Adobe has finally released a real Photoshop iPhone app – not Photoshop Express, not Lightroom, but Photoshop, the company’s Marquee program, which is actually synonymous with photo editing. Does it take more than 20 years? certainly. However, I would rather have a deep dive into everything in this inaugural Photoshop iOS app. If you are an Android user, don't worry; you can expect to see a version later this year.
After learning about the app over the past few days, the most accurate and concise thing I can say is: It's totally its own beast. Many of us know and like Photoshop (as a desktop app or on the web) is full of tools and precise to the occasional temperament. But when creating a mobile version of Photoshop, Adobe faces a (recognized) challenge to narrow down its professional, dysfunctional programs to smaller screens and smaller editing menus. Frankly speaking, this is indeed impossible. Instead, Adobe had to reimagine the age at which the program could take good photos on the phone and edit them there.
The end result can do what it should do – in some cases, which is actually pretty good – but everyone from veteran professional users to beginners has to spend some time re-engaging Photoshop on their iPhone. But once you feel the way it is laid out, we all feel a little familiar with Photoshop, sometimes even love. The mobile app is free to use, or you can upgrade to the premium plan for $8 per month – if you're already paying for photography, Creative Cloud, or other Adobe plans including Photoshop, you can also access the app.
These are the features that stand out for me, I have tried and tested tips to find your way out, and I hope everything Adobe has in the next update.
Tips for using Photoshop on iPhone
During the entire process of using the app, I felt Déjàvu for the first time exploring Photoshop. I found myself tripping in the menu, looking for the right tools, tweaking the nitpicky slider, and running into frustrating errors I ended up solving. The fun of creation!
If you feel there should be more features, then some features may be missing if you don't open the submenu of each tool. You must continue to tap each option to reveal another line or options panel. Given your iPhone's limited screen real estate, this is an understandable design choice, but it makes the learning curve tedious. Once you know where the tool is located, it will reduce inconvenience.
Once you find your way out more comfortably, you need to be familiar with Tap Select.
Learn about click selection
Tap Select is a new, choice tool for motorcycles that you will want to learn quickly. It can help you isolate the area of the project you want to edit. If you are familiar with the quick actions in the Lightroom mobile app, you will identify different ways in which elements in their items are classified: theme, background, and sky. In Photoshop, it also removes other elements in the project tool.
However, this is by no means a perfect tool. In a memorable situation, the engine separates my colleague Imad's glasses and eyes from the rest of him. I guess I could have given him glowing red eyes, but I didn't want to do that.
Clicking on select seems to identify the object at will. Sometimes it pulls out random objects in the background of my photo and misses people in the foreground. Other times it works well – inconsistent. When you need to make precise selections on your desktop, you can tease and adjust the selection to pixels as needed. However, you will naturally be more restrictive of mobile devices, which makes it frustrating when the Tap Select can't seem to choose what you want to choose. The Add and Subtraction tools are designed to perfect your choices and require some elaboration.
While you may need to choose a choice to get what you want, you can eventually create unlimited layers before creating a mask. For beginners, masking is a process that allows you to hide and reveal different layers in your project. This is an essential tool in the photo editor's toolbox, but you also need time to meet it. I found that creating and using masks on mobile devices is less intimidating than on desktop, but it is still a learning process.
Masking it on mobile is one thing that separates Photoshop from other basic editors. “I’m glad that more people understand the power of cover and how much benefits are for the non-destructive hidden elements of your image,” Shambhavi Kadam, senior director of product management at Photoshop Mobile, said in an interview at the APP launch. “When I work on a project, it gives me more flexibility.”
Like Tap Select, masking is not perfect on mobile devices. But I hope to see future improvements in this foundation.
Firefly AI on the Journey
There is no separate Firefly iPhone app, so Photoshop is a good choice if you need to generate AI images instantly. Like other experiences I have on Adobe Firefly, AI images are pretty good too. There are three changes to each prompt for you. With Firefly Web or desktop applications, there are no subsequent editing tools that can be further refined. This is a serious loss for creators. Firefly is one of the best editing panels for AI image generators I've tested. Being able to upload reference images, specify styles, and make other adjustments is the key to creating available AI images. You have nothing in the Photoshop Mobile app. So if you are not satisfied with the changes, you need to edit manually in the application or start over.
Another option to edit AI images is to add layers of assets in the Adobe Stock Free Collection. The Photoshop app allows you to easily search and upload without logging in to Adobe Stock and manually license it, downloading and uploading each element. If you want to pay for images or elements that are not included in the free collection, you need to do everything. But as a budget-conscious creator, I appreciate the integration of the free collection.
I used fireflies to generate images of mountains and stars and then layered the Adobe inventory gradients to make it a colorful sky like Aurora borealis.
Adobe told me last year that generating fill is one of the most commonly used tools in Photoshop—compared with crop tools—so it’s no surprise to see the Genai tool being frontal and center in a mobile app. You'll get three variants and lack editing tools (although generating fillers isn't too important). I did notice that generations on desktop apps seem to be clearer than mobile apps, but I don't know why. Overall, these generations are available. Generative Expand also doesn't seem to produce the same high-quality results as I've seen. However, generating deletes are comparable to desktop applications.
As a reminder, Adobe's AI policy states that it won't train in your work. Adobe's AI models are trained using publicly licensed content, including Adobe Stock. You can choose not to use Generate AI by adjusting the settings.
Reset your expectations and you will be happy
Photoshop is essentially different from many other mobile photo editing apps that simply prompt you to scroll through different thumbnails to choose the best filter or adjust some sliders. Therefore, the task of creating a mobile app that truly meets the content users need is to climb the mountains. At its first release, I thought Adobe did a great job in this. But I hope this is just setting the stage for a more powerful update and more feature rollout.
Inevitably, you will encounter an era when you want to have specific tools or more precise control over your editing. Although I'm not a professional creator, it makes me suspect that the mobile app may not replace your work with other versions of Photoshop. If you use Photoshop all day and go to work every day, you may notice and quickly reach the limitations of mobile apps. With regard to screen size and available editing tools, using Photoshop on iPad can be a happy medium between mobile and desktop applications.
The biggest thing this app can do is its convenience, and I think that's the only reason to use it. If you need to quickly adjust the color scheme, add text to images, or resize items to make social media friendly, they can all be done in the app. But don't expect to be a nitpicky Nancy when editing on the plane, because you end up bent over and yelling on your iPhone (at least that's my experience).
