This week, I am continuing to explore the AI possibilities with Adobe Firefly and Photoshop in editing images. Recall from last week that I learned I could upload a photograph or image to Firefly and then instruct it to edit the image by describing the desired changes.
Sitting at my favorite coffee shop in Stamford, CT, this morning, I was struck by the interplay between the soft tree branches and the mostly glass building behind it. But a large umbrella intruded at left. It produced welcome shade on a hot day, but it was not welcome in my desired image. I tried removing it with the Remove tools in both Photoshop and Luminar Neo; the results were very poor. So I uploaded the photo to Adobe Firefly and asked Firefly to remove the umbrella. Voila! Perfection. I then tweaked the image a bit more in Luminar Neo.
(Remember that you can click the smaller image, and those below, for another view with a full-screen option.)
On this morning’s walk, I came across a wonderful display of flowers in a large planter. I snapped an iPhone picture. Back home, I uploaded the image to Adobe Firefly and asked it to edit the photograph in a style reminiscent of post-impressionism. I found the colors and the softness of the resulting image are very satisfying. (Look at it in full-frame mode.)
(*As with last week’s edits, Firefly used the AI model from Google, Gemini 3.1 w/NanoBanana 2.)
Finally, on a walk through downtown Stamford a few weeks ago, I came across this 3-dimensional (and very realistic) work featuring a painter at an easel outside with a bystander observing. (The work is by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. According to Wikipedia, Johnson (1930-2020) was an American artist known for trompe-l’oeil painted bronze statues. He designed life-size bronze statues that were castings of living people, depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities.)
In the original photograph (also an iPhone picture), a large white truck on the street behind the artist was an intrusion into the scene. With the same methods as the above and last week’s images, Adobe Firefly removed the truck. I edited the image a bit in Luminar Neo at this point. The AI had left a car parked where the truck had been. (Did the AI ‘think’ the car was there all along? Interesting to speculate.) The car was on the other side of the traffic control fence. I again had Firefly remove the car, which it did without removing the fence. I also asked the AI to slightly darken the background to further highlight the subject.
Again, this has been a fascinating exercise. Many of the edits we would previously have applied by choosing options and moving various sliders can now apparently be achieved by describing the effect we’re after and letting the AI do the work. (Is that what we want???)
Watch next week for another installment of New Images, released on Wednesday or Thursday.
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