How I Use Adobe Firefly Image Generation: 4 Features I Tested

Last updated: September 2026

Author: Greg Preece — I have been testing AI creative tools and digital design workflows hands-on for years, helping creators build faster, smarter production pipelines.

TL;DR: After 18 years of working with Adobe Photoshop, I tested Adobe Firefly’s AI image generation ecosystem to see if it could fit into a professional workflow. These four standout features—Tune (Beta), the Remix Gallery, Topaz-powered Upscaling, and the bulk-action AI Assistant—give creators a level of manual control and automation that changes how we scale design assets.

Prefer to watch? Here's the video. Prefer to skim? The full breakdown is below.

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1. Tune (Beta): Real-Time Lighting and Object Control
2. Remix Gallery: Fast Track from Inspiration to Creation
3. Professional Upscaling: Reclaiming Low-Res Faces
4. Firefly AI Assistant: Mass Scale and Bulk Processing
A New Era for Creative Workflows
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

I have used Adobe Photoshop to create and edit images for 18 years. I love it. But when Adobe sponsored me to spend some time in Firefly recently, I realized that AI-assisted design has evolved. We are moving past the days of typing random prompts and hoping for the best.

Instead, Firefly now offers a suite of high-control generation, upscaling, and bulk automation features that allow me to create the exact images I want in a fraction of the time.

Here is a hands-on look at the four game-changing features that caught my attention, and exactly how you can add them to your image generation workflow.

1. Tune (Beta): Real-Time Lighting and Object Control

In the past, using generative AI to edit images felt incredibly slow. If you wanted to tweak a detail, you had to type a prompt, wait for a completely new generation, and repeat the process over and over.

The Tune (Beta) feature in Adobe Firefly solves this frustration. It gives you precise, granular control over elements like lighting intensity and object placement using real-time sliders and instant variations.

When I uploaded an image and prompted the tool to change the lighting to "golden hour," it did not just give me a static result. It generated a spectrum of intensity options. By simply dragging a slider, I could preview different times of day and choose the lighting intensity that matched my creative vision.

Tune beta interface with the golden hour lighting slider Caption: Firefly's Tune beta interface, demonstrating the slider adjustment used to fine-tune golden hour lighting intensity.

The tool is equally powerful when adding assets. When I typed "flowers" to insert a new element, Firefly instantly rendered multiple contextual variations, allowing me to browse options and select the perfect fit.

Selecting flower variations generated in Tune beta Caption: Choosing from several AI-generated floral variations seamlessly blended into the base image.

How to Use Tune (Beta)

Navigate to the Image section on the Firefly sidebar.
Select Edit Image and click on Tune (beta).
Click Edit New to upload your own custom image.
Type your desired edit (e.g., "golden hour") in the prompt bar and click Generate.
Use the visual slider to cycle through lighting and style intensities.

2. Remix Gallery: Fast Track from Inspiration to Creation

Finding inspiration online is easy, but converting that inspiration into a usable project asset is usually a tedious, scratch-built process.

The Firefly Discover Gallery bridges this gap. It displays an endless library of community-generated images and videos. If you find an asset you like, you do not have to copy-paste prompts manually. You can immediately "remix" it.

Browsing the Discover Gallery in Adobe Firefly Caption: The endless feed of community inspiration inside Firefly's Discover Gallery, filtered specifically for image assets.

When I selected a flamingo image and hit "Remix," Firefly immediately loaded the canvas with the original prompt and generation settings intact. This allowed me to immediately generate my own variation of the artwork.

From there, I customized the prompt by adding a "doodle drawing" style, instantly creating a completely different artistic look while maintaining the original composition.

Remixing a flamingo asset with custom prompt modifiers Caption: Adjusting the original community prompt to generate a stylized, hand-drawn doodle version of the flamingo.

How to Use the Remix Gallery

From the Firefly home page, go to the left panel and click Discover, then select Gallery.
Apply the Images filter to narrow down your feed.
Find an image you like and click the Remix button.
Firefly will load the image alongside its original prompt and style tags.
Hit Generate to create a custom variation, or adjust the prompt/style parameters (e.g., switching to a "doodle" style) to customize it further.

