It's something every single person using Photoshop today has battled with, and although it has become easier to use over the years, it's time-consuming, tedious, and often difficult to do well depending on the image you're working on. Making selections is the tool we use to isolate certain parts of the image. To either reuse or edit in a different fashion to the rest of the image. Using machine learning, an update coming to Photoshop makes it possible to click and select. That's right, no more pen tool, or magnetic lasso tool or the selection of the negative space to feather and smooth the selection. This video shows how it will work, and in my opinion, it can't come soon enough.
Adobe's AI platform, Sensei, has grown to great strengths. With the Adobe Max conference, we were able to see how a lamp post can be edited out in video, and how we can use someone else's face and mouth and narrate to it, almost like that one episode of Netflix's Black Mirror where the character wins the election.
The downside is that there is almost no more skill involved, and just like anyone can now take photos because everyone has a camera, now everyone will also be able to select objects in their photos as they want, edit it and create their unique style and look. It's going to make it easier to express our visions through the work we do, but there will also be a lot more graphic artists and photographers who want their voices heard. It's an interesting time ahead.
In my opinion, technology and tools must become as easy and user-friendly as possible. Why not. I'm looking forward to using it. Adobe is really making some exciting developments happen in their software. What do you guys think, what tools will you like to have updated or changed?
I think you're right... It will be easier for just anyone to use these tools. But, one thing I'm seeing through some of the photography competitions I'm doing, is that while anyone can take a picture, it still takes a lot of work and ability to master true artistry. I think the industry continues to change and yet it doesn't. Nothing takes the place of dedication and hard work, no matter how easy the software makes the process.
Actually what features like this do is make it easier for companies to put non-graphics trained people to do production work, and pay them peanuts for it. This way you have one graphics pro overseeing group of button pushers. I see this already in some studios.
Maybe I'm missing something. It looks like it only simplifies the initial selection, which isn't really that big a deal. A little time consuming, yes, but nothing compared to creating the final selection.
Also, I agree with Cherlyn. Technology chips away at those who depend on it for the bulk of their results but has a much smaller effect on artists.
Well that was extremely underwhelming.
And they still can't figure out why even the new Super Lightroom Classic Deluxe 4k HDR CC is even slower than the last version.
My latest update is a lot faster... Not CaptureOne speeds but still a lot faster.
Yes mine was faster for about a week on both my machines (iMac 32gb ram SSD, Macbook Pro i7 16gb ram SSD), then out of nowhere just scrubbing through images will bring it to a halt, sometimes taking 5 seconds or more between photos. Did everything adobe support told me, same terrible result. I've been wanting to switch to Capture for a while think this makes it official
I don't know that this will be a gamechanger... Probably more like one of these updates that get added and is hardly functional or near unusable quality output like their last refine "update" was.
Or it could be the next content-aware fill, who knows
Still. Hate. Photoshop.
I think I'd rather have my eyes sewn shut than sit for hours and hours doing editing in Photoshop. Long live the simplicity of Lightroom.
Simple problems, simple solution (LR). Complex problems, complex solution (PS).
I get it if people enjoy doing complex stuff in Ps, but the kind of masking described in this article is usually the sort of thing that commercial photographers hand over to their studio lackeys to do.
The first ever commercial pack shot job I did involved deep etching thousands of books I had to photograph. It cured me of any desire to ever do that sort of work again! It's definitely not what I became a photographer for...
Totally agree on the masking. I HATE masking!
It won't make much of a difference (at least for my workflow).
Shooting on medium format I tried each automation method for making masking more easier. But still the best AND fastest way to a perfect mask is the pen tool, combined with painting semi transparency using a Wacom.
"The downside is that there is almost no more skill involved, and just like anyone can now take photos because everyone has a camera, now everyone will also be able to select objects in their photos as they want, edit it and create their unique style and look."
I don't know about the rest of you, but, if given a choice between shooting and editing photos, I'll take shooting any day! Since editing is almost a necessity to help the image portray what I felt at the time I took it, any effort at making the editing process easier and less painstaking will be welcomed.
Yeah none of my clients have ever said “Wow, I really like how you used the channels to create a complex mask here.” I just need to get my work done, it might be nice to get it done faster.
Maybe none of them thought you did such a good job using channels to create your masks!? LOL
If you cant cut out a selection without the update you should uninstall photoshop immediately.