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bellevue scott
Inspiring
May 28, 2026
Question

content aware fill is really getting worse

  • May 28, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 66 views

On the Mac 27.6X, PS content aware keeps getting worse, and we (several of us work together) suspect that AI is ruining everything. Yesterday one of my editors stitched a scan together from about a dozen images and he had missed a small section. There wasn’t really much there in terms of detail, so he just selected it with the lasso tool and hit the delete key and selected “content aware fill”. If filled the hole with green. He then tried some different things, and each time it was progressively worse, at one point making a green square with a laptop in it. 

 

When we scan or photograph paintings, some paper paintings we hold up with magnets. He had not yet cloned out the magnets on the edges, and PS filled the green square in the middle of the image with a large magnet from the edge of the painting. No proximity at all to the area being filled. 
 

And while I know this is an anecdotal example, I was having a conversation with someone about PS the other day at the gym, and this person says “have you noticed how AI is ruining the content aware tool?”. Yeah. I noticed. Others have noticed too. What was one of the most amazing advancements that Adobe made in PS, it’s being ruined by AI. 

 

Adobe, take notice. We notice. We who use this program every day and have for decades notice, and can’t be gaslit into believing we’re wrong about it. AI is ruining everything, and Adobe PS is at the top of the list. So is Premier. While I don’t use it every day, I know people who do, and the comments are the same as with PS. We’re all seeing more garbage programming and a decrease in productivity, and new bugs with each release. From broken droplets to content aware, to basic sizing issues, Adobe needs to get its act together. 

 

 

    3 replies

    davescm
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 4, 2026

    @bellevue scott Do you get better results if you use Content Aware Fill from the Edit menu and then select which areas are used to build the fill?

    Dave

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 29, 2026

    Photoshop 2023 is the oldest Photoshop version I have access to and in a quick test the result is different from Photoshop 2026, but not terribly different. Which may be owed more to the image I used in the test than to a difference in the Content-Aware processing. 

     

    Can you reproduce the example with the green area or could there have been an unintentional Layer Selection-situation? 

    Could you provide the file? 

     

    AI is ruining everything

    I think Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill has technically always been an implementation of AI – though the version originally released was probably an extremely simple one by today’s standards. 

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 5, 2026

    My understanding is that it’s AI, but not Generative AI, which is what most people think of when AI is mentioned. Just like select subject is AI, or Neural Filters etc.

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 28, 2026

    @bellevue scott wrote: he just selected it with the lasso tool

     

    It’s best to make a selection that is slightly larger than the area to be filled instead of making a tight selection.

     

    Watch this video from Matt Kloskowski on Content Aware for tips:

    https://mattk.com/why-content-aware-is-still-a-must-know-photoshop-tool/

     

    Jane

     

    bellevue scott
    Inspiring
    June 4, 2026

    Jane, I get that. I’ve been using PS for over 20 years professionally. 

    Yesterday, for example, I used content aware to extend 1/2” on the top and bottom of the image to extend the top and bottom to match a print size. The  bottom 1/2” was grey rocks. The top 1/2” was blue sky. The selection was about 1/8” into the image both top and bottom. PS turned part of the lower portion into sky from the upper portion. Clearly there was no proximity. 

    I bring this up because content aware used to be incredible, but lately I’m seeing it sample from areas that make no sense, or make things blurry. It’s getting worse, and it’s not my imagination, or my ability to understand that you need to sample part of the image around what’s to be replaced. 

     

    jane-e
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    June 4, 2026

    Hi ​@bellevue scott 

     

    May I ask if you watched the tutorial from Matt K and tried his tips for being successful with Content Aware Fill? Or did you use the method that hasn’t worked for you?

     

    Please humor me and watch the video. The first part shows steps that don’t work and why, so you can start at 3m52s if you don’t want to watch the whole tutorial.

     

    Thank you ​@bellevue scott!

    Jane