The latest version of Photoshop (January 2026) has a whole bunch of improvements which are not, for once, just about AI. Instead, there are new tools and features for photographers too (even if they are borrowed from Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw).
Photoshop doesn’t get covered much on Life after Photoshop (there’s a clue, right there), but it comes with the standard Adobe Photography Plan and it is useful for some editing tasks that you can’t do in Lightroom.
What the January 2026 update adds, however, is some stuff that is already standard issue in Lightroom anyway. So, not new really, but familiar tools in a new context.
- Clarity and Dehaze adjustment layer: Clarity and Dehaze are regular adjustments in Lightroom, but until now the only way to apply them in Photoshop was with the Adobe Camera Raw filter. Now, though, they can be added with a regular adjustment layer. That’s actually quite neat.
- Grain adjustment layer: The new Grain adjustment layer also saves you a trip to the Adobe Camera Raw filter, and it’s a welcome addition. It would be quite cool to see some of the other ACR tools making it across to regular Photoshop adjustment layers too.
- New Generative Fill models: So yes, it’s back to the AI bandwagon, and with this release Adobe has added the option to use third-party FLUX and Gemini models, which I take as a sign that Adobe’s own Firefly is not all that great. Another sign is that Firefly will cost you 1 credit per generation, while the others cost 10-40 credits depending on the version you choose. OUCH!
- Reference image for Generative Fill: This is a way of matching AI-generated filled areas with an image of your choice.
- Improved Remove tool: It’s not clear what Adobe has done to improve it, but if it’s better it’s better, so that’s good.
These improvements do make Photoshop more compelling if you don’t use Lightroom, or if you don’t want to keep swapping between them for Clarity, Dehaze and Grain adjustments. The Generative Fill improvements will also be interesting for those who use them, but with the major caveat that the new third-party options consume a lot more credits, and while some Adobe Plans include decent monthly credits allowances, the Photography Plan does not.
