luxury of chasing one frame in landscape orientation with no voice in my head saying, ‘but what if they want portrait format too?’.

All you prime-shooting street photographers out there may not think this is anything new, but it’s been eye-opening for me. The lesson? Look beyond the social media hype and forget why someone else might be using a piece of kit. Just using any prime because it will look good on TikTok isn’t the name of the game; using the right prime for you is paramount. It sounds obvious, but when the voices of influencers are so loud, it’s easy to forget you’re vulnerable to preconceptions.

I’ve never enjoyed street photography as much when using a zoom, where every shot felt like a mere record. Using a prime, you’ve hunted and caught a single special moment in time, which is an entirely different experience altogether.

And if that makes me sound pretentious, well…

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It’s been a huge few days for video and photo editing software, what with the annual Adobe Max having been brought to a close last week and then the bombshell announcement that, under new owners, Canva, Affinity Photo has been reborn as the free-for-everyone Affinity Studio. 

I’ve always been a fan of Affinity Photo 2. I still think it’s the best like-for-like alternative to the juggernaut that is Adobe Photoshop, but it was definitely time for an update.

With Affinity Studio situating all of the brand’s design programs under one roof, not to mention the promise of a fully customizable interface, and no payment plan, sort of (I’ll get to that in a minute), I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think of dropping Creative Cloud altogether and launching myself at Canva with open arms. But that thought didn’t last long, because my Creative Cloud account isn’t going anywhere for the time being, and the reasons are twofold.

Firstly, I’ve been using Adobe software for the past 15 years, and during that time, I’ve gotten extremely used to it. And while I moan about price increases, pricing structures, and bits and bobs that never seem to get fixed, I’ve got a soft spot for Adobe. I feel at home using Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, and if I’m entirely honest, I love the heritage. It might seem odd to talk about a modern software company’s heritage, while it might not be Rolex or Jaguar, it is the editing-software OG, and 1990 was millennia ago in the tech industry.

The second reason why I’m in no hurry to move on from Adobe is that it’s still the industry standard. And that means it’s unrivalled as a platform for plug-ins. If you buy into Photoshop or Lightroom, you’ve got the ability to access a plethora of plug-ins from the likes of DxO, Skylum, and more, whereby Adobe software acts like a hub for more specialist types of photo-editing software. And as the industry standard, you're more likely to come across Adobe users if you collaborate, too.

All that said, the next few years will be a testing time for Adobe. It’s enjoyed several decades, largely unrivalled, at the top of the image-editing food chain, but the rise of generative AI has presented the industry giant with its biggest challenge, arguably since its inception. It’s no longer vying for supremacy against other image-editing software, but Big AI, too. And as we know all too well, the AI industry moves fast, very fast. I’ve no doubt that the image-editing landscape will look very different in just a couple of years’ time. Heck, it’s already changing. Affinity Studio is a case in point.

It seems like it was just yesterday that Canva acquired Affinity, and now, all of a sudden, with the might of a multi-billion-dollar company behind it and an unusual free-for-all model, Affinity has emerged as one of Adobe’s biggest competitors. What a difference a day makes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Affinity’s free model, though, and while I think it’s great, I do see a way that Canva can introduce payment plans while saving face. You see, to access Canva’s AI models within Affinity Studio, you need a premium Canva account. With that in mind, I can only presume there’s nothing to stop the design-software company from adding more features by way of Canva that require a premium subscription to be accessed within Affinity Studio. Technically, Affinity would still remain completely free...

I digress. My point is, as things stand, there’s more than enough room in the industry for Adobe Creative Cloud and Affinity Studio. I dare say I’ll be using both. But in the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changing, and it seems to me as if Affinity Studio is just the beginning.

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As a photographer who has photographed more than a few weddings in 90°F heat, I’ve edited my fair share of red skin. But Lightroom just added a new slider that’s going to make correcting red skin far faster: Color Variance.

There are a handful of new tools in the Lightroom October 2025 update that I’m particularly excited about as a portrait and wedding photographer, and Color Variance is one of them.

What is Color Variance in Lightroom?

Color Variance is a slider that creates more or less variety in a selected color tone. Using the Color Vairance slider, photo editors can make a selected color range more uniform, or take the slider in the opposite direction to add more color contrast. That makes the tool useful for smoothing out color variations in skin tones, such as redness from heat or rosacea. But, the slider can also be used in the opposite direction and create more color contrast in landscapes and other shots.

Where is Color Variance located?

Color Variance is located in the Point Color tool, which is available on Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. The new tool can be applied to the entire image, or to a mask, such as applying the change only to the skin tone.

Find the Point Color tool inside the Color Mixer tab in Develop. Then, click on the eye dropper icon, hover over the color that you want to adjust, and click on that color. Now, the sliders in the Point Color tool will adjust the color that you’ve selected.

That includes the new Variance slider. (Adobe calls it Color Variance, but the slider is located in the Color tools and named Variance.) Move the slider to the left for less variety in that color range, such as if you want to create more even skin tones in a portrait. Move the slider to the right if you want to increase the variety of colors in that selected range.

What does Color Variance in Lightroom do?

Decreasing Color Variance is a helpful tool for editing skin. Decreasing the color variance can help correct things like redness from heat. In this particular scenario, editors may want to use a Smart Mask over the skin; otherwise, the edit may also affect the colors in the subject's lips.

Take a look at this photo from Adobe Stock:

First, I masked out the subject’s skin so my adjustments wouldn’t affect the lips. Then, I selected the skin color in Point Color. Look at the before and after when I take that Variance slider all the way to the left:

Now, I like that the redness is gone, but the skin now looks a bit pale, so I adjusted the hue, luminance, and temp just a bit and ended up with this:

That process only took a few seconds, and I didn’t have to brush over specific patches of red skin.

Increasing Color Variance will help create more contrast in the colors without losing detail. If you have a photo of the fall colors, for example, and want to make the variety of different colors in the scene really pop, select one of those fall colors and take the slider to the right.

Take a look at the before and after here, where the only thing I did was move that Variance slider all the way to the right:

Like all Lightroom sliders, you probably don’t want to take the Variance slider all the way to the right or all the way to the left. Variance is a bit more subtle, but it makes a noticeable difference in editing skin or working to add contrast.

Color Variance can be used in conjunction with the other Point Color sliders. That includes the range slider. Range dictates how many colors similar to the one you selected are also impacted by the Point Color sliders, so if you want to adjust more or fewer colors with Color Variance, adjust the range.

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Video editing is an entirely different beast than photo editing – but Adobe developers are working on tech that makes it possible to edit the first frame of a video as a still photo, then apply those changes to the entire clip. Project Frame Forward is one of the video Sneaks that Adobe shared during the annual Adobe Max conference on October 29.

