Select Subject is Here: Photoshop Now Has AI-Powered One-Click Selections

Adobe today announced the release of Photoshop version 19.1 for Windows and Mac. One of the big new features is the Select Subject tool teased back in November 2017. Photoshop can now help you make a selection of a subject with just a single click using artificial intelligence.

“Select Subject is powered by Adobe Sensei and lets you get started with your selections faster than ever before,” Adobe writes. “Select Subject automatically selects the prominent subjects in the image with one click. You can then refine the selection using other selection tools.”

There are three ways to access Select Subject: (1) by choosing Select > Subject, (2) while using the Quick Selection or Magic Wand tools (Select Subjects is in the options bar), and (3) while Quick Selection tool in the Select & Mask workspace (Select Subjects is in the options bar).

Using the tool, you can quickly select and isolate people in portraits from backgrounds.

And the AI doesn’t just recognize humans. Animals and other subjects can be one-click selected as well.

Here’s the Sneak Peek video Adobe previously released that shows Select Subject in action:

Retoucher Antti Karppinen made this 6-minute video showing how the new tool is used:

In addition to Select Subject, there are a number of other features and improvements as well:

Decontamination Slider

A new Decontamination Slider has been added to Select and Mask that lets you control the amount of decontamination applied to a photo. The feature was previously available in Refine Edge.

Microsoft Dial Brush Settings

You can now change brush settings while painting with the assistance of the Microsoft Surface Dial. Prior to this update, you could only make settings changes between brush strokes.

“Now you can assign the Microsoft Dial to control opacity and then adjust opacity as you paint,” Adobe says. “Assign any dynamic control in the Brush Settings panel to Microsoft Dial, including size, roundness, angle, scatter, texture depth, foreground and background color, opacity, flow, wetness, and mix.”

Windows High-Density Monitors

“With this release, Photoshop on Windows 10 Creator’s Edition now offers a full range of choices for UI scale factors from 100% through 400%, in 25% increments,” Adobe says. “This means that the Photoshop user interface will look crisp, beautiful, and the right size no matter the density of your monitor. Photoshop will now automatically adjust itself based on your Windows settings, making it simple to set up.”


You can get these new features for Photoshop CC today by upgrading your software through Adobe’s Creative Cloud app.

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