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Adobe announced this Photoshop update on October 18, 2022, at Adobe MAX 2022. It made object selection more capable on desktop, added a one-click Delete and Fill workflow, brought one-tap cleanup tools to Photoshop for iPad, and introduced a Photo Restoration Neural Filter in beta through Photoshop on the web. The features were not identical across platforms, so this was a cross-platform update rather than one uniform release for every Photoshop user.
The practical focus was speed: selecting subjects, removing distractions, cleaning up scans, and making basic tonal corrections required fewer manual steps. It was not, however, a promise of perfect masking or archival-quality restoration.
What changed in Photoshop’s October 2022 update?
Adobe’s announcement combined improvements to established machine-learning tools with new platform-specific workflows. Desktop users received more accurate Object Selection and Delete and Fill. Photoshop for iPad gained one-tap background removal, Content-Aware Fill, portrait selection, and automatic corrections. Photoshop on the web received or was slated to receive several features while still in limited beta.
Adobe’s original announcement is available in its October 2022 Photoshop press release. Contemporary reporting from Engadget covered the same Adobe MAX update on October 18, 2022.
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Object Selection became better at recognizing regions and objects
The desktop Photoshop update improved the Object Selection tool’s ability to identify recognizable subjects and areas. Adobe highlighted selections involving:
- Skies and foregrounds
- People and hair
- Buildings and flooring
- Water, plants, ground, and mountains
- Sidewalks and streets
Instead of carefully tracing every outline, a user could choose the Object Selection tool, hover over a detectable object or region, and click to create a selection. Photoshop then attempted to preserve the subject’s detailed edges.
This was most useful when selection was the bottleneck before another edit. A photographer could select a person or sky before applying an adjustment; a designer could isolate a building for compositing; and a retoucher could select a foreground distraction before removing it.
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“More accurate” did not mean flawless. Hair, foliage, wires, transparent materials, reflections, fences, and low-contrast edges can still cause automatic selections to include background pixels or omit parts of the subject. Zoom in and inspect the mask before committing to a composite or destructive edit. A selection that looks convincing at fit-to-screen size may reveal halos or missing detail at 100 percent.
Delete and Fill combined selection with Content-Aware Fill
Adobe also added a faster object-removal workflow called Delete and Fill. The intended process was:
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- With Photoshop, you can create and enhance photographs, illustrations, and 3D artwork
- Design websites and mobile apps
- Edit videos, simulate real-life paintings, and more
- Open an image and choose the Object Selection tool.
- Hover over or select the unwanted object.
- Apply Delete and Fill.
- Photoshop removes the selection and uses Content-Aware Fill to construct replacement pixels.
Engadget reported a Shift + Delete shortcut in connection with the desktop update. The exact shortcut and behavior should be checked against the particular Photoshop release and platform; Adobe did not make every feature behave identically across desktop, web, and iPad.
The workflow is strongest when the area behind the object contains predictable texture: a clear sky, grass, sand, or an uncomplicated wall. Results are less dependable around repeated architecture, text, faces, hands, complex shadows, or objects that overlap the thing being removed. Keep a duplicate layer or working copy so you can refine the fill with healing, cloning, masking, or a second pass.
Photo Restoration Neural Filter targeted damaged old photographs
The headline’s AI restoration reference points to Adobe’s Photo Restoration Neural Filter. Adobe described it as a machine-learning tool for identifying and reducing scratches, minor imperfections, and other visible damage in old photographs.
The most important availability detail is that Adobe announced Photo Restoration as a beta feature in Photoshop on the web. It should not be described as a fully released desktop Photoshop feature in the October 2022 announcement. Web access was also limited or beta at the time, so availability could depend on the user’s account, region, and release channel.
For a scanned family photograph, the filter could provide a useful first pass before manual healing, cloning, dust removal, and tonal correction. But restoration is not the same as recovering the original image. If a face, letter, or section of the photograph is completely missing, the tool cannot reliably know what was there. It may soften genuine facial detail or create plausible-looking texture.
