Firefly is terrible

[OhJakie]

Not really a bug, but I dont know what else to put it under. Firefly ignores most of my prompt and gives me simple low quality images that dont even make sense. I describe what I want with great detail and its frustrating that it ignores what I want and gives me random stuff. I heard great things about Firefly but so far it has beyond disappointing.

[droopydog500]

Hello @OhJakie,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry you are having this problem. 

Can you please share some of your prompts? Sometimes tweaking prompts can dramatically improve the results.

Thanks,
    droopy

[Mr. Spaceman]

I've used Firefly on a daily basis in tandem with Midjourney for over a year now. Up until Photoshop update v26.1 you were better off not putting a prompt in at all and having Firefly intuitively fill in or correct whatever it is your trying generate and it would only do so within the bounds of the pixels you had selected. Now what Firefly does if you don't put a prompt is it will generate well outside of the bounds that you select, usually altering something you didn't want changed, and then if you tell it something very specific that you want it to ie (fix jawline, remove ring from finger,) it spits out either unusable low resolution images or it'll put something in there that you didn't ask for but also makes zero sense in the context of image at large. This new update has broken the generative model and in many ways made it far less usable. I'll type in a prompt that says "give the man a bald head" or "remove the man's hair" and I'll get images of big white blobs or full heads of hair. For how dominant Adobe is in the graphic design and photo manipulation space it's baffling how inconsistent and bad Firefly can be. That being said it's also on many occassions given me amazing generated snippets that solve whatever I'm trying to correct. I haven't had a chance to try Beta v 26.3 yet but I'm hoping these issues were addressed in that.

[reconrad]

content=begin.rant()

 I can't say that Firefly has ever given me acceptable results. Well, if it's something really really simple, it may produce borderline acceptable results, however, it's is completely unusable to me. And if I have to "first" take my image outside of photoshop to get the results I'm looking for, then essentially that makes photoshop's "generative AI" wholly and completely useless. And keep in mind, I am not just ranting to be overly critical here... As a high standard artist, graphic designer, painter etc... I am simply trying to emphasize and convey just how unacceptable firefly's Image generation AI is compared to other leading image generation AI's out there. I would think that Adobe would not want to take the "cost-effective" spot in at the back of the line approach when it comes to setting themselves apart as a leader in this graphics/photography/artistic industry. With due respect, whoever is in charge of this generative AI department needs to step down and go in the department they should have never left, which would be "I just love over-simplified-abstract-interpretation" department. This mentality should not be allowed to be leaked or influence the primary objective which is to not let a single interpretation of graphics/photography/art BE the only one. He or she probably drinks too much wine anyway and has delusions of grandiosity anyway. Okay so that might have been a bit overly critical but those of us who have witnessed these abstract art extremist taking over the art world/industry with a linear and overly simplified enforcement of what is considered good art, are probably very frustrated.

content=end.rant()

Since I couldn't get the text prompt to produce a style similar to the 1st image on the left, (despite reinterating to the AI that I wanted it to make the existing photo a pencil sketch), I ultimately added a reference image (where it doesn't permit a text prompt to accompany it) and Firefly3 kicked the image furthest to the right out. It doesn't look as bad as it really is at this lower res/smaller scale, but close up it's (bottom image) you can see that it fell off the wagon, strayed way out into the left field. 

[Mr. Spaceman]

Oh and I forgot to mention how frequently Firefly blocks the thing I'm trying to correct and gives me the orange warning message about the guidelines and not violating the user agreement. I'm assuming it's thinking that I'm trying to get it to create nudity or something along those lines, which I've never done because I need Firefly for my workflow and don't want to risk having my access revoked. I'll type a prompt that says "remove the dark spot on her cheek" or "blend the skin on her finger" or "fix the knuckle on her pinky finger" and I'll get these orange warning messages. I'll then try to get Firefly to intuitively do it without a prompt and get the same sort of error messages. Doesn't seem to matter how much feedback I provide when they incorrectly block the things I'm trying to do but with the most recent Photoshop update it's become particularly egregious with even the most basic things.

[Lionfishing]

Firefly is terrible. Lifelong Adobe user and art director. If Adobe plans to charge "credits" for the images they generate, they are going to have to make some major changes to their AI model so it actually provides usable images and has a responsive interface. So far I use it primarily for generating background slop for product mockups, which is about all it can handle. Trying to generate artwork with it is infuriating. I'd really like to keep AI generation in the Adobe suite to keep things easy for my company, but at this point the software just doesn't have the usability to make that realistic. Not sure where Adobe went wrong, but I want to chime in and agree 100% with what the OPs are saying here. It's a mess.

