[I can't keep up! I wrote the first draft of this post back sometime in February. Since then I have gotten at least 3 alerts about new features added to either PS 2025 CC or to the Beta version that I also have installed. I have been back here several times with edits. If I don't post it, I am sure it will change again. Here are things as I see them as of the last edit. What we know? It is going to change again. And again. And again.😁]
IN THE latter half of 2024, released Photoshop 2025 (PS) and its accompanying Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), along with the Adobe Bridge browser (version 15). Since I first drafted this post, they have released another iteration, adding some pretty powerful selection tools. Depending on your point of view, there are some exciting new features. Power users probably know that these features have been out either in beta or as part of the immediately prior PS verison for a few months. Now, in PS 2025, they have become "permanent" features. In addition to some so-called "bug" fixes they claim that they have made the software more responsive (I haven't experienced that). Since Adobe continues to release new features at a pace that has been previously unprecedented (I am currently using version 26.6xx), a single post like this cannot begin to keep up. Instead, I will highlight some of the new additions that I personally find notable and in many cases, have begun using.
Content-aware technology used "AI" before it was cool to use "AI" as a buzz word
WHILE I think they are probably in the minority, there are going to be users and photographers who find these additons - as well as the entire idea of "AI" controversial. For the rest of us, I think some of the new additions are pretty exciting and will prove useful in our workflow.
TWO PRIMARY new features are what Adobe calls "Generative AI," and the "new and improved" Remove Tool.
the new Remove Tool is a brush that does an amazing job, in my experience, with intelligently removing elements from an image
LET'S ADDRESS the Remove Tool first. In the tool palette along with the Healing Brush, Spot Healing Brush, Patch, and Redeye tools, the Remove Tool is a brush that does an amazing job, in my experience, of intelligently removing elements from an image. Working like the content aware replace tool (but better), it sometimes takes some trial and error and multiple passes, but combined with the healing brush tool I have found it to be very much easier and more effective than some of the older methods I have previously used to remove unwanted elements from an image. I have been using it in its basic form (a brush) almost exclusively in lieu of what I used to do with a combination of "content aware fill," the healing brush tool, and occasionally, the now-becoming dated, "clone tool." Content-aware technology used "AI" before it was cool to use "AI" as a buzz word. The newer AI tools, however, are more sophisticated, borrowing not only from its knowledge of "neighboring pixels," but from a huge (and rapidly growing) bank of data that has been collected by Adobe for comparison purposes, and using that information as part of its working algorithm. My experience so far is that it is pretty damn smart!
The really big deal for me, though, was discovering a facet of the tool I was completely unaware of!
EVEN MORE fun for me though, was just recently discovering a facet of the tool I was completely unaware of! I had been - up until now - using just the brush in its automatic configuration (it uses AI when it determines it is needed). You can change that configuration to AI on or AI off. I leave it in Auto and find it works best for me there. That is not, however, the epiphany. In that same status/tool bar (the features bar just below the menu bar above the image), there is a block entitled "Find Distractions." How did I ever miss this? Click on the little down arrow and you are give two choices: "wires and cables," and "people." I haven't tried the people feature yet (but note that it is in the "Technology Previews" portion of ACR also). I have used the "wires and cables" tool though.
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| The powerful "find distractions" tool in PS 2025 at work removing power lines Copyright Andy Richards 2010 - All Rights Reserved |
DOES IT work? Mostly. On the relatively uncluttered image of Weston, Vermont above, one click on the tool worked an absolute charm. On very busy images, it sometimes struggles to distinguish between bare branches and cables. It also sometimes doesn't catch everything when the cables go in several different directions. It doesn't remove the things the wires and cables are attached to (which in many cases is probably a good thing), particularly power poles. It is important to beware of the details. In my brief experimentation with a few different images, though it did an impressive job of finding and removing the wires, it did not usually "see" and remove the shadows cast by them (see the second Waits River image below).
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| Waits River, Vermont - Power Lines are a distraction in my view Copyright Andy Richards 2005 - All Rights Reserved |
IN 2005, I photographed the iconic "Arnold Kaplan" Vermont scenic, Waits River Village. In all the years I have tried, I have never hit this scene in full colorful foliage. But I keep trying.😅 In my mind, this wonderful image is somewhat spoiled by all the telephone wires, gas cutouts, signs and the like. Sometime after that shot was made in 2005, I spent literally hours using the only tools then available to me (spot healing and healing brush), retouching out all those wired, as well as the gas stub, the stop sign, some poles and metal fence poles and even some of the tall grass distraction. By far, the wires are the most difficult. As I wrote this, I pulled up the original raw 2005 image into Photoshop, clicked on the remove tool, selected distractions/wires and cables and in just seconds, got the result below. There would still be some work on the other items, but the brush tool aspect of the remove tool would make short work of them. What a great new feature that I will get a lot of utility from! One word of caution, though. If you use this tool, be aware that it isn't failsafe. Note that while it removed 95% of power lines (you can see it didn't "find" a couple wires in the top left that were in the foliage), Still, application of the tool save a lot of "picky" time and makes the job of retouching an image like this a lot easier, with probably better results.
