Using Photoshop's newest AI tools for bird photographs

Lately, I've been reading a lot about Artificial Intelligence or AI, as we all have, and it is without a doubt the next big thing. As is true for many technological miracles, AI is a double-edged sword. So far, I've mostly seen the good parts of it but the power of AI to manipulate photos and sounds will undoubtedly be used by bad actors to influence buying decisions, the news, and alas, elections. All that aside, to satisfy my curiosity and to begin my AI experience using its "good side" I started playing with the new AI-powered features in Adobe Photoshop by enhancing some photos in my collection that had previously been problematic.

I'm so incredibly impressed with the AI powered Generative Fill and Remove tools included in the latest beta version of Photoshop that it inspired me to write this post. I'm not going to discuss the Remove tool here but I'll include a link to a YouTube video for interested readers below. Adobe has been improving its ability to remove distracting objects from photographs for years and each iteration is better than the last. However, these new tools are truly mind-blowing. 

Here's an example. I photographed this beautiful Black-hooded Oriole in Chiang Dao last fall. Unfortunately, the only image I was able to grab included a pesky tree branch that ruined it. Although the bird itself is beautiful, unfortunately the composition is so awful — the branch seems to be going right through the bird's head — that I never even posted it online. 

Note: to see these images at their best, please click to open them in a new window. Use the back button to return to the post.

Black-hooded Oriole, Chiang Dao, Thailand

Below is the image after removing the branch with the Generative Fill tool inside Photoshop. To use the Generative Fill tool you merely draw a rough outline of the object to be removed with the lasso or marquee tool and then ask Photoshop to Generate some fill. After a few seconds it provides three versions of the altered image that you can pick from. If you're not satisfied with any of those you can generate another set.

Black-hooded Oriole, Photoshop Generative Fill

 

This particular image is far from perfect — the background is much too busy — but the edited version is obviously a huge improvement. The subject bird wasn't touched during the processing. I only removed objects from behind it. The Generative Fill tool had only to create a few leaves and blurry stems to replace the very distracting dark branch. 

The following images of an Asian Fairy Bluebird illustrate the ability of the Generative Fill tool to actually simulate missing areas of the subject. An experienced Photoshop user could come close to this result "manually" using the Clone Stamp and/or other legacy tools inside Photoshop but that would've required a long, careful editing session. The Generative Fill process took only a few seconds in Photoshop.

Asian Fairy Bluebird, Chiang Dao, Thailand

Asian Fairy Bluebird - Photoshop Generative Fill

Seeing Photoshop create something from absolutely nothing was quite astonishing to me. It created feathers where those leaves and that small branch were blocking the bird's body. If you click on the images to see them in larger size, you'll have a better idea of how clever this tool is and how well it works. This is a normal digital image — there are no image pixels "behind" the leaves. What you're seeing there was created entirely by the software.

Even more surprising is the result I got after processing this Song Sparrow image from the Anchor River beach. I knew this would be a terrible image but I only wanted to identify this very dark, almost black, sparrow. I was hoping it was something other than a Song Sparrow but well, we don't always get what we wish for. 

I was close to my subject but there was a large driftwood stump mostly blocking the area where it was feeding. When it walked out from behind the stump, I snapped this image. Good enough for an ID but otherwise eminently forgettable.

Song Sparrow - Anchor Point, Alaska

Song Sparrow - Photoshop Generative Fill

Just take a look at the software-created sandy area, complete with beach plants and dead grass stems, where the stump used to be. Note too the greenery in the foreground, the focus of which is realistically blurry.  And all of it was created from scratch with a couple of mouse clicks and Photoshop's Generative Fill tool! 

I've been using Photoshop since the early 90s and I'm constantly amazed at what one can do with it but this new stuff, this AI stuff, is a game changer.

 Addendum

Here's a video explaining the other new Adobe AI tool I mentioned in this post, the Remove tool. In it, Youtuber and Photoshop evangelist Jesus Ramirez demonstrates its use and compares it to the legacy removal tools in Photoshop. If you watch just the first few minutes I guarantee it'll wow you.

Jesus Ramirez demo

By the way, all the photographs in this post as well as any I've posted on Facebook over the past couple of years have been treated with AI software to reduce noise and add sharpness. Topaz DeNoiseAI is a fantastic plug-in for Photoshop that accomplishes in a few seconds what might have taken five or ten minutes to do manually.