Adobe is heavily investing in its Sensei AI technology, and this commitment is clearly demonstrated through the continuous integration of AI-powered capabilities into its core Photoshop software. During its MAX conference, Adobe unveiled a series of new AI features for Photoshop, with the Sky Replacement tool being particularly noteworthy. These additions also encompass innovative “Neural Filters,” representing an advanced evolution of Photoshop’s filter options, alongside enhanced tools for image selection and workflow streamlining.

The functionality of Sky Replacement isn’t entirely new, as tools like Luminar have offered similar features for over a year. However, Adobe appears to have dedicated significant effort to perfecting its implementation. The core concept is straightforward: Photoshop can now automatically identify the sky within an image and substitute it with a sky of your preference. Recognizing that sky colors impact the overall image aesthetic, Adobe’s AI also intelligently adjusts the remaining colors to ensure a cohesive result.

The effectiveness of these features will likely vary depending on the specific image being used. We have not yet had the opportunity to test these features independently, and the demonstrations provided by Adobe showcased optimal performance.

Photoshop will include 25 pre-loaded sky replacement options, and users also have the flexibility to import their own.

Neural Filters represent another key highlight of this release. They introduce a range of artistic and restorative filters designed to enhance portraits or quickly alter image background colors. The portrait enhancement feature is anticipated to be widely adopted, as it allows for adjustments to gaze direction, light source angle, and modifications to hair thickness, smile intensity, or the addition of expressions like surprise or anger, as well as age alteration. While some of these options may be considered more playful, Adobe recommends using them for subtle refinements, as achieving these changes manually would typically require considerable effort, now simplified to a few clicks.

Additional filters include a style transfer tool and one that facilitates the colorization of black and white images. Among the more practical additions is a filter designed to eliminate JPEG artifacts.

Adobe collaborated with Nvidia in the development of these Neural Filters. While they are compatible with all systems running Photoshop 22.0, users will experience a noticeable performance boost on machines equipped with dedicated graphics acceleration, which is expected given the computational demands of these features.

Improvements to object selection, while perhaps less visually striking than Sky Replacement and the new filters, could significantly benefit photo editors. Adobe’s “intelligent refine edge” aims to reduce the manual effort currently required when selecting subjects with intricate details like hair, particularly against complex backgrounds. The new “Refine Hair” and “Object Aware Refine Mode” features are designed to minimize the need for such manual intervention.

Other new additions to Photoshop include a tool for pattern creation, a redesigned Discover panel with enhanced search, help resources, and contextual actions, faster plugin performance, and more.

A new plugin marketplace has also been launched for all Creative Cloud applications, providing developers with a streamlined platform to distribute their plugins.