Sneaks are Adobe’s biggest tools that are still under development. Anyone across Adobe is allowed to submit ideas, as evidenced by an intern who presented an AI design tool and received a job offer on stage.

As I watched in the same auditorium where the Emmys are held, two key video tools stood out: Project Frame Forward and Project Clean Take. This is what Adobe is working on behind the scenes.

Project Frame Forward

The concept behind Project Frame Forward is to make video editing more like photo editing. With Frame Forward, editors edit the first frame of a video inside Photoshop. Then, when that first frame is uploaded to Frame Forward, the software uses AI to apply the changes to the entire video clip.

Adobe demoed the feature first by showing how to remove a person from a video clip, using the Trace Erase tool from a Photoshop Sneak, then uploading the image to Trace Erase to apply that change to the entire clip. The tool can also be used to add objects.

Perhaps the most impressive demo of the feature, however, was a wedding video with several errors, including a guest stepping into the shot and an overexposed sky. The first frame was professionally edited to add in a sunset, remove the guest, and fix the overexposure on the bride’s dress. Project Frame Forward then applied those changes to the longer clip.

Adobe says the tool doesn’t require masking, like traditional tools, to remove objects from videos.

Project Clean Take

One of the other Sneaks that caught my eye is an AI tool for audio editing called Project Clean Take. The software can not only edit and regenerate sound, but also separate different audio sources in noisy environments in order to edit only part of the sound.

During the demo, Adobe’s Lee Brimelow highlighted text inside the transcript, typed a new word, and regenerated the audio using AI to match the voice of the speaker. The tool is also capable of changing inflection and emotion within voices.

But another way that the tool can be used is to edit audio from videos recorded in noisy public locations. Adobe demonstrated how the software could separate the audio components into different tracks in order to edit or remove a single sound, like removing a clanging bell.

The tool can also be used to remove background music that video editors don’t have the rights to. The Sneak even included a button to find similar tracks on Adobe Stock, along with a Match Acoustics to make the new track match the acoustics of where the video was shot.

Adobe Sneaks don’t always become actual products that ship out to users, but in some cases, one year’s Sneaks become the following year’s announcements. Public response can influence which Sneaks get fast-tracked, and for video, I suspect Frame Forward and Clean Take shows a lot of potential.

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The new Lightroom is here – and as a portrait and wedding photographer, I haven’t been this excited about a new feature since Adobe first introduced Smart Masks. Assisted Culling has arrived to help photographers quickly find the best shots, but there are a handful of new tools like automatic dust spot removal and even a new slider.

I tried out Lightroom’s newest features during Adobe Max in Los Angeles, and there are two that are going to make a big difference in my workflow – Assistive Culling and Color Variance. But, there are some smaller updates tucked inside the latest versions of Lightroom, too.

Here’s what’s new in Lightroom.

Assisted Culling

Assisted Culling is an AI-based tool that helps photographers sort through photos faster. The tool is available both in the import as well as the library for photos that have already been imported.

The AI is trained largely for portraits and people (sorry, landscape photographers) and it’s designed to weed out the shots with blinking eyes, the out-of-focus subjects, and exposure errors. Adobe does say that they are hoping to expand the tool to more genres, but in my tests, the tool worked best with images of people.

Assisted Culling is an Early Access feature, which means Adobe is still fine-tuning, but it’s available directly from Lightroom Classic and Lightroom without downloading the beta app.

I tried it out on my shots from Adobe Max, and the feature feels like a huge time saver. It weeded through my shots to eliminate the accidental captures and errors. The culling tool did a pretty good job of weeding out the images that weren’t quite in focus – though I did go through my rejects and mark one to keep that the AI thought was too underexposed.

Assisted Culling is available from the Library tab on Lightroom (it’s also available when importing, rather than after). Photographers can find the feature by selecting Assisted Culling > Cull. Select the folder to Cull, and then wait for Lightroom to analyze the shots.

Then, inside the Assisted Culling Panel, check what you want to select or reject by using the check boxes for tools like eyes open and subject focus. Use the slider to increase or decrease how "picky" the assistant is and how many shots you want to end up with. In the Auto Stack section, you can choose if you want to stack similar shots together and how.

The magic happens in the Batch Action section. Here, you can tell what you want Lightroom to do with the selects and rejects, including star ratings, flags, and color labels.

You can also review everything that Lightroom selected or rejected. If you want to keep a photo that Lightroom rejected, Control-click on the red X in the corner to mark it as a select instead, and vice versa for selects you want to reject.

Remove dust spots auto-magically

I can still remember the frustration of coming back from a beach shoot only to realize I had gotten sand on my lens, and I was in for a lot of tedious editing. But Lightroom can now automatically detect and remove sensor dust spots for you. The AI tool is trained specifically for lens and sensor dust, so it may not work as well on other types of spots.

Open the photo that needs the correction in the Develop tab and navigate to the remove tool. Under the Distraction Removal section, select Dust and then click Apply.

The software will then find and place a healing brush over the spots automatically. Those corrections show up like a regular heal brush, so you can click and delete or adjust if needed.

Color Variance

Lightroom has a new slider. Color Variance is part of Point Color, the color tool that helps adjust a specific color. The tool increases or decreases the variety within a color range, which can be used to reduce skin redness in portraits or enhance color contrast in landscapes.

To use it, navigate to the Point Color tools and use the eye dropper to select a color. You can also create a mask first, then use Point Color within the mask, like when you want to correct red skin without affecting the lips.

Adjusting the Variance slider to the left will make the colors more similar, to the right, more different. The difference is subtle in some shots, but I found this to be an easy way to tone down red skin.

Landscape masking now recognizes snow

Landscape masking was already part of Lightroom, but now the software can also recognize snow.

Find the feature by going to the Mask Tool and selecting Landscape under Create New Mask. You’ll also see options like sky and architecture.

Landscape masking is also part of Lightroom Mobile, but you’ll find it in the Quick Actions rather than inside the Masking tool.

Automatic blemish removal (Lightroom Mobile only)

Like automatically detecting the dust spots on a sensor, Lightroom Mobile can now detect and remove acne without manual masking. This tool is only in Lightroom Mobile for iOS and Android, though Adobe hints that it could be coming to the desktop versions in a future update.

To find the new blemish removal, head to the Retouch Tab and select Blemishes. The amount slider will adjust the strength of the effect. In shots with multiple people, you can select the person to edit from the thumbnails.

An improved Remove tool

Previously, Adobe always recommended selecting the shadow when selecting an object to remove with the remove tool. Now, the software can automatically select any shadows or reflections for you, removing them along with the object.

For this to work, inside the Remove tool, check the box that says “detect objects.” This tells the software that you want to remove the shadows and reflections as well, but you no longer need to draw over them.

