The beta tests are on and, though still a work in progress, the potential is clear.
Credit: Adobe Firefly
Compared to MidJourney, for example, there are clear benefits – it’s not just based on prompts, there are also interfaces for styles and parameters that can be adjusted, as one might expect, as if in photoshop.
Credit: Adobe Firefly
the ability to switch from art and fantasy styles to photo realism, from the same prompt, is great.
Credit: Adobe Firefly
Various aspect ratios and resolutions are also a huge and cool option. I fell in love with the 16×9 widescreen, after being bored with the square aspect.
Credit: Adobe Firefly
Here are some examples that are spit out in a couple of minutes…
The Verge interview with Adobe’s CPO, has mega details
In a new, extensive, Verge interview podcast with Adobe’s CPO, Scott Belsky, a a ‘Prepare as NFT’ system launch for Photoshop was confirmed for the end of the month.
The idea is to maintain a kind of proof of originality system to help prevent fake NFTs (minting non-fungible tokens) from being minted and sold by imposters. The final choice is in the buyers hands at this stage, but having a way for creators to prove authenticity would be a big step.
Since this week Adobe is also holding its annual conference, called Adobe Max, there are also a bunch of new features arriving for Creative Cloud and a slew of app including Photoshop.
Big news! We've partnered up with @Adobe and @ContentAuth to enhance attribution of NFTs on Rarible. 🔎 Now collectors can see if the wallet used to design an NFT was the same one used to mint it as part of the Content Authenticity Initiative (#CAI) – https://t.co/EnWOAilv5g
Intersecting worlds collide with Adobe in them all…
Adobe has been around, amazingly, since 1982, and millions of digital creatives and content creators use their products.
Photoshop is so entrenched that it has long achieved verb status: if you want to enhance a photo, for example to enlarge your backside or smooth out your skin, just “photoshop it”. And over use is derided as a “photoshopped” persona or image.
Premiere Pro and After Effects, especially the latter, get a lot of pro and semi-pro use for video production. Many, many Pro photographers use Lightroom. The upgrade system for Adobe products and the creative cloud, such as the recent AI and neural engine assisted effects drive change and upgrades at a furious pace.
With the entire content, image and video creation industry becoming more and more vital to networked human communications, tracing and verifying authorship and authenticity are becoming more and more crucial.
Adobe is moving, with caution due to the issues that could arise, into the area on multiple fronts. As per the Verge article;
“With what Adobe is calling Content Credentials, creators will be able to link their Adobe ID with their crypto wallet and mint their work with participating NFT marketplaces. The software company says the feature should be compatible with popular NFT marketplaces including OpenSea, KnownOrigin, SuperRare, and Rarible. A ‘verified certificate’ that comes with minting an NFT with Photoshop’s Content Credentials will prove that the source of the art is authentic.”
Adobe has added some significant updates to Photoshop in the last 6 months. As a daily user in a digital publishing environment, we have been able to test and use many of the new features in a real-world setting.
By way of some general background. I was a user of the CS4 bundle up until 2013 when the Creative Cloud system first launched. At first the idea of paying a monthly subscription fee rather than upgrading only when “absolutely necessary” was not immediately a comforting proposition.
However, over time the improvements, along with the huge list of including software, in addition to Photoshop, won me over.
Adobe does face steep competition from Affinity Photo, which continues to have the “buy once-use-forever” model and also has free updates quite often.
We also use Affinity Photo and it is in many ways more user friendly than Photoshop – particularly if you are not already deep into the Adobe software UX.
At the same time, it appears that the competition has only done what competition is supposed to do: made both products better.
The world changed when the 99% of the labor disappeared from replacing photo backgrounds
That same competitive marketplace may even be the reason that, during the last year, Adobe’s upgrades have accelerated and become more than just ho-hum superficial changes: they are now mind-blowing, and that on a regular basis.
In our shop, it really started to get interesting with the upgrade to the “quick selection tool” in June 2020. A new button was added: “select subject” removed the need to painstakingly manually select a subject (such as a person or object) and the new “select and mask” option opens a fine adjustment window to fine tune the mask.
Very often no further adjustments are needed to separate a subject from the background and then begin background layering and various other typical uses for these features. Once again, the time of this upgrade seemed to coincide with competition: a web based platform (that also built a photoshop plug-in) called Remove BG gained some popularity in late 2019, apparently prompting Adobe to fight back.
“Beginning with Photoshop 21.2 (June 2020 release), Select Subject is now content-aware and applies new custom algorithms when it detects a person is in the image. When creating a selection on portrait images, treatment around hair area has been vastly improved to create a detailed selection of hair.”
