Photoshop’s Object Selection tool has been significantly improved and now includes a powerful AI People Making feature that will quickly and effectively improve your workflow when editing images that include people within the frame. The tutorial below from one of our favorite post-processing instructors explains exactly how it works.

Instructor Julienne Kost is an adept photographer, respected author, and an expert at all things Adobe. In the next four minutes you’ll learn how this timesaving feature uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect, select, and mask anyone that appears in your images. And it’s quite precise.

In barely four minutes Kost demonstrates how to employ this capability to not only mask entire people but narrow your selections to very specific regions like a subject’s hair, an assortment of facial features, clothing, and more. In other words, this technique is about as versatile as can be.

With the Object Selection tool in play, Kost uses Photoshop’s Disclosure Triangle to choose Cloud. That’s because doing so provides greater detail and superior results. As you hover your cursor over the image, Photoshop will display a magenta color atop all the people regions that it detects.

If you hover the cursor over the edge of a person Photoshop will detect and mask that person in their entirety. It’s easy to choose any of the various overlay options by clicking on the Gear icon and increasing opacity to 50% which makes the overlay moew prominent. There are also options to hide the overlay when you find it too distracting.

The easiest way to select the region you want, like a person’s hat, is to simply click on the overlay to convert it to a selection. Then you can change the color of the hat, for example, by adding an adjustment layer and selecting the Hue/Saturation option in the panel’s dropdown menu. You can apply other types of enhancements to various regions by follow the same quick-and-easy approach.

You can also use the Select People option by clicking on the thumbnail of a person and then specifying whatever selection you desire, i.e. the entire person, a specific region, or a combination of regions. Kost walks you through several adjustments to illustrate the appropriate steps.

That’s pretty much it, although Kost describes the process in greater detail and provides a few additional tips for achieving the best possible results. You can find a wealth of helpful Photoshop and Lightroom tips and techniques by visiting Kost’s internationally popular YouTube channel.

We also recommend watching an earlier tutorial we featured with another image editing expert who demonstrates how he crafts spectacular b&w photographs by employing Lightroom’s transformational HDR editing mode.

Adobe has updated Lightroom to version 14.3 and there’s lot to unpack as you’ll see in our upcoming tutorials. Today’s episode is devoted his one “huge” new feature landscape photographers have been awaiting that’s been available in other post-processing software for some time.

The topic at hand in this episode from Anthony Morganti is Lightroom’s new Landscape Masking capability and you’ll learn exactly how in works in the next 12 minutes. Be sure to watch until the end when he provides an overview of other key features—with links in the description beneath the video for those of you who are interested in a deeper dive.

Morganti is a globally popular photographer, professional retoucher, and educator based in Buffalo, NY and he kicks off this lesson by explaining why he considers this long-awaited Lightroom masking tool so significant. His demonstration seascape image is a perfect example because there are several key elements in the frame—including a dramatic sky, water with reflections, and buildings in the foreground and middle of the shot.

Morganti’s photo even incudes some vegetation and a prominent Lighthouse that deserves to be accentuated, and when you click Masking atop the screen you’ll note the new Landscape tool within the familiar panel. Here’s what happens when you select this option: “AI will examine the image and determine what is in the scene.”

As you’ll see, Lightroom quickly found the Sky, Architecture, Vegetation, Water, and Artificial Ground—all elements that appear within the Landscape Masking panel. By hovering over any of these items you’ll get a mask for making whatever enhancements you desire. Morganti admits that while these timesaving selections may be imperfect they’re a great starting point for any necessary refinements.

Once you understand the concept and see how it works it’s super easy to make whatever enhancements you desire. Stay tuned for more how-videos on a variety of new features in the recent Lightroom update. In the meantime, be sure to check out Morganti’s instructional YouTube channel where there’s much more to learn about all things Adobe.

We also recommend watching a recent tutorial we featured with another post-processing expert who demonstrates how to use what she says is  “Lightroom’s most powerful tool” to unlock the full potential of every photograph you edit.

At the Adobe MAX Creativity Conference 2025 in London, the San Jose-based software behemoth took the lid off a veritable ton of upgrades and improvements to Photoshop, Lightroom, Premier Pro and Firefly—and most of the other members of their editing family—and we’re excited about all of them.

The list of enhancements is long—this is just a summary. After we’ve road tested our favorites, we’ll report on them in detail.

Photoshop

– Composition Reference
The Text to Image function now allows you to point to an image for creation cues.

– Select Details
Simplifies selecting components like hair, facial features and clothing.

– Adjust Colors
Simplifies the process of adjusting color hue, saturation and lightness.

– Fully Revised Actions Panel (Beta)
Delivers smarter workflow suggestions.

Lightroom & Lightroom Classic

– Select Landscape
Automatically detect and create masks for common landscape elements.

– Quick Actions
Retouch group photos easily.

– Lightroom Mobile and Web
New sharing capabilities.

Firefly

– Access to Partners’ AI Models
Deploy AI models from Google and OpenAI within Adobe apps.

– New Firefly Image Models
Now available, Firefly Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra, as well as Firefly Video Model.

– Firefly Boards (Public Beta)
Use “moodboarding” functions for exploration and collaboration.

Adobe Express

– Clip Maker
Convert long videos into social-length clips automatically.

– Dynamic Animation
Animate still images with a single click.

– Enhance Speech
Remove extraneous background noise.

– Generate Video
Use text and/or image prompts to generate b-roll or background footage.

– Generate Similar
Generate multiple variations of a reference image.

Premiere Pro

– Generative Extend
It’s now available and production ready with support for 4K and vertical video.

– Media Intelligence
Find relevant clips by searching terabytes of footage in seconds.

– Caption Translation
Instantly localize captions in 27 languages.

Other Apps
Adobe also announced significant upgrades to Illustrator (including Generate Shape Fill and Text to Pattern functions), Indesign and Adobe Fresco.

Adobe Fresco upgrades deliver a new “created without generative AI tag” which can be included in an image’s Content Credentials to protect the author’s rights, and the capability to link exports directly to social media accounts.

Reiterating Safe & Authenticated AI Creation
Adobe launched the Content Authenticity app in public beta. This free tool allows creators to select what information is attached to their work via Content Credentials. The big deal: it includes verified identity powered by Verified on LinkedIn. Creators can include a tag in their Content Credentials to state they do not want generative AI models to train on their work.

For More Details
More details, along with complete Adobe MAX Creativity Conference 2025 London news, can be found here.

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