Tech Preview: Improved Search (Lightroom Web only)

On Lightroom Web, Adobe is introducing an improved search experience that allows users to search beyond objects. With the update, users can describe the photo they are looking for, not just an object in the photo. This is made for instances like when searching for “water” will produce too many results.

As a Tech Preview, users have to turn it on by clicking on the profile icon in Lightroom Web, then selecting Technology Previews, and checking the box that says “improved search.”

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Sitting in the same auditorium where the Emmys are held each year, I just got a glimpse at what the future of Adobe Photoshop could look like. During Adobe Max 2025 in Los Angeles on October 29, the software giant showcased Sneaks, a look at the most promising projects that researchers and developers are working on behind the scenes.

The future Photoshop? It could include tools to re-light a photograph, swap out surfaces, and remove objects and their reflections without complex masking.

After watching the 2025 Adobe Sneaks in person, I’m excited for the tools that could be coming to programs like Photoshop. Some Sneaks never become part of actual products. But, sometimes one year’s Sneaks are the following year’s new features, which is what happened this year with Harmonize, a Photoshop tool for composites that was a 2024 Sneak. Others may become separate apps, not integrated into existing ones.

Here are the imaging tools that Adobe teased at the 2025 Sneaks.

Project Light Touch

Project Light Touch is a tool that uses AI to re-light a photo, moving the light source around, turning lamps on, and even altering the color and 3D placement.

Adobe’s Zhixin Shu demoed the tech on stage by first turning a lamp on, including lighting up the surrounding area. I’ve used masking to fake twinkle lights being on before, but not to the extent where the light is large enough to alter the rest of the scene.

Another demo fixed a common issue that I face as a portrait photographer – hats blocking the light and resulting in uneven lighting on the face. Adobe demoed how the software could relight a person’s face, even fixing the speckled light.

But if the crowd’s cheers are any indication, the most impressive part of Project Light Touch is the Spatial Lighting Mode. In this mode, editors have a 3D workspace, and they can drag a light around the space. Upload a photo, and then drag around the light in the 3D model to alter where the light is in the photo.

But it wouldn’t be an Adobe photo tool without a slider – and the demo included Point Controls that could also change the color of the light.

Project New Depths

Two of the demos during Sneaks could have a significant impact on how Photoshop users create composites – and one of them is called Project New Depths. In the demo, Adobe’s Élie Michel added a tree to a photo of a tractor in a field of wildflowers – only as the tree moved around the photo, the background changed too, placing the tree in the scene as if it were 3D and layering foreground and background elements as Michel moved the tree around.

How? The background image isn’t a single photo, but a series of photos taken at different angles. Those photos are fused together to create 3D elements in the photo, which allows for creating a composite with the depth data to realistically layer in the new elements.

That’s impressive on its own, but using AI, Project New Depths also changed the angle of the background photo itself. While being 3D, the image can still be edited, including making selections and changing colors.

Project New Depths looks more like a version of Photoshop for AR and VR imaging, rather than a tool inside of Photoshop. But, the concept is still impressive.

Project Turn Style

The other Sneak that could make a major impact on compositing in Photoshop is Project Turn Style. Adding a layer to a background image, Photoshop’s usual Contextual Task Bar showed a new button: 3D rotate.

Using AI, Turn Style is able to generate a 3D layer from a flat layer, allowing the user to turn and rotate the object and place it on the background photo.

What’s even more impressive is that Adobe demoed this by adding people to the background photo as well. Now, as the people were being generated, they had those squished faces that AI sometimes creates. But an up-resolution button adds detail, and after clicking that button, the faces in the 3D generated layer looked much more natural.

Project Trace Erase

Photoshop already has a Generative AI-based Remove tool, but Adobe just offered a glimpse at what the next generation of that tool may look like.

In the demo, Project Trace Erase didn’t require selecting the entire subject. Trace Erase removed the object, the shadows, and the reflections, even with just a quick swipe across the object to remove. That’s a neat update to a well-used tool and fixes the common mistake of not selecting the object’s shadows.

When working with reflections, the current tool will remove some of the puddle, but Trace Erase is designed to remove reflections while still keeping the water source intact.

Project Surface Swap

Project Surface Swap is a tool that does exactly what its name suggests – allows users to swap one surface for another. But the tool can also be used to select a surface, including reflective surfaces like a car.

The final photo demonstrated with Project Surface Swap looks the most useful – adding artwork to a photo of a textured wall and making it look like it belongs there. Graffiti, without breaking the law. Surface Swap was able to mask out the vines growing on the wall so the logo didn’t intersect the wall.

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• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

It’s hard to keep up with all the major announcements at Adobe Max 2025, but something that’s caught my attention is Adobe’s partnership with Topaz Labs. The US-based Topaz Labs is known for its photo and video enhancement software, and now, some of its headline AI-tech is making its way into the Adobe ecosystem. Topaz Bloom and Topaz Gigapixel models will both be available in Adobe Photoshop, while Bloom will also be integrated into Adobe Firefly.

Topaz Labs’ AI will also be prevalent in Photoshop’s Generative Upscale, and is said to provide “instant resolution enhancements (...) to upscale small, cropped and other low-resolution images into 4K, with realistic detail.” A headline use for Generative Upscale is to upscale imagery created by AI models that are unable to produce high-resolution results.

I don’t know how much functionality Photoshop will retain in comparison with the dedicated Topaz Labs software, but this does sound like a very welcome inclusion for Photoshop users, especially considering that Topaz Bloom and Topaz Gigapixel subscriptions start at $19 (approx £14 / AU$29) and $12 (£9 / AU$18) per month, respectively.

One of the main reasons I’ve always used Adobe software is because it’s an unrivaled plug-in platform. If you’re a photo editing software company and you want to make your product available as a plug-in, you’re going to make an Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Lightroom Classic plug-in a priority. Adobe’s new strategy of embracing various partner AI models takes this ethos a step further.

Ultimately, add the AI partner models from the likes of Topaz Labs to the existing wealth of plug-ins, and Adobe Creative Cloud is increasingly becoming a creative hub for the industry’s best image-editing tech. And for a company that’s regularly lambasted for its payment models, I do think partner models are a big boost to the ecosystem’s perceived value.

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Adobe has lifted the veil on Photoshop 2026 – and while features like Harmonize and integration with Nano Banana are making headlines, some of the photo editor’s best updates are smaller tools tucked into the menus.

Adobe unveiled the latest updates to Photoshop on the first day of Adobe Max, the annual creativity conference, held in Los Angeles, October 28-30. After the announcement, I sat down with Stephen Nielson, Senior Director of Product Management for Photoshop to walk through the new features for photographers inside Photoshop 2026.

