I’ll be honest: I’ve been skeptical of Generative Fill since it launched. Not because the technology isn’t impressive, but because the way most people use it creates more cleanup work than it saves. Blown-out edges, AI textures that don’t match the source image, fills baked directly into the pixel layer with no way to walk them back. I’ve seen it in client files. I’ve done it myself in early tests and quietly deleted the results.

Recently I had a product shoot for an e-commerce client where the background needed extending on three sides. The original frame was too tight for their new web template. Old me would have patched it manually with Content-Aware Fill and a lot of clone stamp work. I decided to actually commit to doing it properly with Generative Fill in Photoshop 2026 – and the workflow Aaron Nace demonstrates in this PHLEARN tutorial is what changed my approach.

What “Photoshop 2026” Actually Means for Generative Fill

The 2026 version ships with Firefly 5 as the default AI model for Generative Fill. This is a meaningful upgrade, not just a version number bump. The outputs are sharper, the edge blending is more coherent, and the model handles complex backgrounds noticeably better than earlier versions. If you’ve tried Generative Fill before and written it off, Firefly 5 is worth a second look.

One thing Aaron flags early that’s worth understanding before you run a single fill: the credit system. Generative Fill runs on Adobe Firefly credits, and Photoshop 2026 now shows you clearly when you’re working with the paid model versus a local, lower-quality fallback. Your subscription tier determines how many credits you get monthly. If you burn through them mid-project, you drop down to a slower, less accurate generation. Worth knowing before you start a large batch.

The Actual Steps for a Clean Generative Fill

The core workflow Aaron walks through is straightforward, but the details matter. Here’s how it breaks down:

Start by converting your base layer to a Smart Object. This is non-negotiable if you care about non-destructive editing – and after 15 years of building systems that need to be revisited months later, I care deeply about it.

Next, use the Crop tool to expand your canvas beyond the current image boundary. Drag the edges out to the dimensions you need. Photoshop will show you the transparent or gray-checked area that represents the new canvas space you’re working with.

Select the empty canvas area using the Rectangular Marquee tool. Feather that selection slightly – Aaron’s workflow uses a small feather to soften the boundary between the original image and where the AI generation begins. This single step is responsible for about 80% of whether a Generative Fill looks real or looks like a bad composite.

Open the Generative Fill toolbar (it appears contextually when you have an active selection) and either enter a text prompt describing what should fill the space, or leave it blank to let Firefly infer from the surrounding image. For background extensions, blank often works better. Photoshop generates three variations you can cycle through.

Here’s the part most tutorials skip: the generated fill comes in on its own layer inside a layer group. Don’t flatten it. Don’t merge it. Leave it exactly where Photoshop puts it.

Why the Layer Mask Step Is the Whole Game

The generated layer has a mask attached automatically, but Aaron’s approach involves refining that mask manually to get a seamless blend. Use a soft brush at low opacity, set to black, and paint along the boundary between the AI-generated pixels and the original image. You’re not erasing the fill – you’re gradually feathering the transition so the two regions meet naturally.

Zoom in to 100% and work slowly along any edge where texture or lighting shifts. For my product background work, this took about four minutes per image. That’s still faster than my old manual patch method, and the result held up at full resolution for print.

The mask is where you recover any spot where the AI made a bad call. A weird texture repeat, a slightly off color, a specular highlight that doesn’t match – paint it out with the mask and, if needed, do a small secondary Generative Fill just on that problem patch with a tighter selection.

Where This Workflow Falls Down (and What I Do Instead)

Generative Fill with Firefly 5 is excellent for backgrounds, environmental extensions, and removing objects from relatively simple scenes. It struggles with anything involving human hair, complex reflective surfaces, or brand-specific product details that Firefly has no reference for.

For my e-commerce work, if I’m extending around a product with a strong specular gradient – a perfume bottle, a piece of jewelry, anything with precise light behavior – I’ll use Generative Fill for the far background but still handle the immediate product surround manually. The AI doesn’t understand the physics of that reflection the way a retoucher does. The layer mask approach Aaron teaches still applies, but the actual fill in that critical zone comes from a manual source clone or a gradient I build myself.

It’s not a failure of the tool. It’s just the right division of labor.

The One Thing to Walk Away With

Leave every Generative Fill on its own masked layer and refine the mask before you consider the edit done. That one habit separates results that look like AI from results that look like photography.

Watch Aaron’s full two-minute walkthrough for the visual demonstration of the mask refinement especially – the brush work is the kind of thing that’s much clearer to see than to read. The full-length episode linked in the description goes deeper on the credit system and variation selection if you want to go further.