[Nite-Stian]

these prompts wont work as firefly currently does not understand negative prompting or commands.

avoid using nouns such as remove, give, add, etc. instead just type what you want (e.g.) bald head.

generally I find descriptive and specific prompts to work better. 

[Haggi Hug]

Firefly still is so bad. Low, low, low, compared to other engines.
It ignores half (or more) of the prompt, the output is low quality and you have to be extreme lucky to get something you can use in real life.

If you test the same prompt with different macjhines, you see how far Firefly is behind. It's like stoneage and old egypt.

[Amberg Art]

You are not alone. I can use the same prompt in ChatGPT an get a great result while Firefly is in "Zombie-Mode" again. People who look so strange that you feel like you're back in the early days of AI. I don't even want to talk about video generation. My “free” attempts were useless. And as long as I can't expect better results, I'm not willing to pay any more money. I hope Adobe brings a noticeable improvement in quality.

[mvb88]

Has it actually got worse? I have just created a picture of three people talking to each other. They have neither arms nor faces. I used a very detailed prompt for this. When I shortened it to just one sentence, I at least got some faces, but the scary kind of faces. It seems to be worse than last year.

[Oh.N8]

Hey @OhJakie 

Adding a bit more to what @droopydog500 mentioned.

Start with simple prompts. Build on the image.
Provide style or reference reference images. Even a simple drawing goes a long way.

Reference Image: Firefly will attempt to closely match the image you provided
Style Image: the style you are looking for in the outcome.

Use the image you like as a style or reference image and build on it.
Change the prompt according to the desired outcome.

Cheers

O. Nate

[Amberg Art]

Same silly prompt - two results. One from Firefly, one from ChatGPT. Guess which is which 😉

[Haggi Hug]

Yes, the difference can even be worse …

[Piborg]

I agree, Firefly simply is very bad on it's images outputs, and 4 out of 10 times I gety the "Can't load, we can't display the generated image" Midjourney is BY FAR BETTER and they don't stab you with high costs month in and month out 0 / 10 stars

[ruggero5E4A]

I agree, firefly actually is almost useless. It just generate shutterstock-like pics but the overall quality is really bad. images are all poor and flat (in the worst way).

[unknownsailor]

After a frustrating morning on Firefly I Googled 'Firefly is terrible' and this thread came up. I agree with the above sentiments, it really is an appaling tool.

I submitted a vector of a silouetted river and asked for variations ('variations of river'), and it is returning absolute garbage; completely irrelevant pictures of people or cartoons. It ignores prompts like 'single colour' or shapes (eg 'contain river in a circle'). Just for kicks I tried Firefly 4 Ultra and it decided to add text in what looks like Swedish! What's that all about?!

I'm not a big AI image generator user but on the odd occassion I'm having much better luck with the free services out there. Considering the amount of effort put into promoting Firefly by Adobe, it's embarrassing. 

[Kartika Rawat]

Hi @OhJakie!

We’re sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with Firefly. Your feedback is incredibly valuable, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns. Please know that we’re continuously working to improve Firefly’s capabilities, and your insights help us refine the experience for all users. If you’d like to provide additional details about your prompts, we’d be happy to investigate further.

Let us know. 

Thanks,
^KR

moved to discussions

[ruggero5E4A]

actually the feedback is: totally useless.

[Skylyn]

I googled the same and also ended up on this thread. How can Adobe charge for something so terrible. I've given the same prompts to Firefly and ChatGTP and there is no comparison. Firefly is laughable. So disappointed. It's sad that nearly a year after this thread was started,  it still has the same complaints. 

[joshuas78512062]

I fully agree with you even a year later. The engine also regards some prompts as "inappropriate" even though it truly isn't. 

I attempt to generate image to video of godlike visuals and movement, light rays, floating objects, and yet it gives me a "error" as it doesn't fit with their guidelines. Useless tool. Such a limiting and disappointing tool for such a long standing business. 

I'm two seconds away from cancelling my subscription after weeks of trying to create useful results. I'm yet to see any.. at all. 

[Monika Gause]

Please post the exact prompt.

[AB_OS_c]

I have nothing to contribute except my response as a number to add to those who feel it's garbage. The idea that Adobe wants to charge extra... wow. Another user said they use it for background slop, yep, that's what I use it for too. Cleaning up bits and pieces is fine, trying to generate usable elements though... forget about it.

[natural_musician5FFD]

bad AI genarative ever, 

[Lilachan]

Iʻm struggling to, which brings me here. Here is just one example of ignoring prompts: