Of course, generative AI has been enhanced in this update: New partner models, expanded use of reference images to guide the generative process, and tie-ins to the new and useful Firefly Boards. But it's where AI lends a helping rather than a heavy hand that we're most pleased—like AI-assisted layer cleanup and improvements to the Remove tool.
But a standout feature that will only get better is Rotate Object. It turns a pixel layer into a 3D object that can be rotated and tilted. Currently, it may work better with some content, but remember, this is the worst the feature will be, and it's already pretty cool.
Object Rotation
Although this feature can find the subject of an image and isolate it for rotation, there are distinct advantages to doing that ourselves, placing the subject on a layer of its own. This allows us to remove traces of that subject in the layer from which it came. Let's take a look at an example:
The original image. A young woman hailing her ride as she leaves a hotel.
In this photo, a young woman is apparently leaving a hotel and flagging her ride. We'll turn that around, literally, and have her waving to friends as she arrives.
As I mentioned above, I find it clarifying to select our subject and move her to a layer above the original background. I also duplicated that background in case I decide to return to the original narrative.
Although the new Rotate Object feature has some luck isolating a subject, I chose to do so myself, mostly so I could still see the context from which the subject has been removed.
You can see in the Layers panel that after I got our subject on her own layer, I've removed her from the Background copy layer (dimmed here to better see our subject's isolation). Rotate object is part of Photoshop's transforms, so I just activated Free Transform to see the rotate option in the contextual task bar (see above). You can learn these preliminary steps (and very advanced ones, too) in our Photoshop classes.
Since this is part of Free Transform, we can scale and rotate in more ordinary ways, too. But once we start using the Rotate object controls, life gets interesting!
Once Rotate object has been initiated, we see a disturbingly low-resolution preview. Once we hit the Done button, however, a better image resolves.
We rotate the new 3D model with the blue control at the bottom of the transform box, tilt with the control on the left, and adjust perspective with the one on the right. Precise values can be entered in the Properties panel. Yes, she looks odd in the screenshot above: We're given a low-resolution preview until we click the Done button in the contextual task bar. Even then, we can return and adjust our settings later.
The result may be of sufficient resolution, but the subject may lack shadows and consistent lighting. The Contextual task bar has the remedy: The Harmonize button.
After the rotation and other transformations, we need to ground her with shadows and lighting refinements. The contextual task bar seems to know that, too, offering the Harmonize feature which gives us several versions to choose from.
By the way, we could have rotated her completely to have her walking away from us, but that seemed rude.
Rotate object can “reveal” (actually generate, of course) other sides of objects and people.
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