Adobe Photoshop on your Mac — 27.11

Over 90 image formats are readable by this one application. Adobe Photoshop 27.10 is the full image editing and graphic design suite for macOS, used by photographers, illustrators, and designers who need control over every pixel. It handles photo retouching, compositing, digital painting, animation, and layout work for posters, packaging, banners, and web graphics.

Photoshop 27.10 adds a Light adjustment layer for non-destructive exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows edits — applied without altering the original image. The new AI Assisted editor (Beta), Prompt to Edit, and Markup tools let you guide generative edits with text prompts or visual annotations. The program keeps its layered approach: masks and selections control where any edit applies, and you can combine photos, diagrams, and text into new images with one-click selection and automatic masking. Dynamic Text works on shapes and paths, and Adobe Stock content is accessible from within the app.

Fixing a bad class trip photo from a raw file

I open Photoshop first thing when a student brings in a photo that needs fixing — a badly exposed class trip picture or a poster draft that needs a background swapped. I click Open and grab a raw file from a memory card. The first thing I notice is the Light adjustment layer in the Layers panel. Instead of reaching for Curves or Levels, I click the new Light icon at the bottom of the panel. A single slider for Exposure appears; I push it to +0.7 to bring back the faces that were shadowed under a tree.

Next, I want to remove a trash can that snuck into the corner. I select the Object Selection tool from the toolbar, drag a loose rectangle around the bin, and Photoshop outlines it automatically. I press Shift+Delete to bring up the Fill dialog. The Content-Aware option fills the area with surrounding grass. It is not perfect on the first try — I use the Spot Healing Brush with a small diameter to blend the edges. The whole fix takes about forty seconds.

For a composite project, I place two photos as layers. I use the Move tool to align them, then add a layer mask to the top image. The mask protects the pixels underneath, so I can undo any stroke by switching to white and painting back. I finish by adding a Light adjustment layer on top to match the brightness of both photos.

Before saving, I open the Prompt to Edit panel from the Window menu. I type "warm golden hour light" and Photoshop adjusts the color balance across the whole image. The result is close to what I wanted, and I fine-tune it with a Curves adjustment layer.

Working on the background layer is a permanent mistake

The most common mistake I see in the game club when someone tries Photoshop for the first time is working on the background layer. The background layer is locked by default, and any edit you make to it is permanent until you undo. New users paint directly on the photo and wonder why they cannot erase without leaving white patches. The fix is simple: duplicate the background layer by dragging it to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel. Then do all your work on the copy.

Another frequent error is using the Eraser tool instead of a layer mask. The Eraser tool deletes pixels permanently. If you erase part of a layer and later want it back, you have to redo the work. A layer mask, on the other hand, hides pixels without deleting them. I tell students to think of a mask as a stencil — black paint hides, white paint reveals. Once you get used to it, you never reach for the Eraser again.

Beginners also tend to resize images by dragging the corner of the layer with the Move tool. That scales the layer non-proportionally and often makes the image look squashed. Instead, use Edit, Free Transform (or Command+T), hold the Shift key to keep proportions, and drag a corner handle. Even simpler: use Image, Image Size to change the canvas dimensions uniformly.

A third mistake is ignoring the History panel. When you make a series of edits and then want to go back five steps, clicking Undo repeatedly is slow and unreliable. The History panel shows every action as a clickable step. You can jump directly to any point in your session. I set the History States in Preferences to 50 so I have more room to backtrack.

Unchecking 'Show Save As' options for faster saving

Before you start any serious work, I recommend opening Photoshop, Preferences (Command+K), and adjusting a few defaults. Under General, I uncheck "Show 'Save As' options when saving" and check "Use Legacy 'Save As'." That way, the Save As dialog always lets you pick a format directly, without extra clicks. The new customization for file formats in the Save As and Save a Copy dialogs is in the same section — you can hide formats you never use, like Photoshop EPS or BMP, to keep the list shorter.

