Photoshop 27.3.0 Is Here: The Upgrades You’ll Actually Notice

Photoshop 27.3.0 just dropped, and it targets the exact spots where edits bog down: local contrast tweaks, expansion quality, and cleanup around faces. If you do any real retouching work, this update changes what you can trust inside one PSD without detouring into other dialogs.

Coming to you from Glyn Dewis, this hands-on video runs through the Photoshop 27.3.0 update without drifting into theory. The first practical win is new adjustment layers for Clarity, Dehaze, and Grain, which previously lived in Camera Raw for most people. Having them as adjustment layers means you can mask them, stack them, and toggle them like any other layer-based edit instead of flattening, merging, or converting to a smart object just to get a simple look. If you’ve ever wanted to add dehaze to only a background area while keeping skin calm, you’ll like the way it stays editable with a built-in layer mask. It’s a small change that shifts how often you’ll reach for Camera Raw when the file is already deep into layers.

The core of the video is the new Firefly model option, Firefly Fill and Expand, which replaces the older Firefly Image 3 for the workflows most people actually use: Generative Fill and Generative Expand. Dewis shows a clean comparison using the same prompt to generate people, because that’s where the older model could fall apart when you zoomed in. You also get a resolution jump, with outputs that hold together better when you inspect edges and texture, and that changes whether a generation can survive even a basic crop or print. There’s also an improvement Dewis calls out that you might not notice until it saves you: better behavior where masks meet tricky overlaps, like a hand touching a surface you’re changing underneath it. If you’ve seen fingers get weird when you replace a table, this is aimed right at that problem, especially when you’re pushing realism instead of a stylized look.

Generative Expand gets its own moment, and it’s the most convincing “try it again” part of the update. If you stopped using Expand because the added area looked softer than your original capture, Dewis shows why the new model is less likely to give away the seam. The demo sticks to a simple one-side expansion to change composition, then zooms in and reveals the divide line so you can judge texture differences instead of guessing. The older result looks like a different file pasted beside your photo, while the newer result is harder to spot even when you go hunting for it. Dewis also walks through the updated Remove tool behavior on a difficult case where smoke covers part of a face and glasses, which is exactly the kind of cleanup that used to leave obvious reconstruction artifacts. You only get one result with the tool itself, but the contextual taskbar approach can give multiple variations, and the example in the video is a strong test of whether Photoshop can rebuild believable facial detail under an obstruction.

The most strategic feature in the update is reference images in Generative Fill, and the video shows how it changes control inside the same interface you already use. Dewis demonstrates that the reference image option only works when you’re on the Firefly Fill and Expand model, otherwise it’s disabled, which is the kind of limitation you’ll want to know before you waste time wondering what’s missing. Then you see how “Object” versus “Whole image” affects whether you accidentally import a background you never wanted, and how intent settings steer whether you’re swapping a selected area or trying to influence the whole output. The examples lean playful, like swapping clothing and shoes, but the real hook is what this implies for consistent props, repeated product shots, or keeping a specific design language across multiple edits, especially when your selections are slightly messy and need quick lasso fixes before generating. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Dewis.