Adobe MAX is a gathering of photographers, filmmakers, and designers who want to see the latest innovations the company is working on and learn from other creatives who have mastered using the company’s software to fulfill their creative vision. There was no stated theme for this year’s event, but it was apparent to me that Adobe is making an effort across all its platforms to reduce tedious tasks in the creative workflow.
I attended the full-day event in London, and here is my summary of some of what I learned.
Firefly
Firefly is Adobe’s AI-based creation tool that has seen incredible innovation in the past 2 years, with Mood Boards as the latest addition. Adobe Firefly Boards is an infinite collaborative canvas, and it is no surprise that you can invite collaborators to contribute or comment on any board you create. Mood boards are often used in fashion and editorial shoots to share concepts for hair styling, makeup, and the overall look of a shoot. Images can be uploaded from your computer or imported from Adobe Stock. Remix is a new addition that allows you to combine 2 images into a new one that represents your creative vision. Imagine if you have one photo showing a woman in a blue fur coat and a second image showing a metal flower sculpture. Remix could combine these shots so that the final result was an image of a woman wearing a metallic-looking fur coat.
Text to image is the normal workflow for AI-generated images in Firefly. Remix offers an image-to-text workflow. When images are combined into a new image, Firefly provides the prompt used to create the new image. This prompt can be modified to create an image with a look that aligns with your preferences. You can also specify an image Firefly will use as a style, structure, or composition reference. Suppose you wanted the mood board to show a woman with red hair sitting at a desk, but all of the images you found featured a woman with red hair standing near a desk. You could import a photo of a person sitting at a desk for the program to use as a composition reference, and this image would be remixed with the first image to produce the shot of a woman with red hair sitting at a desk.
You can use Adobe’s new Firefly Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra or non-Adobe engines such as Google’s Imagen 3, Veo 2, and Flux 1.1 Pro. Each AI model has its unique style, and for that reason, Adobe has incorporated these outside engines into its software. You don’t have to create an account to use the non-Adobe models, which makes the creative process smoother. Adobe’s AI generators are licensed for commercial use, and images imported into Firefly are never used for AI training. If you are unsure about how a particular asset was created, you can hover the cursor over the image to see which engine was used in its creation.
Photoshop
Photoshop offers improved background removal. In one demonstration, Photoshop accurately separated an image of a woman wearing a black sweater from a black background. A layer mask is automatically created, which gives you the ability to refine the color, texture, vibrancy, and other aspects of the selection. There is also an Adjust Colors feature that lets you see the range of colors in your image. If your image had pastel tones, for example, you could stay within the broad range of pastel hues as you adjust the colors.
Adobe makes it easy to jump between its various software platforms. You can take the image from Photoshop and open it in Firefly to animate the image into a short video clip. The video clip can be re-opened in Photoshop, which can now show a timeline for video clips. The newly created video can be imported into Photoshop and used as a background to create a final image that is mostly static but has some moving elements. Using Express, you can automatically generate a caption for this moving image and then schedule posting to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn. Express can create the caption, and you can schedule the time that the post will go live.
Premiere Pro and Firefly for Video
By its very nature, video editing is more time-consuming than photo editing. Premiere uses AI to reduce the time spent on tedious parts of the workflow. In a normal video workflow, you would import clips into the program and then scroll through the clips to find specific scenes. A new feature, Media Intelligence Analysis, can scrub clips to find scenes like "dogs walking" or "people wearing blue." You can even search for words or phrases spoken by people.
Firefly can even extend your clips to create additional B-roll. One interesting use case is correcting minor filmmaking mistakes. If you regretted zooming out on a particular scene, you can cut the clip before the zoom motion and then have Firefly create a few additional seconds to replace that footage featuring the bad camerawork. Another way to generate video is to open two photographs taken a few minutes apart and use Firefly to create a video that begins with one photograph and ends with the second.
Captions can be automatically generated with one click. You have control over the font and color of captions. You can add captions in over 20 languages, retaining the style elements of the original language captions. The translated captions can even be used for voiceover in the voice of the original caption. There is even an option to create a lip-sync for the speaker so that the new language appears to be coming from the speaker.