Under Performance, I set the History States to 50 and the Cache Level to 4. These numbers give a good balance between undo memory and speed for most work. If you edit large panoramas, you might raise the Cache Level to 6, but for everyday photo editing, 4 works well. I also make sure the Graphics Processor Settings checkbox is checked — this enables GPU acceleration for tools like the Object Selection and the Neural Filters.

Photoshop saves a crash recovery file in the background, so if the app closes unexpectedly, I can reopen it and recover the document exactly as it was. This has saved hours of work more than once.

Under Tools, I check "Show Tool Tips" — they are brief descriptions that appear when you hover over any tool. For a beginner, they explain what each tool does without switching to the help menu. I also set the Arrow Keys to move one pixel at a time instead of ten, because fine nudging is more useful for aligning layers.

a workflow for removing a person from a group photo

This is a task I handle often in the school club: a student wants to remove someone who walked into the background of a group shot. Here is the full workflow from start to finish.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop and duplicate the background layer (Layer, Duplicate Layer). Name it "Clean."
2. Select the Lasso Tool (L) and draw a rough selection around the person you want to remove. It does not need to be perfect, just inside the area around them.
3. Go to Edit, Fill, choose Content-Aware from the Contents dropdown, and click OK. Photoshop fills the selection with nearby pixels. The result usually looks reasonable but may leave odd patterns.
4. Use the Spot Healing Brush (J) with a small diameter, about 20 pixels, to brush over any repeating patterns or blurred edges. Paint in short strokes along the borders where the removal meets the original background.
5. If there are straight lines like a wall edge or a floor line that got distorted, switch to the Clone Stamp Tool (S). Option-click on a clean area of the same line, then paint over the distorted part. The Clone Stamp copies pixels exactly, so the line becomes straight again.
6. Apply a Light adjustment layer on top of the Clean layer. Drag the Highlights slider to -10 to reduce any overexposed spots left by the removal. Drag the Shadows slider to +5 to bring back detail in dark areas that might have been filled with too much shadow.
7. Save the file as a PSD (File, Save As) to keep the layers. Then export a flattened JPEG for sharing: File, Export, Export As, choose JPEG, quality 10.

The whole process takes about three minutes once you are comfortable with the tools. The key steps are the Content-Aware fill for the rough work and the Spot Healing Brush for the cleanup.

The Light adjustment layer now replaces mask workarounds

Version 27.10 brought a few changes that I notice every day in my workflow. The Light adjustment layer is the most practical addition for me. Earlier, I would create a Brightness/Contrast layer and then mask it to affect only part of the image. Now I just add a Light layer and adjust Exposure and Highlights in one place. It works the same way as a Curves layer but with fewer sliders, which makes it quicker for simple fixes.

The AI Assisted editor (Beta) is a separate panel that I open when I need a creative color change. I type a phrase like "sunset tones" and it adjusts the image. It is not always accurate — sometimes it shifts the hue too far — but it gives a starting point that I can refine with manual adjustments. The Markup tool lets me draw a circle around the area I want to change, then type a prompt. For example, I can circle a flower and type "make it blue," and Photoshop changes only that flower.

Prompt to Edit works inside the same panel. Instead of selecting a tool, I just type "increase contrast" and the app applies the change. It is not a replacement for manual adjustment layers, but it is useful when I am in a hurry or helping a student who does not know which slider to use.

The Dynamic Text feature for shapes and paths is something I use when making banners for the school. I create a curved path with the Pen tool, then type text that follows the curve. Earlier, I had to use a separate text-on-path tool, but now it is integrated directly into the Type Tool's options.

One thing to note: Generative Fill is not available in this version. The new AI tools are the Prompt to Edit and Markup, which work differently — they modify existing pixels rather than generating new ones from scratch. For removing objects, I still rely on Content-Aware Fill and the Healing Brush, which work well enough for most school projects.

• macOS 14
• Intel or Apple Silicon processor