3. Professional Upscaling: Reclaiming Low-Res Faces

Low-resolution images, soft focus, and lost detail are constant challenges in digital design. While Photoshop has built-in upscaling, having a dedicated upscale module integrated directly within Firefly makes your workflow significantly faster.

Firefly’s native upscaler allows you to boost an image's resolution—for example, shifting a 4,608-pixel wide image up to 9,216 pixels—while preserving clean edges.

However, the real power lies in the integration of partner models like the Topaz partner model. I tested this on an old, soft-focus photo of myself where facial details were heavily blurred. By selecting the Topaz model and enabling Face Recovery, the system reconstructed facial textures, sharpened soft lines, and handled a massive 4x upscale (taking the file from 5,000x2,000 to a massive 20,000x11,000 document).

Upscaling settings in Adobe Firefly with Topaz model selected Caption: The upscaling configurations menu, highlighting the Topaz partner model and the Face Recovery toggle.

Once finished, you can use the Share menu to send your upscaled file directly to Photoshop Web, or download it to your desktop for local editing in Photoshop.

How to Use Firefly's Professional Upscale

Click Edit on any image you are currently working on in Firefly.
Select the Upscale tool from the left-hand panel.
Choose your target upscale factor (e.g., 2x or 4x).
Select the Topaz partner model from the settings.
Toggle Face Recovery on if you are working with low-res human subjects.
Click Upscale and wait a few seconds for processing to finish.
Click Share to send the asset straight to Photoshop Web, or download it to your computer.

4. Firefly AI Assistant: Mass Scale and Bulk Processing

Most design workflows involve working on files one by one. If you need to prepare a single image for ten different social media platforms, the manual resizing, cropping, and background filling can take hours.

The Firefly AI Assistant changes this by introducing text-driven bulk actions.

I tested this by uploading an image of a watch and prompting the Assistant to "create different versions of this image in all of the popular aspect ratios." The Assistant scanned popular social media formats (square, widescreen, portrait), cropped the layouts, and automatically generated extra generative background elements to fill the remaining space.

Firefly AI Assistant bulk aspect ratio generation Caption: The AI Assistant processing a watch product photo and automatically outputting versions for multiple social channels.

When a few layouts cropped too closely around the subject, I did not fix them manually. I simply typed a text instruction: "zoom out on the images that have been clipped and upscale all finished images." The AI identified the issue, applied a Generative Expand to fix the framing, and batch-upscaled the entire set of files in parallel.

Using a single text instruction to batch-fix crops and upscale Caption: Instructing the Assistant in plain English to fix clipped compositions and run a bulk upscale across all variations.

How to Run Batch Tasks in AI Assistant

Select AI Assistant from the Firefly home page.
Upload your source image.
Type a descriptive structural prompt (e.g., requesting multiple standard social aspect ratios and background expansion).
Review the generated batch.
Type follow-up text commands to run batch actions, such as "zoom out on clipped images" or "upscale all images" to apply bulk adjustments instantly.

A New Era for Creative Workflows

Whether you are seeking creative ideas in the Remix Gallery, tuning lighting with a slider, rescuing a blurry photo with Topaz, or letting the AI Assistant handle your batch production, Adobe Firefly has evolved into a practical asset-generation platform. It moves AI beyond a gimmick and integrates it directly into professional, time-saving workflows.

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Adobe sponsored the video this article is based on, which is what got me into Firefly to find these 4 features. The Firefly links on this page are affiliate links, so I earn a commission if you sign up through them. Adobe checked the video for accuracy before it went out. The opinions are mine.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the Tune feature in Adobe Firefly?

The Tune (Beta) feature allows users to perform precise, slide-controlled edits on an image, such as adjusting lighting intensity or selecting from multiple generated object variations.

How does the Topaz upscaler work in Firefly?

Firefly integrates the Topaz partner model. It allows users to upscale images up to 4x while utilizing advanced Face Recovery algorithms to reconstruct facial details on soft-focus or blurry photos.

Can I batch-process images with Firefly AI Assistant?

Yes. The Firefly AI Assistant allows you to upload an image and use text prompts to perform bulk tasks like resizing, cropping to various social aspect ratios, and upscaling multiple files at once.