Unsurprisingly, many of the updates use AI, but Adobe is trying to use AI in a way that saves creators time without taking away creative control. “In Photoshop, you don’t see ‘click here for art,’” Nielsen said. “You see a lot of tools. You, the human, are the creator, but there are tools that happen to use AI, which you can use creatively.”

While there are some big changes to Photoshop, there are a number of smaller tools, including some frequently requested by photographers. Here’s what’s new in Photoshop 2026 and what’s coming in beta testing.

AI Upscaling and Denoise with Topaz Gigapixel

Photoshop already has generative upscale that uses Firefly, but Photoshop 2026 gains an AI Upscaling using tech from Topaz Labs. The Topaz Gigapixel upscaling creates images that are up to 56MP while preserving detail.

Users can also select the Topaz Bloom, which upscales but is made to add in details rather than preserving the original.

Users can find the new upscaling by going to Image > Generative Upscale and choosing the model from the dropdown.

Like the upscaling, Photoshop is also gaining an AI-based denoise tool powered by AI from Topaz Labs.

Users don’t have to have a separate subscription to Topaz Labs, but the tool does require generative credits and is a premium feature.

A new color and vibrance adjustment layer

Not all new Photoshop features are AI-based. Added based on feedback from users, Photoshop has a new adjustment layer. The Color and Vibrance adjustment layer gives users the ability to adjust temp tint, vibrance, and saturation. The tool uses the same algorithm as those sliders in Adobe Camera RAW, so it will create the same results without having to go back and forth between the two programs.

Nielsen says the new adjustment layer was added because users have asked for sliders that match those found in Lightroom, adding that more adjustment layers are in the works for future updates.

Find this tool by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color and Vibrance.

Use AI to blend composites with Harmonize

The previously announced Haromize tool is now out of beta and in the full version of Photoshop. The tool uses AI to better blend images when building composites, using generative AI to match the colors, lighting, and shadows from the background image.

Harmonize is a one-click button and, like other Photoshop AI tools, generates three options on the first run so creators can choose the best result.

The Harmonize button is located in the Contextual Task Bar. (If you don’t see it, head to Window > Contextual Task Bar). The Harmonize button will appear only on that taskbar when working with layered composites – you’ll need to have the object layer selected, not the background, and it needs to be a layer with pixels (i.e. not an Adjustment Layer).

Partner models in Generative Fill

The Generative Fill tool inside Photoshop 2026 now supports models that aren’t Adobe Firefly. Previously in beta, the update allows creators to choose from different AI models, including Nano Banana and Flux.1.

To use a Partner Model for Generative Fill, select the area of the photo to fill in. Then, inside that Contextual Task bar again, click the dropdown menu (it says Firefly by default) to choose a different model to work with.

Beta: Agentic Photoshop AI (web only)

Perhaps the biggest tease is that Adobe is introducing Agentic AI to Photoshop, where users can ask a chatbot to carry out edits for them. But, this feature is in private beta and wasn’t available for demos. It’s also currently limited to Photoshop Web, not the desktop app.

Adobe says that the Agentic AI inside Photoshop Web can carry out repetitive tasks, complete and complete edits for you. But the chatbot can also make recommendations and offer tutorials to learn how to do a specific edit inside Photoshop.

The private beta means that users can only try it out by invitation only.

Beta: An upgraded Generative Fill

Nielson also said that Photoshop beta is gaining a new AI model that’s designed specifically for Generative Fill. By creating an AI model trained specifically for this task, Adobe says the model can offer better results over a model designed for a more general purpose.

Other tools: Dynamic text, Shared projects, Adobe Express templates, and more

Photographers and graphic designers will find a handful of other features inside Photoshop 2026, including:

• The share button in Photoshop can now take an image directly into Firefly
• Improved results with the Select Subject and Remove Background tool
• Shared Projects for collaborating with groups
• Browse and import images from Adobe Stock without leaving Photoshop

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Adobe is working on a chatbot that helps creators plan and create for social media – including integration with Lightroom and Instagram. On Tuesday, October 28, Adobe teased Project Moonlight, a chatbot built to help creators ideate, plan, and create for social media.

During a demo at the keynote for Adobe Max, Adobe shared a glimpse into the upcoming program. Project Moonlight is an AI chatbot designed around social media. The tool is designed to help creators brainstorm and create content for social media. Adobe calls it "an AI assistant that acts like a social strategist."

Lightroom integration allows creators to feed their images into the chatbot, then ask the AI for help with things like generating ideas on how to share those images on social media. In the demo, the chatbot came up with three different ideas initially. Users can then take one of those ideas and take it even further, with the chatbot recommending things like adding overlays to the images.

Project Moonlight is also tied to Firefly, including agentic photo editing, such as asking the bot to apply a Lightroom filter to the images.

But while integration with Lightroom and Firefly may be expected for an Adobe chatbot, Project Moonlight also works with Instagram. This compatibility allows the chatbot to make recommendations that stay on brand with your previous content, as well as offer advice and insight based on how past posts have performed.

As a Sneak, Project Moonlight isn’t available yet, but something Adobe has in the works. The software giant says Project Moonlight is “coming soon.”

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Not a lot surprises me when it comes to AI-powered photo editing tools nowadays, because the technology has advanced so far, so quickly. But the same can’t be said for AI-powered video editing tools. That’s why I’m so intrigued by the announcement at Adobe Max 2025, today, that Adobe Premiere is getting Adobe Lightroom-style masking options, including one that uses artificial intelligence to select people and objects in video footage.

The Object Mask Tool allows you to instantly select your chosen person/object, which will then shroud them in a mask overlay that stays with them as they move about the frame. With the object selected, you’re then free to locally color grade, blur, and add effects to the background. You can see this in action via the video (above).

The reason why I’m so excited by the prospect of this tool is that – assuming it works as intended – it’ll be a huge time saver. The manual alternative is rotoscoping, an extremely time-consuming process that requires the video editor to select the object in question frame by frame.

I’ve never professed to be the biggest fan of generative AI in the world, but non-generative tools like this are where I can hop aboard the AI hype train. It’s a solution to a laborious process that does almost nothing to encroach on creative autonomy. It’s the video-editing equivalent of a paint sprayer – it’s designed to help out the creative and get the job done.

That’s not all, Adobe is also introducing the Ellipse Mask Tool, Rectangle Mask Tool, and Pen Mask Tool, so video creatives can target local adjustments, add effects, and make corrections more precisely. Finally, the Fast Vector Mask function is said to offer “faster tracking, bi-directional tracking and 3D perspective tracking.”

It can sometimes feel like Adobe is putting all of its artificial eggs into the Firefly basket. But as a creative, these are the types of advancements I want to see most: practical AI tools that solve laborious day-to-day editing processes in the company's flagship software suites.