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- Get started in a snap and grow your skills with Quick, Guided, and Advanced editing modes.
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- Get your colors just right with easy color correction tools and color grading presets.
That distinction matters for historical, journalistic, legal, or documentary work. Preserve the original scan, save the processed version separately, and disclose substantial AI intervention when authenticity matters. Damage reduction can make an image more usable; it does not prove that every resulting pixel reflects the original photograph.
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Photoshop for iPad received several simplified, one-tap workflows:
- Remove Background: used subject-isolation technology related to Select Subject to create a layer mask automatically.
- Content-Aware Fill: removed unwanted objects or people and filled the resulting area.
- Improved Select Subject: Adobe specifically highlighted improvements for portrait images.
- Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, and Auto Color: one-tap adjustments for common tonal and color corrections.
These changes made the tablet version more practical for quick edits without implying that it had the complete desktop toolset. The one-tap approach was valuable for a photographer or painter working from an iPad who needed to isolate a subject, remove a background, or make a basic correction before continuing with manual work.
Photoshop on the web remained a beta-oriented experience
Photoshop on the web was still in limited beta around the announcement. Adobe listed capabilities that were available, being added, or planned for the browser experience, including:
- Object Selection
- Remove Background
- Adobe Camera Raw edits
- Content-Aware Fill
- Masking and brushing
- Photo Restoration Neural Filter
- Share for Review collaboration
Those labels matter. A feature mentioned as planned in October 2022 was not necessarily available to every user that day. Browser-based Photoshop also could not be assumed to offer the same tools, performance, offline behavior, or file-handling options as the desktop application.
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Share for Review added browser-based feedback
Adobe introduced Share for Review in beta alongside the editing changes. It allowed a Photoshop project to be shared through a web link so collaborators could review and comment in a browser. Adobe said collaborators could provide feedback without needing a Creative Cloud subscription, with comments synchronized across devices.
This was secondary to the selection and restoration changes, but it fit the same cross-platform direction: editing could happen in Photoshop while review happened through a browser.
Who benefited most from the update?
- Desktop retouchers and designers: people who repeatedly selected skies, people, buildings, landscapes, or other recognizable regions could reduce tracing time.
- Photographers: Delete and Fill offered a quicker first attempt at removing signs, people, or foreground distractions.
- iPad users: one-tap background removal, Content-Aware Fill, portrait selection, and automatic corrections reduced desktop-style setup steps.
- Family-photo restorers: users with scanned prints could test Photo Restoration as a starting point, provided they kept the original scan.
- Review-heavy teams: Share for Review made browser comments more convenient for clients and collaborators.
Users with a stable, production-critical workflow should treat beta web features cautiously and verify access before building a process around them. The update was most meaningful for repetitive cleanup and masking, not as a replacement for careful retouching.
How significant was it?
The October 2022 release was an important refinement of common Photoshop tasks, but it was not an entirely generative-AI redesign. It combined Adobe’s machine-learning selection and restoration work with established tools such as masks, adjustments, and Content-Aware Fill.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Its biggest everyday benefit was reducing the number of steps between identifying an object and acting on it. Its biggest limitation was that faster automation still required judgment: selections needed inspection, fills could contain artifacts, and restoration could produce plausible details rather than historically verified ones.
What changed after the 2022 update?
This article describes the historical October 2022 announcement, not the latest Photoshop release. Adobe’s current Photoshop documentation lists a much broader generative-AI toolset, including Generative Fill, Generative Expand, Generative Upscale, Harmonize, Generate Background, Generate Similar, and AI model selection. Adobe says these generative features use generative credits. See the current Photoshop generative-AI overview for the present feature set and qualifications.
Current Remove-tool workflows also include detected “general distractions,” a color-coded overlay, category controls, and the ability to brush areas into or out of the proposed removal. Adobe’s current workflow is documented in Review and refine general distractions. These newer tools should not be retroactively attributed to the 2022 update.
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