— Adobe Support
And fight back they did. The new automated “select subject” system was pretty usable at first release. But the upgrades since then have been nothing less than astounding. Sometimes it seems like the performance of this new system gets better daily, as if stealth over-the-air upgrades are happening outside of the official ones. Probably not but the bottom line is this really reduces the time and effort to nearly zero.
Naturally, for complex or difficult photos, or for situations where an absolutely perfect high resolution separation (of, say, a very fluffy haired top model for a huge ad campaign etc.) the old, time consuming and labor intensive techniques would be required.
But for everyday digital news style creative collage applications and any situation where it just have to look realistic (or create a fantasy tableau) it is lightening fast and very very usable.
Neural and AI based updates have begun and will accelerate big-time in 2021
In October, 2020 Adobe introduced 8 new neural filters to the platform. In the video above you can see the general state of the filters around the time of the release. Without getting into granular detail in text, you can see the highlights and the carious methods of use in the video.
What I want to emphasize beyond the existence and fascinating implications for these new tools is the fact that they represent just a tiny hint at the potential for these and many more totally new functions and applications that are going to explode on the scene in 2021.
These kinds of new capabilities for photo manipulation software are likely to take years to be absorbed in to the workflow and toolkit of the millions of users across the globe. And, even as we “struggle” to learn how to benefit from the lack of expertise needed to achieve results heretofore either impossible or only realized with many hours of painstaking profession work, new even more mind-blowing upgrades are coming.
Some examples can be seen in the video below. Additionally there will be a new version of Photoshop available in 2021 to take advantage of the Apple Mac M1 chips and mac OS11 Big Sur.
These will accelerate even more the image manipulation and automated creation options within Photoshop and creative cloud. Honestly, it is now the user, with minimal effort, who will be using imagination and creativity, nearly in isolation, to create previous unimaginable images. Think = do. That’s where this is headed.
The best software helps creators to make the best content
Clearly, video content is the future and along with image capture and manipulation the key to all online business success. And since we are all, partly out of necessity, migrating our lives online, this is an important area for anyone looking to expand their digital horizons.
Adobe Creative Cloud, although not the cheapest, has some of the best content manipulation software. The long history of the company and its products, many dating back to before the internet was in full swing, is at once the strength and weakness of these solutions.
Adobe Premier and After Effects for video and, of course, Photoshop and Illustrator for images, are just the best known and, perhaps, most popular of the many products included in Creative Cloud.
A user friendly workflow will improve your quality of life if you choose wisely
In the pure video software category, Apple’s Final Cut Pro and BlackMagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve are the two top video production suites. With a free version and a $299 “studio” version (one time purchase) and hardware add-ons for the high end, DaVinci is gaining adherents at a rapid pace.
BlackMagic Design also has some great official user guides that go into depth on the almost infinite options within the system.
Final Cut Pro, which in this writer’s opinion, has a steeper learning curve, does benefit, when used with macOS, from frequent updates, both to the software itself and via the system, with major macOS versions released (at no cost) every year.
Pretty much all the software mentioned in this article can benefit, on a Mac with integrated thunderbolt 3 ports, from an eGPU and software updates are coming at a rapid pace, and include, at times, significant new features and capabilities.
Below we have compiled further reading on the subject, and bear in mind that, with specs constantly changing, it’s best to research compatibility of all hardware and software elements when putting together a new system for your content creation needs.
The newly revised third edition of Rick Young’s The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro X is the ultimate mentor for getting up and running with Apple’s professional editing software, regardless of your skill level.
In this step-by-step, full-color guide, Rick clearly explains the key concepts and essential knowledge needed to edit your project from start to finish, providing clear, time-saving instructions on producing and outputting using Final Cut Pro X.
Packed with tutorials and real-world examples, The Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro X will take you through the ins and outs of the software and have you editing and outputting your movies in no time! Click here to see “The Focal Easy Guide” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Are you one of the many editors who have decided you need to quickly learn Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve? If you are, then Rapid DaVinci Resolve was written for you. The 160-page book provides a comprehensive introduction to editing and color grading using the free version of DaVinci Resolve 15.