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Adobe's annual creativity conference has brought some of the biggest software updates of 2025 across programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, and Firefly.

Held on October 28-30, Adobe Max brought several key updates to the brand's photo and video editors, along with sneak peeks of tech the software giant is working on behind the scenes. But with such a major event, there's a lot of news to sift through, from AI culling in Lightroom, the ability to customize Firefly models with your own photos, agentic editing in Photoshop, Photoshop 2026, and more.

And that doesn't even include the Sneaks, the look at upcoming tech being worked on behind the scenes that could make its way to future editions of programs like Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

I just returned from Los Angeles, where I watched Adobe's biggest announcements of the year live on stage. In case you missed it, here's a recap of the key photo and video announcements at Adobe Max, posted as they happened.

Watch the Adobe Max keynote replay

Watch Adobe Max Sneaks replay

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, is opening the keynote with a statement on AI and "creativity as a universal language."

"Our vision for Adobe Firefly is to make it your one stop destination for creative workflows," he says.

Here's an interesting statistic: Two out of every three creators using the beta version of Photoshop use generative AI in their workflow every day.

David Wadhwani, President, Adobe Digital Media Business, says there is now five times more demand for content and that 77 percent of creative and marketing teams are hiring.

This is coming at the age of AI. And to meet creators at this intersection, Wadhwani says Adobe is focusing on three things: Continuing to deliver Adobe's own Firefly models, integrating partner models from third-party platforms, and allowing creators to customize and create their own models.

The first two aren't a surprise, as Firefly has been around for a while and Adobe has already integrated models like Nano Banana, but Adobe just announced the ability to customize your own AI models this morning, which is launching in private beta to Firefly. This allows users to feed the AI their own images to get results that are more tailored to their specific style.

Adobe has announced a deep integration of Google models into CC and Firefly apps.

Eli Collins, VP of Google Deep Mind, says Nano Banana has generated over 5 million images since launching two months ago.

Adobe is introducing Custom Models, which are personalized versions of Firefly trained on your assets. Announced earlier today, Adobe is now demoing just what that looks like.

Users drop in reference images of their own and load it into a custom model. The AI then scans, tags, and generates a caption based on the content to understand the style. You need at least 10 images.

Then, in Firefly, creators can choose that custom model from the drop-down menu. Creators can also have multiple styles and multiple models for each.

Those assets can then be opened in Photoshop to work on additional details and customize what the AI generated over in the Firefly app, including mixing multiple elements into a collage.

Adobe says the private beta will be available in the coming days.

Agentic AI is coming to a number of Adobe apps, including Photoshop, bringing a conversational AI tool that allows creators to use natural language to ask the AI to carry out a specific task. The AI assistant allows users to type in a prompt and have the AI carry out the task.

These tools are made to work with the native tools in order to allow creators to keep full creative control. But the natural language element may also help novice creators build inside advanced apps without knowing all the advanced tools.

In Photoshop Labs, Adobe demoed the tool by asking for increased brightness of everything but the subject. The result is created in a layer, so the tool is non-destructive. Creators still have the usual Photoshop tools to use to perfect the results.

The AI assistant can also be used to ask for advice right inside of Photoshop.. In the demo, Adobe asked the AI to review a design layout. The AI suggested more contrast and even gave suggestions for how to fix that.

That conversational chatbot could potentially help new users who are using the AI for tasks that they don’t know how to do.

Adobe also demoed asking the AI to rename all of the layers for them, much to the delight of the audience. The AI does a visual analysis and renames the layers based on what’s inside them.

Is Photoshop about to be integrated into ChatGPT? Adobe just demoed that Express is arriving in ChatGPT, but there’s a hidden Easter Egg here – the drop-down menu shows the Photoshop icon too, hinting perhaps at future Photoshop integration into ChatGPT.

Adobe Firefly Image Model 5 is here, which Adobe says excels at generating realistic images with textures and lighting, and that’s generated at a native 4MP before upscaling.

The model can also edit the image with a prompt to tweak something while keeping the rest of the image consistent. Adobe says it's designed to change as much as you want, while leaving the rest of the image just as you want it.

Partner models allow creators to choose AI platforms from other companies and switch back and forth between them.

Firefly Boards is Adobe’s platform for creating mood boards and brainstorming ideas, including creating a space to generate ideas for a photo shoot.

Now, Boards is gaining presets, which will mix an image with a different style. Restyling will generate new images based on the selected style.

Collaboration is also coming to Boards, inviting others to edit and chime in on the ideas.

Boards also supports Partner Models such as Gemini 2.5, allowing users to mix multiple images together to create a new generation depicting an idea.

Creative Cloud users can open graphics generated in Boards to other platforms. Firefly's web-based editing tools can also be used to edit those generations.

Adobe Firefly is getting a new video editor in beta. In a demo, Adobe showed how the editor is integrated within Firefly, including moving back and forth between the video editor and Firefly’s image editor, as well as audio editing.

In the demo, Lucy Street uploaded a generated edit of an image as a reference, chose a style, then sent to to the Generate Video workspace. She then typed in a prompt, moving from the sketch style to the realistic image.

The video editor has a properties panel that adds controls like speed, duration, opacity, and scale. A timeline looks fairly similar to Premiere Pro.

The video editor also works with Firefly’s speech enhancement and background noise controls, and the before and after in the demo is quite impressive.

Street them demoed how the AI can highlight the pauses in speech, then delete them from the video. The video can also be edited by deleting text from the AI-generated transcript using text-based editing.

Firefly also now has audio capabilities to help create soundtracks for videos.

In the demo, Street used the video generator to take a mural of a turtle and animate it, making it appear like the turtle is crashing through the building in the final video.

The new video editor is in public beta, with the beta version beginning to roll out today. Through December 1, Adobe CC users have unlimited image and video generations with Firefly to try out the new features.

The newly announced Premiere Mobile app on iPhone is here, and now Adobe is showing off some features in a demo.

In a live voiceover, Adobe asked the audience to create some background noise. With the new Enhanced Speech tool, the app can help remove the background noise, and the before and after has quite an improvement.

Premiere’s infinite tracks allow creators to layer in photos, to stagger in how and when they appear in the video.

The app’s image-to-video AI allows users to generate a video from a photo using AI.

Generating sound effects is also incorporated into the app. This allows users to mix their voice and a text prompt in order to create a custom sound effect timed to match the video.

Looks are like Lightroom presets for color grading, but the mobile app also has a handful of color grading tools for fine-tuning.

Finally, the demo included text effects, including highlighting the words as they are said in the voiceover. The results can be imported into Premiere Pro on desktop for further editing.

