Introduction
The 2026 updates to Adobe Photoshop significantly expand traditional image editing capabilities by integrating advanced AI models directly into standard retouching workflows, introducing non-destructive adjustment layers previously reserved for raw processing, and automating complex compositing tasks.
These features are designed to streamline professional workflows, offering greater precision and control over colour, resolution, and object manipulation. Perhaps the future for Adobe however is one where they become more reliant on AI to do the heavy lifting and enter into ‘partnerships’ with other companies providing plugins for the low-fruit of photo editing.
Advanced Colour and Tonal Control
The 2026 release bridges the gap between standard Photoshop layers and the advanced processing controls typically found in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
• New Adjustment Layers: Users can now apply Clarity, Dehaze, and Grain as non-destructive, maskable adjustment layers. This allows for precise refinement of texture, atmospheric haze, and image depth directly within the layer stack, offering total creative control over the final output.
• Color and Vibrance Adjustment: A new adjustment layer introduces Temperature and Tint controls directly to the main workspace. This update enables users to perform white balance corrections and Lightroom-style colour grading without needing to open the Camera Raw filter, significantly streamlining the colour correction workflow.
• Harmonize: Ideally suited for compositing, the new Harmonize feature (now out of beta) automatically matches the colour, lighting, and shadows between layers. This tool eliminates hours of manual adjustment by creating realistic blends between composite elements, providing variations for the user to select.
Enhanced Retouching and Resolution
Traditional tasks such as upscaling images and removing unwanted elements have been upgraded with integrated AI and third-party technology.
• Generative Upscale: Photoshop now integrates technology from Topaz Labs (Gigapixel and Bloom) to power the Generative Upscale feature. This allows users to sharpen and upscale images to high resolutions—up to 56MP—while preserving detail, accessed via Image > Generative Upscale.
• Intelligent Distraction Removal: The Remove Tool has been updated with specific “Find Distractions” capabilities. It can automatically detect and remove Wires and Cables or people from the background. The tool offers a choice between using generative AI or standard algorithms; users can select “Never use generative AI” if a project requires non-AI workflows.
• Reference Objects: The Generative Fill tool now accepts Reference Images, allowing Photoshop to use a user-uploaded image to guide the generation of new pixels. This ensures that inserted or adapted objects match the specific identity, geometry, lighting, and perspective of the reference content, rather than relying solely on text prompts.
Workflow Flexibility with AI Models
Photoshop 2026 expands the “traditional” toolbox by allowing users to select different underlying engines for their edits.
• Multi-Model Support: Users are no longer limited to Adobe Firefly; they can now choose from various AI models, such as Nano Banana, Flux, OpenAI GPT, and Google Imagen/Veo, directly within features like Generative Fill. This allows creatives to select the specific model that yields the best results for a given prompt or scene.
• Firefly Video Integration: The update introduces the ability to generate video from still images directly within Photoshop. Users can use the Generate Video feature to turn static layers into motion, controlling camera movement and depth via text prompts.
Typography and Vector Shapes
The 2026 release also addresses vector and text handling, areas often secondary to pixel editing in previous versions.
• Dynamic Text (Beta): A new feature that allows users to easily transform text layers into circular, arched, or bowed shapes without complex workarounds. The layouts automatically resize and reflow as the text box is modified.
• Star Tool: Users can now create custom star shapes and polygons directly on the canvas, adjusting points and radii via the Contextual Task Bar