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Rikk Flohr-Retired
Adobe Employee
Aug 30, 2024 1:36 PM UTC
Question

P: Generative Expand (CR)

Updated on July 7th, 2026.

This post is to collect in-app customer feedback on the Generative Expand feature in Camera Raw. 

 

Generative Expand seamlessly blends the edges of your existing image with newly generated content that naturally fits into the background without taking away from your photo’s original subject. Some use cases for Generative Expand are:

 

  • Expand the canvas for images that were accidentally cropped 
  • Fill in the edges of Geometry Edits
  • Adjust the aspect ratio of a photo for social media 

 

We'd love to hear what it does well, what it doesn't, and how you'd like it to work. 

 

Please also include the following details in your post: 

 

  • Camera Raw version
  • System details
  • Example image(s) if you wish to share

 

Our team continually monitors this thread. Thanks!


Thanks!

Peter Baust - Dir, Product Management

Posted by: Rikk Flohr

71 replies

Participant
Jul 15, 2026 10:39 AM UTC

Camera raw 18.4.1.2647

In this latest version of Camera Raw, the “Constrain Crop” checkbox has disappeared from the Geometry tab. It's very useful when adjusting the scale and the X or Y offset, which are never very precise. It would also be nice to have more precision in this adjustment—for example, by pressing a key to change the value in increments of 0.1.
Personally, this is something I do every day to crop photos of paintings taken in museums. It shouldn’t be that complicated to implement, and it would be great to have more precision. 

Thanks

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Known Participant
Sep 1, 2026 1:51 PM UTC

Great idea, I also wish I could press a key to have pixel level control when cropping. 

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Participant
Jul 14, 2026 6:08 PM UTC

Results were terrible and unusable.

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Participant
Jul 10, 2026 3:44 AM UTC

I think a waste of credits simply did not work

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Participant
Jul 9, 2026 3:49 AM UTC

Not great, it doesn’t preserve the texture, or grain, just gives a bit of appropriately coloured blur and it corrects further into the image than it needs to, thus deteriorating parts of the image that were fine. Can’t be used except for small and low res files where scrutiny is not possible. Would be better to enable healing or cloning into those corners. Currently I am using it to fill the corners - when I have starightened horizon etc - so that I can heal over the top, but it’s a bit long winded

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dnbnc
Participating Frequently
Jul 8, 2026 2:46 PM UTC

I'm trying out the “Generative Expand” option in Camera Raw, and while it works correctly, it doesn't preserve the background textures. It adds a background, but the texture is different from the rest, and that's very noticeable.

 

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dnbnc
Participating Frequently
Jul 8, 2026 2:43 PM UTC

I'm trying out the “Generative Expand” option in Camera Raw, and while it works correctly, it doesn't preserve the background textures. It adds a background, but the texture is different from the rest, and that's very noticeable.

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Participant
Jul 8, 2026 10:35 AM UTC

Please put the checkbox back for automatically cropping to constraint!  

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Participating Frequently
Jul 13, 2026 3:18 PM UTC

yes, please bring this checkbox back. our workflow isnt’t the same with the new CR-update...

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Participating Frequently
Jul 4, 2026 5:11 PM UTC

Tried it, wasn’t able to generate an image,  “encountered an issue and was not able to complete the request.   1st window response said aspect ratio, but that window disappeared within milliseconds and was not able to read it. 

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Inspiring
Jun 4, 2026 3:25 AM UTC

When will this feature make it to Lightroom Classic.

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andyr
Participant
Jun 1, 2026 5:50 PM UTC

nikon Z7 NEF files - PC with tons of memory and a big GPU

Repeatedly and without any pattern I can see witll not generativly expanda frame. function is greyed out. requires a shutdown and restart of the computer. Very annoying:)

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