The Premiere Mobile app is already available to download for free in the App Store, with an Android version in the works.

Adobe has announced a partnership with YouTube that allows Premiere Mobile to send videos right to YouTube Shorts.

The Premiere Mobile app will have YouTube Shorts templates, and viewers on Shorts will also be able to create a new video from that template inside the Premiere Mobile app.

Generative upscale is coming to Photoshop, along with third-party models in Generative Fill. That brings some previously announced beta features into the full version of Photoshop, beginning today.

In the demo of updates to Photoshop, Adobe demonstrated a 2x upscale using a generated image from an earlier demo, using Photoshop’s AI upscaling to add more resolution.

Adobe also demoed the feature using a scan of an old family photo, using Topaz as the model to preserve faces. In the demo, the generative upscale seemed to preserve the faces, including a blinking bored child who still looked blinking and bored.

The demo also included some design features, including Dynamic Text, which automatically scales text so that each line is the same length, which adjusts automatically as the creator alters the text box.

In a composite, Adobe demonstrated mixing tools like remove background with Adobe’s precise tools. The Harmonize tool, previously in beta, is a one-click button on the AI toolbar that matches things like lighting and shadows when compositing images. In the demo, the AI even gave the astronaut added to the background a shadow, along with adjusting the coloring and lighting to better match the background.

Generative Fill is also adding support for Partner Models. In another image, Adobe used a selection brush to control where the generative fill added new elements, using Nano Banana as a partner model.

Now, Photoshop has a send to Firefly option, where Adobe then used the image to generate a video with Firefly’s new video tools.

Lightroom is getting an automatic dust spot removal tool.

In a demo of the new Lightroom CC features, Terry White demonstrated a new AI dust spot removal tool that both finds and removes the dust spots for you. As a photographer who has had dust spots happen before, I’m pretty geeked about this feature.

Lightroom is also gaining some new distraction and reflection removal tools.

The distraction removal tool will also remove people in one click. The tool is designed for tasks like removing tourists from vacation photos.

Reflection removal, first introduced in Adobe Camera RAW, is also coming to Lightroom. The slider uses AI to remove reflections, but take the slider the other way, and you can also enhance the reflection instead of removing it.

Lightroom is gaining AI-assisted culling.

Perhaps one of the tools that I’m most excited about from Adobe Max is Assistive Culling, which is an early access beta feature. This tool allows photographers to automatically sort through photos and reject photos with blinks and soft focus. Photographers can then review the results and go through and make sure those rejects are really rejects.

Photographers can then use batch actions, such as adding a flag to the selects, or a star rating. This allows users to use a check mark to apply a rating or flag or another setting to either all the selects or the rejects.

The tool will also create stacks of similar images, automatically sorting out stacks in the series. The AI will then put what it thinks is the best shot at the top of the stack. When photos are taken into Photoshop, the edits are added to the top of the stack.

Premiere Pro is getting an Auto Bleep tool.

Auto Bleep is a new tool in beta that allows video editors to censor words, highlighting them in the text panel. Users can create a list of censored words and then Premiere Pro will automatically bleep those words out. It also works with custom sound effects, in case you want cuss words to become a duck quack instead of a bleep.

Premiere Pro is gaining AI-assisted masking.

One of my favorite AI tools in Lightroom are the AI masks, but now similar tools are coming for video editing. Adobe demoed AI masking for Premiere Pro during Adobe Max, which was previously a Sneak.

The AI-powered Object Mask moves as the subject moves, maintaining the mask throughout the video. Adobe demoed the feature with a skateboarder an the tool looks quite impressive.

Additional Premiere Pro tools announced today also include new Film Impact tools, which are GPU-accelerated presets for transitions and effects.

The Premiere Pro demo was also heavily integrated into Adobe Firefly. Adobe showcased taking a video of a skateboarder from Premiere Pro into Firefly to change the ending, adding a new trick. This demo is particularly impressive because AI tends to have the toughest time with creating movement that still feels natural.

Firefly’s new ability to generate soundtracks is also a tool that integrates with Premiere Pro, giving video editors the ability to use AI to create a custom soundtrack quickly.

Here’s one for the photographers struggling with gaining traction on social media. Project Moonlight is an Adobe Sneak for a chatbot that’s designed to help creators on social media.

Project Moonlight integrates directly with Lightroom for importing images to the chatbot. Then, users can ask the chatbot to brainstorm some post ideas. In the demo, the chatbot came up with three ideas. Then, the demo used the AI to take the idea even further. The AI generated different things, like overlays on the image.

Project Moonlight can be integrated with Instagram, which is designed to help the chatbot understand how your particular posts perform and what resonates most with your audience. That also allows the chatbot to respond to questions about engagement and metrics. The chatbot can use that data to strategize ideas that are on brand with previous posts.

Project Moonlight can also be used to apply saved presets to images right in the chatbot. Users can then take the generations into Photoshop or Firefly Boards. Taking the images into Firefly Boards, Adobe demoed applying some of the AI-suggested overlays and ideas.

As a Sneak, Project Moonlight isn't yet available, but something Adobe has in the works for a future Firefly update.

One last Sneak before the day one keynote ends – Project Graph is a node-based tool for building creative workflows. This tool integrates features from several different apps to create a single workflow in one place.

Users can drag and drop in new reference images to take that image through the same editing workflow again, automating a process that would typically require opening up multiple apps.

In the demo, Adobe showed how users could build workflows from multiple apps, including Photoshop and Firefly. The workflow asked the program to take the reference image through multiple Adobe programs, including removing the background in Photoshop, generating a composite with a Partner Model, and outputting a video.

The “capsules” can also be worked in the individual apps themselves, giving users more flexibility and control by using things like Photoshop’s native tools.

That’s a wrap on the Adobe Max Keynote for day one. Stay tuned for further updates. On Wednesday, Max includes a second keynote in the morning, but I’m most looking forward to the Sneaks tomorrow night. That’s when Adobe teases the tech that it’s working on behind the scenes that may (or may not) be coming to Adobe software in the future.

Photoshop 2026 has some hidden features.

I sat down with Stephen Nielson, Senior Director of Product Management for Photoshop, to go through some of the newest features in Photoshop – and not all of them were teased during the keynote. Case in point: there's a new Adjustment Layer that works like Lightroom's temp and tint sliders. There's also new integration with Topaz Labs for AI sharpening and denoise, and, no, you don't need a separate Topaz subscription, but it does require generative credits.

Read the full list of features that I'm excited about in Photoshop 2026 here.

The Day 2 keynote is about the creative community.

“Creativity has never been about the tools; it is about the vision that every single day, with every breakthrough, someone like you is daring to say what if,” Lara Belazs, Adobe Global Chief Marketing Officer, said in her opening statement.

