Photoshop Generative Fill looks like a game changer for photo restoration

The new Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill tool is continuing to blow minds as people find more use cases for the powerful Firefly AI-driven feature. Available in Photoshop Beta, Generative Fill allows users to transform objects, backgrounds and more using text prompts.

It works much like the best AI art generators but within Adobe's industry-standard image editing program, which makes it potentially much more useful for photographers, editors and designers. But as well as allowing radical transformation to images, it turns out that it's also hugely useful for photo restoration.

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We've seen people using Photoshop Generative Fill to make incredibly fast transformations to images, changing backgrounds and replacing objects with others. But Adobe 'design evangelist' Howard Pinksy has demonstrated on Twitter just how fast it can make the task of restoring old photographs, using generative AI to 'fill in' parts of the image obscured by damage.

It seems the tool will transform how to restore old photos. Pinksy notes that in the past it would take him hours to complete such a restoration, while others have commented that they once took classes on the subject. But while some agree that it's a great use case for Adobe's new AI tools, others have urged caution. "Certainly has its place – but let's not make EVERY image 'perfect' all the time. There's beauty in imperfection sometimes too," one person responded on Twitter.

Of course, they're right. I mean sometimes you want an old photograph to look like an old photograph, but if you're restoring images for archival purposes, this looks like an incredible timesaver. See below for the best current prices on Photoshop or see our guide to how to download Photoshop. We also have guides to the best Photoshop tutorials and the best free Photoshop actions.