Photoshop's Remove Tool Doesn't Touch Your Generative Credits

Adobe now meters many of Photoshop's AI tools against a monthly pool of generative credits, so knowing which features draw from that pool directly affects how freely you can edit. Many of the program's most useful time-savers have nothing to do with AI at all, and they sit on panels you already open every day.

The Remove tool delivers the first surprise. Aaron Nace of PHLEARN checks his credit balance at 2,870, paints over a handful of distractions with Generative AI switched on and cloud processing selected, then checks again. The number hasn't moved. He sets the tool to sample all layers, keeps the option to create a new layer turned on, and turns off "remove after each stroke" so he can mark several objects before committing. You can also switch the tool to device processing when you're offline, though Photoshop has to download the AI model first, so do that while you still have a connection. If you've been rationing credits, the Remove tool is one you can lean on harder than you might have assumed.

Other tips have been in Photoshop for years and still get overlooked. Click and drag on almost any label, such as W and H for width and height or X and Y for position, and the word itself becomes a slider. Nace uses this to scale and place a painting in a scene without zooming out and wrestling with transform handles. Hold Shift while dragging, and values jump in increments of 10, so opacity can swing from 0 to 100 almost instantly. Pair that with a clipping mask, set with a single icon in the adjustment layer's properties, and an exposure change lands on the painting alone instead of the whole room. Holding Alt or Option between two layers toggles the clip on and off, and a reset icon in the Properties panel puts every slider back where it started.

Adobe's credit system has made this kind of knowledge more practical than it used to be. Generative Fill, Generative Expand, and Generate Image all draw from your monthly allotment. Adobe has also added partner models from other companies to some of those features, and they cost more credits per generation than its own Firefly models. Content-Aware Fill and standard selection features like Select Subject don't touch that balance. A good habit is to try the free option first and save the generative tools for scenes too complex for it, such as a cluttered background where Content-Aware Fill starts repeating textures. Checking your balance before and after you try a new feature, the way Nace does on camera, shows you where the line sits as Adobe keeps adding tools.

Curves can feel abstract if you're staring at a graph, so Nace switches to the targeted adjustment hand tool and drags directly on the photo. Drag down on a bright highlight, and the curve darkens that range. Drag up on the shadows, and they open up, with the graph reshaping itself in ways that would take real effort to plot by hand. The same hand tool works in Hue/Saturation, where dragging on a face automatically grabs the reds and dragging on jeans picks out the blues. Navigation gets help too. Hold H while zoomed in, click, and Photoshop pulls back to show the whole frame, then drops you back in wherever you release. Holding the space bar and then Control or Command while dragging gives you a fast, continuous zoom. When straightening a horizon with the crop tool, changing the Fill option to Content-Aware Fill fills in the empty corners without spending a single credit.

Selections get a quiet upgrade with one setting. In Photoshop's settings, under Image Processing, you can switch Select Subject and Remove Background from device to cloud processing. It takes longer and requires an internet connection, but the edges are cleaner, and Nace's test on a subject with difficult hair holds up well under an exposure adjustment. If you'd rather choose case by case, the Object Selection tool has a dropdown next to Select Subject that lets you pick each time. Later tips build on these basics. They include merging every visible layer onto a new one for a Camera Raw color grade, feathering Blend If sliders so a replacement sky mixes with the original clouds, a Quick Compare view in the Photoshop beta, and a Lens Blur workflow in Camera Raw that Nace calls his favorite.

The full sky composite and the rest of the 10 tips play out step by step in the video above.