Today’s lineup includes Brandon Baum, who is known for special effects videos and will create something on stage with Adobe Firefly. That’s followed by the NASA-engineer-turned-YouTuber Mark Rober, and James Gunn, the award-winning director behind the Guardians of the Galaxy and more.

Brandon Baum says that AI has helped drop the barrier to entry in filmmaking and special effects. “[AI is] not some mighty piece that replaces the whole puzzle, but it does help us move through it faster…but more importantly, you can fail faster, so you can stumble upon gold more quickly.”

That’s an interesting take, the idea of failing faster – because one of the biggest ways creatives grow is through mistakes. Now, he’s walking through how he created a recent special effects video using Firefly and creating a new ending live on stage.

Mark Rober is now talking about creating viral videos – and even shared a glimpse of what his Premiere Pro timelines used to look like, and what they look like now. He says he only creates around 10 videos a year, so each one has to have a big impact.

What do all viral videos have in common? You just have to create a visceral response, Rober says. “It means if someone watches this video, it makes you laugh, amazed, inspired…they just need to feel something. If you don’t feel any one of these things, you don’t share the video, you don’t finish watching. That’s the easy part, the harder part is how do you do this?”

You don’t lay out the facts and specs, he said. You need a feeling, a story. While Rober may be talking more about video, I think this also applies to any creative industry, including photography. The best art tells a story, whether that’s video or photo.

Adobe’s Jason Levine is chatting on stage with director James Gunn.

The two started talking about origin stories, and Gunn started in music and went to school for writing prose, not filmmaking. “A phrase that’s overused is follow your dreams,” Gunn said. “I don’t believe in following your dreams because that’s following something that's outside yourself, that’s not the here and now…I loved doing music, but I wasn’t the best at it.”

Gunn says creativity is about being in the moment, whether that’s screenwriting or directing. “We judge what we are doing, and that is the enemy of any creativity. The thing is to create sh*t. Sit down and do something poorly…go through the phase of allowing yourself to turn off your self-judgement, because I think that’s where true creativity lies, then you’re free.”

That’s a wrap on the Day 2 keynote. Later today, Adobe will unveil Sneaks, which is a deep dive into tech that the software giant is working on behind the scenes, which may (or may not) be coming to future software updates. Sneaks kicks off at 5:30 PM PDT / 8:30 PM EST / 12:30 AM GMT. Sneaks will be co-hosted by Jessica Williams.

Adobe Max Sneaks 2025 are about to start

Head of Adobe Research Gavin Miller called Sneaks "the Olympics of demos." Miller indicated tonight's Sneaks have three themes: reimagining images, revolutionizing video and motion, and transforming sound and storytelling.

When I chatted with Miller earlier today, I learned some interesting insight into where Sneaks come from. Submissions are actually welcomed from everyone at Adobe, not just the research team, and there's multiple rounds before the finalists are chosen.

Sneaks are also often presented by the researchers and coders themselves. How the community – online and in person – responds can influence which Sneaks ship in actual products first.

Let's see what's in store next for Adobe at the 2025 Sneaks.

Project Clean Take is a video production tool that allows users to edit and regenerate sound, including separating sounds from complex tracks. First, the demo showed the tool highlighting text from the transcript and regenerating using AI. The demo included changing the inflection of a word, to changing the actual words themselves.

Then Lee Brimelow moved on to show an example of a bell sounding over the dialog in a video. Project Clean Take can break up the audio components directly into the timeline, separating speech, music, sound effects and reverb. Then, users can mute one of those tracks, which removes the sound of the bell.

Another use? When recording in a public location and there’s music in the background, but you don’t own the license. Project Clean Take has a Find Similar option, which will look and find something similar on Adobe Stock that can be licensed. A Match Acoustics button will help the soundtrack to sound more like the acoustics of the original video.

Back in the transcript, Brimelow demoed highlighting the entire transcript, and changing the emotion of the the speaker – or even altering the voice to a whisper.

Project Surface Swap is a Photoshop tool that can select surfaces, but also understand that it is a surface, including factors like reflections. With one click, Valentin Deschainte showed selecting the car in an image, then going on to use Photoshop’s adjustment layers to change the color.

But the name is Surface SWAP, and that’s part of the tool as well. Once the surface is selected, users can choose a different texture and, as the name implies, swap out the surface, changing a wood table to marble.

Finally, Deschainte demonstrated using the tool to place a logo onto a textured wall in a photograph. But, the wall has vines on it, so Project Surface Swap helped mask out the vines so the logo appeared on the wall realistically. With everything masked, you can even add a drop shadow to the vines.

Project New Depths is a tool for creating composites using a mix of 3D and photo editing tools. As Elie Michel added a tree to a photograph and moved it around, the objects in the photo layered properly with the tree so that it was behind a tractor and foliage.

But that’s when the demo got really interesting. Project New Depths was even able to rotate and change the angle of the photo, viewing the tractor from a different angle. That's because the background image is a series of photos taken at different angles and stitched together.

There’s also a lasso tool to create selections and make adjustments.

In another photo, Adobe demoed selecting part of a fountain and rotating it around on the base.

Project Light Touch is a software for relighting a photograph. In the first demo, Zhixin Shu showed a photo of a lamp, then used the tool to turn the light on, which affected the shadows and highlights in the surrounding room. But that's not the only way the relighting tool can be used.

In the second demo, Adobe showed a portrait with light filtering through a hat. Using Project Light Touch, the software relit the subject’s face, removing the shadows from the face as if the face were evenly lit.

In Spatial Lighting mode, users can add a virtual light in 3D and move it around. Then, upload an image and relight the image based on the 3D model. Users can go back to the 3D model and move the light around to change the effect, including putting the light inside a jack-o-lantern. Jessica Williams even took over to try, moving the light around the 3D model and watching how the image changed as a result.

Finally, Adobe demoed changing the color of the light using Point Controls, lighting up a witch’s cauldron with green light.

Project Trace Erase is the next generation of Generative AI removal tools. While Photoshop has generative remove tools, Trace Erase not only removed a vehicle from a photograph, but also removed its shadow and reflection. Current tools would remove a puddle, but the demo kept it intact.

Next, Adobe demoed that the tool even works when the subject isn’t fully selected, but still was able to remove a person, the shadow and the reflection.

That’s not all though, Trace Erase was also able to remove smoke from an image, then removed a lamp and even took out the light the lamp emitted.

In a photo with lens flare, Trace Erase was able to remove the entire sun flare, including the ghosting spots.

Adobe then leveled up with a photo of a snowy landscape and removed not only the person, but the person’s footsteps. The audience got real loud when the next photo was of a jet ski – Project Trace Erase was able to remove not just the jet ski but the wake behind it.

