[This article is excerpted and adapted from Rick Sammon’s course from Photoshop World 2024, “Have Fun in Photoshop.” Keep reading, or watch the video via our YouTube Channel. Join us Septemer 9-11 for Photoshop World 2025! ]
Rick Sammon here. I’d like to share with you this excerpt from my class at Photoshop World 2024: Have Fun in Photoshop. As always, I hope you learn a lot and I hope you have a lot of fun—because as Groucho Marx said, If you’re not having fun, you’re really doing something wrong.
I created this first image using Generative Fill and Generative Expand. The idea is to combine these great tools and features to open up new possibilities and make Photoshop more fun.
I started with a picture I took in Botswana. The elephant was facing out of the frame, nothing much happening in the trees—kind of a static shot. With Generative Fill, I circled the area around the elephant and asked for an elephant looking right. I added a couple of birds, a lion in the tree, and then used Generative Expand to build out the frame. Suddenly, the image tells a whole different story.
Generative Expand
I tried the same approach with a picture from a palace in Venice during Carnival. The original was cropped square for Instagram. With the crop tool, I pulled out the canvas, left the prompt blank, and let Photoshop fill it in.
When you hit Generate, Photoshop will process it for a few seconds and return a masked layer and three variations, which you can flip through and compare in the Properties panel. Sometimes the first try is good, sometimes the second or third is better. If you don’t like the result—try, try again. That’s part of the fun.
Generative Fill
Another example: a portrait in the Mesquite Sand Dunes in Death Valley. I liked the model, the light, the mood, but the bright patch of sand behind her hat was distracting. Ten years ago I tried burning it down, but it looked fake.
With Generative Fill, I just selected the area, left the prompt blank, and Photoshop gave me a darker, less distracting dune.
On a second try, it came back even better—it darkened the area and added some movement to her hair. That’s the beauty of these tools. Sometimes they don’t just fix, they improve.
Fixing Mistakes
I also use Generative Expand to fix simple mistakes. In one portrait the model’s dress was cropped too short at the bottom. I pulled the canvas down using the crop too, and let Photoshop fill it in. Perfect. You’d never know anything was missing.
So again, a great way to fix our mistakes and improve shots that are just a little off. Remember, your variations are found in Properties, and they’re always on a new layer.
Playing With Possibilities
Of course, some of this is just for fun. National Geographic isn’t going to accept images that have been extended like this. But we’re not being journalists at the moment. Generative Expand seamlessly extended the background in a portrait from when I was in Papua New Guinea.
In this shot from North Wales, I used Generative Expand again to fill out a shot of the Fairy Glen into a panoramic image. Sure, it’s not accurate to the location, but it makes for a good picture hanging above my couch.
I expanded a blue-hour cityscape from the Dumbo Pier in Manhattan and then created another version where I applied the Oil Paint filter. The rocks don’t really look like that in reality, but as John Lennon said, Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. Photoshop lets us create our own reality, and sometimes that’s exactly what an artist should do.
Generative Expand and Generative Fill are about more than corrections. They’re about creativity, exploration, and fun. Always think about how you can combine filters, how you can get the most out of Photoshop to create the vision that you see in your mind’s eye.
If you enjoyed this taste of Rick’s Have Fun in Photoshop class, come join us at Photoshop World 2025, September 9–11. Learn more here: https://photoshopworld.com/?af=inspsw24
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