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| Waits River Vermont - Power Lines removed using Remove Tool (remove distractions/wires and cables - note that their shadows remain) Copyright Andy Richards 2005 - All Rights Reserved |
THE OTHER new tools associated with "remove" come in several forms. Perhaps the biggest "wow-factor" form is what Adobe has named: "Generative AI." As readers on the internet are probably aware, the "generative" AI concept is powerful enough to generate imagery from scratch, given appropriate parameters. In Photoshop 2025, it means that you can create elements of an image that weren't there in the first place. That also means that you can "enhance" elements that are present in ways you couldn't previously do. Since it first came out (only just a few months back), Photoshop's generative AI has rapidly improved. I played with it some back then and got mixed results. My favorite example was when I asked Photoshop to use generative AI to add a golden retriever walking on a leash to one of my own shots of a person in a red jacket walking up a back road framed in fall foliage. It got it right. Sort of. The golden retriever was good. The leash was good. The only problem was the retriever was walking in the opposite direction from the walker! 😁 More recent attemps have been better. It still doesn't always get it right, but I am still amazed at how well it does do.
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| One of my earliest attempts to use Photoshop's "Generative AI" tool Copyright Andy Richards 2024 - All Rights Reserved |
It got it right. Sort of 😉
ONE NEGATIVE that could be significant to photographers making high quality prints or large resolution files is that the current version of generative expand generates a relatively low resolution result. The reason for this low resolution is that for now, the tool is only able to generate a 1024 x 2024 pixel block. If your defined expanded area exceeds that, PS does its best to fill that area in from the 2024 block using interpolation, usually resulting in a lower resolution result. The barn in fall foliage in Kirby, Vermont is an example of how I have used generative AI. I can't explain why, but even though I made multiple images at this scene, I did not get a single out of camera shot that didn't have this barn somewhat "bulls-eye" centered. I do know that there was foliage and farmland to the right of the image. I just had a "brain-fart" at that point. Looking at the image later, it dawned on me that I might be able to "save" the composition using the generative AI feature. I did like the result, but a hard "pixel-peep" illustrates the difference in resolution between my 42mp Sony "full-frame" sensor and the 1024 x 1024 resolution limitation (even after "enhancing").
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| Barn in Fall Foliage - Kirby, Vermont Copyright Andy Richards 2023 - All Rights Reserved |
A NEWER PS Version (2025) added a feature called "enhance" to the generation process. Once you have found a version generated by PS that you like, you can go to the little box in the generate panel which shows the 3 suggested generated images and each thumbnail will have a small graphic in the upper left corner. Clicking on that graphic causes PS to "enhance" the generated fill area. This process does not create more pixels (we are still limited to 1024 x 1024). Instead it works more like other programs (like Topaz's Ggigapixel AI, for example) to "enhance" the image. It does a decent job and at 100% viewing you can see definite improvement. There is a workaround to this issue if it is important enough to you on any particular image or series of images and are willing to put in some time. Take a look at this YouTube video for a very clever technique that appears to work (but does create some extra work for you).
the generative AI concept is powerful enough to generate imagery from scratch
ANOTHER FEATURE I was completely unaware of until pointed out to me by my buddy, Rich Pomeroy, is actually inside the "Remove" area of Adobe Camera Raw and the Light Room Develop module: "Visualize Spots." Not in and of itself an AI or generative tool, it assists in the use of these powerful retouching tools, giving us a much more useful viewer experience. The visualize spots tool creates a pure black and white image and the spots (if any) are shown in relatively bright contrast. You then can use your choice of healing brush, clone, or the generative remove tools within "Visualize Spots." I have begun using it and can see it will not only be a timesaver, but will also probably help me to catch spots I might otherwise have missed.
YET ANOTHER new tool (currently still only found in the beta version) is a Remove Reflections feature. Having played with it a bit, I can see why it has not been officially released yet. I wouldn't get too excited about it at this point, though they will probably improve it. Even then, I think it is going to be one of those tools that will work sometimes and not others. I have tried it several times on several different kinds of images where reflections were undesirable. I have yet to see it work at all on 99% of images I have tried it on. I have a dedicated blog post on this tool in the qeue.
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| Carter Shields Homestead Cabin - Gread Smoky Mountains National Park Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved |
ANOTHER NEW other recent new feature update included some pretty powerful selection tools, under the heading of "Landscape" selections. These are found in 3 places in the Adobe setup: Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), and the Adobe Camera Raw filter within photoshop. If you are a Lightroom user, they are right there in your develop module. For PS users, I recommend using them in ACR (where these days I do my "heavy lifting" adjustments). I used these features for the first time on the Sparks Cabin image above. This was made with my Samsung S24 phone camera. The modern cameras in "smart phones" are pretty impressive. As I have said in the past, their primary negative is the very small sensors. I have no doubt that technological progress will remedy that some day. For now, though, I have been "uprezzing" mine to 300dpi before putting them on my website recently. I know that will result in some diminution of image quality, but I have been impressed by the "preserve details 2.0" algorithm in Photoshop. The straight out of camera jpg, letting Samsung's software decide where things fall, alhough it did a decent job, left the shadows too deep and the brighter parts of the image a bit oversaturated for my taste. I opened the ACR filter within Photoshop and clicked on the mask icon, which gave me some choices; among others "Landscape." Landscape gave me three more choices in this instance: sky, vegetation, and architecture. I used all 3, first choosing architecture, which did a good job of selecting the cabin, walkway and rail fence. My primary goal was to brighten up the cabin - particularly in the shadows around the chimney. I next went back and selected "sky," and desaturated the sky. Finally, I clicked on "vegetation." Again, it did a reasonably good job of selecting leaves and grass. But it slightly faltered in discriminating between tree trunks and green vegetation. Easy enough, though, to touch up. I can see some time saving with these new tools.
I AM certain that there are additional cool features that I have missed. As I discover them, I will try to come back here or do separate posts on them. I also anticipate that Adobe will continue over time to develop and release even more of these tools.
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