Adobe Lightroom’s new Generative Remove AI tool makes Content-aware Fill feel basic – and gives you one less reason to use Photoshop

One of Adobe Lightroom's most used editing tools, Content-aware Fill, just got a serious upgrade in the AI-powered shape of Generative Remove. The Adobe Firefly tool is branded “Lightroom's most powerful remove tool yet” and after a quick play ahead of its announcement, I'd have to agree. 

Compared to Content-aware Fill, which will remain in Adobe's popular photo organizer and editor, Generative Remove is much more intelligent, plus it's non-destructive. 

As you can see from the gif below, Generative Remove is used to remove unwanted objects in your image, plus it works a treat for retouching. You simply brush over the area you'd like to edit – whether that's removing a photo bomber or something as simple as creases in clothing – and then the new tool creates a selection of smart edits with the object removed (or retouch applied) for you to pick your favorite from.

If I was to use Lightroom's existing Content-aware Fill for the same image in the gif below and in the same way, or even for a much smaller selection, it would sample parts of the model's orange jacket and hair and place them in the selection. I'd then need to repeatedly apply the tool to remove these new unwanted details, and the new area increasingly becomes an artifact-ridden mess.

Adobe Lightroom Generative Remove tool

(Image credit: Adobe)

Put simply, Lightroom's existing remove tool works okay for small selections but it regularly includes samples of parts of the image you don't want. Generative Remove is significantly faster and more effective for objects of all sizes than Content-aware Fill, plus it's non-destructive, creating a new layer that you can turn on and off.

From professionals wanting to speed up their workflow to simply removing distant photo bombers with better results, Generative Remove is next-level Lightroom editing and it gives you one less reason to use Adobe Photoshop. It is set to be a popular tool for photographers of all skills levels needing to make quick remove and retouching edits.

Generative Remove is available now as an early access feature across all Lightroom platforms: mobile, desktop, iPad, web and Classic.

Adobe Lightroom Generative Remove tool

(Image credit: Adobe)

Adobe also announced that its Lens Blur tool is being rolled out in full to Lightroom, with new automatic presets. As you can see in the gif above, presets include subtle, bubble and geometric effects to bokeh. For example, speckled and artificial light can be given a circular shape with the Lens Blur bubble effect.

Lens Blur is another AI-tool and doesn't just apply a uniform strength blur to the background, but uses 3D mapping in order to apply a different strength of blur based on how far away objects are in the background, for more believable results.

It's another non-destructive edit, too, meaning that you can add to or remove from the selection if you're not happy with the strength of blur applied or if background objects get missed out first time around – for instance, it might mistake a lamp in the image above as a subject and not apply blur to it.

Having both Generative Remove and Lens Blur AI-tools to hand makes Lightroom more powerful than ever. Lens Blur is now generally available across the Lightroom ecosystem. Furthermore, there are other new tools added to Lightroom and you can find out more on the Adobe website.

You might also like

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Microsoft could turbocharge Edge browser’s autofill game by using AI to help fill out more complex forms

Microsoft Edge looks like it’s getting a new feature that could help you fill out forms more easily thanks to a boost from GPT-4 (the most up-to-date large language model from the creators of ChatGPT, OpenAI).

Browsers like Edge already have auto-fill assistance features to help fill out fields asking for personal information that’s requested frequently, and this ability could see even more improvement thanks to GPT-4’s technology.

The digital assistant currently on offer from Microsoft, Copilot, is also powered by GPT-4, and has seen some considerable integration into Edge already. In theory, the new GPT-4 driven form-filling feature will help Edge users tackle more complex or unusual questions, rather than typical basic fields (name, address, email etc) that existing auto-fill functionality handles just fine.

However, right now this supercharged auto-fill is a feature hidden within the Edge codebase (it’s called “msEdgeAutofillUseGPTForAISuggestions”), so it’s not yet active even in testing. Windows Latest did attempt to activate the new feature, but with no luck – so it’s yet to be seen how the feature works in action. 

A close up of a woman sitting at a table and typing on a computer (a laptop)

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff)

Bolstering the powers of Edge and Copilot

Of course, as noted, Edge’s current auto-fill feature is sufficient for most form-filling needs, but that won’t help with form fields that require more complex or longer answers. As Windows Latest observes, what you can do, if you wish, is just paste those kind of questions directly into Edge’s Copilot sidebar, and the AI can help you craft an answer that way. Furthermore, you could also experiment with different conversation modes to obtain different answers, perhaps. 

This pepped-up auto-fill could be a useful addition for Edge, and Microsoft is clearly trying to develop both its browser, and the Copilot AI itself, to be more helpful and generally smarter.

That said, it’s hard to say how much Microsoft is prioritizing user satisfaction, as equally, it’s implementing measures which are set to potentially annoy some users. We’re thinking about its recent aggressive advertising strategy and curbing of access to settings if your copy of Windows is unactivated, to pick a couple of examples. Not forgetting the quickly approaching deprecation date for Windows 10 (its most popular operating system).

Copilot was presented as an all-purpose assistant, but the AI still leaves a lot to be desired. However, it’s gradually seeing improvements and integration into existing Microsoft products, and we’ll have to see if the big bet on Copilot pans out as envisioned. 

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Byte app launches to fill the 6-second video gap left by Vine

If you've been missing the ability to make and share short videos from your phone since Vine shut down, some good news: its replacement Byte has now officially launched for iOS and Android devices.

Byte is a lot like Vine – it's been developed by Vine co-founder Don Hofmann, and it sticks to the same 6-second recording limit of its predecessor.

Having launched at the start of 2013, Vine found a reasonable level of success before being picked up by Twitter. It was then shut down by Twitter as a cost-cutting exercise.

That happened in 2017, but shooting and sharing short videos has continued to be hugely popular among users – just take a look at the success of TikTok, for example.

Taking a Byte

Byte's backers will be hoping that it can tap into some of TikTok's success using even shorter video clips. For now the apps are fairly basic, without any of the filters or effects you might find in something like Snapchat.

One feature that is coming soon, and which is apparently a priority for the developers, is a way for creators to easily make money from their videos (something that apps like this don't always get right).

"Byte celebrates life, community, and pure creativity," runs the blurb alongside the newly released mobile apps. "Nostalgia is our starting point, but where we go next is up to you."

It's free to install and sign up for Byte, so point your phone towards the download pages for iOS or Android if you feel you've got some content sharing to do (and want to claim your username before anyone else does).

Via TechCrunch

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More