The problem
Resizing a client's photo for a new banner often means rebuilding the background by hand. If a designer has 12 such images a month and each takes 25 minutes to extend or clean up, that's 300 minutes, 5 hours a month.
What the AI does
Adobe's Photoshop page names Generative Fill, Generative Expand and the Remove tool, and says Generative Fill and Expand are powered by Adobe Firefly. Use Generative Expand to extend a photo to a new banner ratio and the Remove tool to take out a stray object. The plan lists 25 monthly generative credits. The page says these apply to Firefly generative features but not which actions use them or how many each takes, so check how quickly they run out. Look closely at every result, because edges, hands, text and logos can come out wrong. Don't use it to change a product or person in a way that misleads the viewer.
A worked example
A freelance brand designer in Edinburgh adapts about 12 client photos a month for banners and social formats, mostly by cloning backgrounds.
Before
12 images at 25 minutes each: 300 minutes, 5 hours a month
After
If Generative Expand or the Remove tool plus a check takes about 10 minutes each: 120 minutes, 2 hours a month
What it's worth
About 3 hours a month saved (180 minutes), worth about £105 at £35 an hour, if the tools work on your images without many retries (an assumption to test if you can try it first). Cost: £21.98 a month including VAT on the annual plan billed monthly, about £22 (£9.98 for the first 3 months for new subscribers). You may already pay for Photoshop through Creative Cloud.
How to set it up
- Check whether Adobe offers a trial, and check your existing Adobe plan includes Photoshop and generative credits.
- Try Generative Expand on three real client images and see how many credits each uses.
- Check each result at full size for odd edges, warped details and anything that changes the meaning of the image.
- Read Adobe's current terms on commercial use of Firefly-generated content for your plan before using it in client work.
- Tell clients in your contract or brief when generative tools were used on their images, if they ask for that.
What goes wrong
- Adobe's pages carry wording on commercial use that does not read consistently. Read the current terms for your plan before client work, and never assume AI output is automatically yours to use.
- The plan lists 25 generative credits a month and the page does not say which actions use them or how many. Heavy use may run out. The Photography plan (£19.97 a month including VAT, with Photoshop and Lightroom) costs less than Photoshop alone (£21.98), so compare plans first.
- Don't extend, remove or add things in a way that misleads, such as changing a product's size or appearance in an ad.
- Don't prompt for another living artist's style or a competitor's brand. Stock and font licences still apply.