Photoshop for Mobile and Web
Photoshop for Mobile caters to the generation that prefers editing on mobile devices. A new feature called Tap Select can separate the various elements that make up your photograph. For a busy street scene, the program will locate each car, street sign, person, and pet. You can edit each element separately or remove elements from the scene.
Adobe sees the mobile app as a user-friendly introduction to advanced features like layers and masking that mobile users may not be familiar with. If you begin an edit on the mobile app, it is a simple matter to make final adjustments on the laptop version of Photoshop, where you have access to the full set of Photoshop tools. Since the fundamental quality of all mobile devices is connectivity, it is no surprise that you can collaborate on designs with other mobile users through the app.
Lightroom Mobile
Quick Actions have been added to Lightroom Mobile. If you have a photo showing 5 people, you can make adjustments to each person individually. When you adjust the skin, hair, or any other element on one person, the other people remain untouched.
Lightroom can recognize a landscape photo and make instant selections of the water, vegetation, and sky. Once selected, you can adjust those specific elements without affecting the other elements. If you need to modify the selections, you can use a brush tool to add or subtract from it.
You can also mask a specific range of colors. Generative Remove is available to eliminate distracting elements. These features work on both the mobile and desktop versions.
Storytelling With Brandon Baum
Today, Brandon Baum has 15 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, but he recalls when his first video garnered only 2 views. He spoke about the ever-changing road to storytelling and why he believes today is a great time to be a filmmaker. He views storytelling as a magical endeavor with constant technological advancements, but he believes that the best stories come from real people living in the real world and that new technologies are never a threat.
Whenever a new technology develops, there is a fear that it will kill storytelling. In the silent film era, some people believed that introducing sound would ruin movies. Brandon favors the approach of directors like George Lucas and James Cameron, who embrace new technology to create films that move the industry in new directions.
One challenge faced by Hollywood is the ever-increasing cost of creating films. To reduce costs, the industry favors sequels and prequels rather than banking on new films with new design concepts and new sets. It is harder than ever for emerging storytellers to get a shot because the stakes are so high, but Brandon believes today’s technology has the potential to bring costs down and unleash new voices and new talents. YouTube is a dominant force in entertainment, and anyone is free to tell their story on that platform. Decisions regarding what stories will be told are no longer in the hands of a few Hollywood executives. You need only to create a YouTube channel to have an opportunity to tell your story. The new storytelling paradigm isn’t coming. It is here.
James Barnard
I stopped into a class titled “Turning Likes Into Leads,” presented by graphic designer James Barnard. Today, James has over a million social media followers, but it wasn’t long ago that he struggled to find his voice on social media. He had a website, but it wasn’t bringing in any leads, and the few times that someone did inquire about his work through his website, their main concern was how cheaply he was willing to work.
He had a major win in his industry when 3 of his designs appeared in the Logo Lounge 13 book, which is highly respected by his peers. This accomplishment didn’t lead to any direct leads, however. At one point, he decided to make a TikTok video inspired by the prompt, "What is something that is a flex in your niche, but means nothing to anyone else?" He made a video saying 3 of his designs appeared in the prestigious Logo Lounge book. His presentation was casual, and he was interrupted by his crying child several times. Despite the unprofessional nature of the video and James not showing his designs, the video went viral and led to 70+ inquiries. The video was an authentic representation of James, and it allowed him to connect with people online in a way that he hadn’t been able to before.
James devised a formula for posting videos involving presenting a problem, showing how you dealt with it, and giving a call to action. Show you understand the client’s problems and explain how you handle those problems. Show how your product helps people with their problems. If you do get potential client attention, it is important that your website has all the elements in place necessary for you to show your work and book new clients. Elements that need to be in place include:
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Contact form
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Quick-loading site
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Case studies
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Up-to-date content
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Landing page that sells
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Clear service offerings
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Testimonials
If these elements are lacking on your website, you won’t be able to turn social media leads into paying clients. The key to attracting attention is telling an interesting story about your work. Don’t expect your work to speak for itself.
For more about Adobe MAX, check out the keynote address.