Project Frame Forward is a tool that makes video editing more like photo editing. It uses generative AI and takes the edit of the first frame of a video, then applies those changes to the entire clip. Using the earlier Trace Erase to remove a person from the first frame in Photoshop, Frame Forward analyzed the edited photo and removed the person from the entire length of the video.

The tool doesn’t use masking or tracking, which Adobe demonstrated by taking a moving race car out of a video with both the car and the camera moving.

Frame Forward isn’t just for removing objects. It can also be used to add objects, editing the first frame like an image, then letting the AI apply those edits to the rest of the frame. Impressively, Adobe included a puddle with reflections in this demo.

In the last example, Adobe showed a wedding video where a guest gets in the background and the bride’s dress is overexposed, along with the sky. Again, Frame Forward edited the first frame as an image in Photoshop, adjusting the light, removing the distractions, and adding a sunset to the overexposed sky. Back in Frame Forward, feeding the image to the software finished the edit, applying those changes to the entire video clip.

Project TurnStyle is another tool that may change how photo editors build composites inside Photoshop. A 3D rotate button on the Contextual Task bar allows users to rotate objects placed into the photo using AI. The tool also includes an upresolution tool to enhance the detail.

Using Photoshop’s new Harmonize button, Adobe demonstrated blending that newly rotated object with the background.

Finally, Adobe demonstrated adding people to the photo, and using TurnStyle to change the angle of how they are standing. As the people turned, the faces looked a bit like wonky AI faces with mushed details, but after using the upresolution button, those AI oddities on the faces disappeared.

That's a wrap on Sneaks for 2025!

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

Out of all the pieces that come with photo editing, culling photos – the process of selecting which ones to edit – ranks among my least favorite. But Adobe could be about to make that process easier. Assisted Culling is coming to Lightroom in public beta, the software giant announced during Adobe Max.

Adobe previously teased that it was working on an AI-assisted culling tool, but now Assisted Culling is rolling out in the public beta version of Lightroom. Adobe describes it as “a highly customizable tool that helps creative professionals quickly identify the best images in large photo collections.”

Adobe says that the tool will allow photographers to filter out images based on focus, sharpness, and angles. The idea is to give creatives fewer images to manually cull through by using the AI to identify factors like which photo in a series is the sharpest.

A number of AI culling tools already exist, like Aftershoot and Imagen. But if Lightroom’s tool works well, that could help creatives speed up the cull without a second subscription or purchase.

I have high hopes that the tool could help speed up the process of culling – as a wedding photographer, it’s not unusual for me to have thousands of images to look through.

I’m on site at Adobe Max in Los Angeles, where I’m hoping to get a hands-on test of the new beta culling tool inside Lightroom.

Adobe announced a long list of updates to Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Firefly, and more at the start of the brand’s annual creativity conference.

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Adobe has drawn plenty of ire for its commitment to generative AI, but as it launches a huge barrage of AI-powered tools at Adobe Max 2025, a small collective of stats suggests that generative artificial intelligence might not be as controversial among creatives as I might have otherwise assumed.

The photo editing software colossus recently performed a survey of 16,000 creatives on their use of creative generative AI, and Adobe’s conclusion is that AI “has become an essential part of their toolkit and a key competitive edge helping them stand out”. Backing up that statement is 86% of creators, globally, who admitted to using creative generative AI. In addition, a slightly smaller percentage said that AI “helps them create content they otherwise couldn’t have made”. While 76% used AI to help grow their business/personal brand.

These results certainly do suggest that more creators are embracing the power of AI, and 16,000 creators is certainly a respectable sample size. The way I see it, whether or not you like generative AI, it’s not surprising that Adobe has chosen to embrace this emerging technology. It’s the godfather of personal digital image editing – its entire ethos is about pushing the boundaries of creative tech. Let’s not forget the world in which Adobe launched Photoshop in 1990. Suddenly, anyone with a compatible Mac could digitally manipulate imagery. Let’s not pretend that the emergence of digital image editing wasn’t controversial.

But the AI route hasn’t always been an easy one for Adobe. Despite the company enjoying record-breaking profits, a report by The Street appears to suggest that Adobe still isn’t keeping up with other major players in the AI sphere. I fear that the dilemma for Adobe is that the aforementioned positive shift in creative attitudes toward AI, might be related to the reason why it’s falling short of the big dogs: commercially safe AI models.

Adobe has made a huge deal about its commitment to commercially safe Firefly models, which draw from licensed content from Adobe Stock and the public domain. These self-imposed constraints are more likely to appeal to Adobe’s creative audience but arguably restrict the models' scope and effectiveness in terms of generative AI.

It’s not surprising, then, that Adobe has announced yet more partner AI models and the ability to select which model is used. So, if you only want to live off the new and commercially safe Firefly Image Model 5, you can. If you want to take models from Google and OpenAI for a spin, you can do that too.

Adobe’s survey certainly seems to suggest that more creatives are warming to generative AI, which isn’t surprising since artificial intelligence is becoming more prevalent day to day. But being so aligned to the creative industry means that Adobe has to tread carefully; it’s got to turn a profit, but it’s also got to appease its creative audience – even if that might be to the detriment of its proprietary AI models’ capabilities.

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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Adobe Firefly is built on licensed images rather than data scraped from the internet, but the software giant will soon let creators create their own AI model using their own images. On Tuesday, October 28, Adobe announced the private beta testing of Firefly Custom Models, a tool that allows users to personalize their own Firefly model.

Adobe’s enterprise customers can already tweak the AI using their own data, but the tool will soon be opening to creatives. Firefly Custom Models allows users to drag and drop images to customize the AI. Adobe says creators can use any images that they have the rights to. That allows creators to customize the Firefly AI model in order to get results more consistent with their own style.

Announced during Adobe Max, Adobe says that all Custom Models are private by default and can only be shared with authorization for the person who created the custom model. Adobe also says that images uploaded to train a custom AI won't be used to train the general Firefly model, and will only be used for the custom model.

During the private beta, the custom models will be available to use inside the Firefly app or Firefly Boards. Adobe hasn’t indicated if such a feature might eventually make its way to longstanding applications like Photoshop. But, Photoshop now supports more third-party partner models than before, including Google Gemini 2.5 and Black Forest Labs Flux.1 Kontext.

Adobe’s approach to AI is to use licensed and public domain images for training, helping to negate some of the copyright concern that arises when an AI is trained and used on publicly available data from the internet. The ability to customize that AI with a creator’s own work seems like a natural expansion of that approach.

For now, Firefly Custom Models is launching only in private beta, which requires an invite, but the announcement indicates that, if testing goes well, the tool could eventually be more widely available. Adobe currently has a waiting list for the public beta test.

• See all the news from Adobe Max 2025

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