Unlike the free version of Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve has not been crippled to force you to upgrade to the expensive version. And, while Premiere Pro CC is a fine editor, do you really want to pay Adobe every month? Rapid DaVinci Resolve presents DaVinci Resolve 15 in a manner that eliminates your need to learn the application’s massively complex menu system. Click here to see “Rapid DaVinci Resolve” and help Independent Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 Classroom in a Book is the most thorough and comprehensive way for you to master Adobe’s industry-leading consumer-targeted photo-editing software. Each chapter in this step-by-step, lesson-based guide contains a project that builds on your growing knowledge of the program, while end-of-chapter review questions reinforce each lesson.
You will learn the basics of editing your images with Photoshop Elements and learn how to best use the program’s many new features. This edition covers many new and improved features in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020, including two tools based on Adobe Sensei AI technology that smooth skin to improve people’s appearance while still looking natural, and colorize black and white photos or give a new look to color images. Click here to see ” Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic Classroom in a Book
The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic Classroom in a Book(R), the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does-an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic Classroom in a Book (2020 release) contains 12 lessons that cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. Purchase of this book includes valuable online features. Follow the instructions in the book’s Getting Started section to unlock access. Click here to see “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic Classroom 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020- Second Edition
Adobe Photoshop Elements is a raster graphics editor for entry-level photographers, image editors, and hobbyists. Updated and improved to cover the latest features of Photoshop Elements 2020, this second edition includes focused coverage of Adobe’s new AI-powered features that are designed to make the editing process more efficient, creative and fun.
This book takes you through the complexities of image editing in easy-to-follow, bite-sized chunks, helping you to quickly recognize the editing challenge at hand and use suitable tools and techniques to overcome it. You’ll start by learning how to import, organize, manage, edit, and use your pictures in a format that’s designed for creative photography projects. Throughout this Adobe Photoshop Elements book, you’ll discover how to fix different photographic problems using an extensive repertoire of commonly applied solutions. Common processes such as applying artistic effects to creative projects, custom image makeovers, processing images for social media, and other file export methods will also be covered. Click to see “Mastering Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Premiere Pro choose Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom in a Book (2020 release) from Adobe Press. The 17 project-based lessons in this book show students step-by-step the key techniques for working in Premiere Pro.
Students learn skills to take a project from beginning to end, including the basics on things like organizing media, using audio, creating transitions, producing titles, and adding effects. Once they have the basics down, they’ll learn how to take their projects further by sweetening and mixing audio, compositing layered footage, adjusting color, customizing motion graphics, exporting files, and much more. The companion DVD (also available as an online download) includes lesson files so students can work step-by-step along with the book. All buyers of the book also get full access to the Web Edition: a Web-based version of the complete eBook enhanced with video and multiple-choice quizzes. Click here to see “Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn. The best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does–an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts. Contains 16 lessons that cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you.
Build a strong foundation by following hands-on projects for creating logos, illustrations, and posters. Learn how to use the Shaper tool and Live Shapes along with dynamic symbols to streamline graphics creation. Create website assets and export them in multiple formats to support modern responsive web designs. Click here to see “Adobe Illustrator Classroom 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book (2020 release) is the best-selling guide to Adobe’s powerful motion graphics program. The 15 project-based lessons in this book teach students step-by-step the key techniques for working efficiently in After Effects and delivering in the widest possible range of media types.
In addition to the key elements of the After Effects interface, this revised edition covers new features and techniques. Learn how to create, manipulate, and optimize motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. Gain hands-on experience animating text and images, customizing a wide range of effects, tracking and syncing content, rotoscoping, removing unwanted objects, and correcting color. Learn to create 3D content with both After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D Lite (included with the software).
The online companion files include all the necessary assets for readers to complete the projects featured in each chapter. All buyers of the book get full access to the Web Edition: A Web-based version of the complete ebook enhanced with video and multiple-choice quizzes. Click here to see “Adobe After Effects 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
Creative professionals seeking the fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Animate choose Adobe Animate Classroom in a Book (2020 release) from Adobe Press. The 11 project-based step-by-step lessons in this book show users the key techniques for working in Animate. Adobe Animate provides more expressive tools, powerful controls for animation, and robust support for playback across a wide variety of platforms.
Create interactive virtual reality immersive environments with VR 360 and VR Panorama documents. Gain advanced control over character animations with layer parenting and AI-driven lip syncing. Learn to create dynamic strokes with the new fluid brush, and work smarter with the revamped Timeline, Tools palette and Properties inspector. Support for SVG, WebGL, HTML5, animated GIFs, and HD video, and seamless collaboration with other designers and with other Adobe applications through Creative Cloud libraries make Adobe Animate the ideal development environment for creative animation and multimedia. Click here to see “Adobe Animate Classroom 2020” and help Independent Bookstores.
