7 Best AI Photo Editors in 2023 to Retouch and Elevate Your Photos

With modern AI tools, virtually no creative task seems beyond the reach of computers. We’ve already talked about AI image generators, for example, that can turn a few words into beautiful pieces of art. And it didn’t take long for companies to marry the idea of ​​AI processing with existing images or photos. While not as complicated as videos, manual image editing is still a time-consuming process, especially if you want to correct blemishes, retouch faces, and remove unwanted elements. So in this post, let’s take a look at some AI photo editors that can make your photography look its absolute best.

When you think of image editing or manipulation, Photoshop is likely the first app that jumps to mind. So it’s only fitting that it also has one of the best AI editing features you’ll find on the market today. Aptly called Generative Fill, the feature relies on Adobe’s own in-house Firefly model. If you’ve used Photoshop extensively in the past, you’re probably aware of content-aware fill — a feature that lets you draw objects from your canvas.

Photoshop takes Generative Fill a step further, allowing you to draw objects with greater precision thanks to the built-in AI model. It is able to add new objects, replace the background with a completely new one and much more. We’ve also tested Photoshop Generative Fill against Google Photos’ Magic Eraser and found that the former does much better. What’s more, you can type into the text prompt to have Photoshop’s AI edit your images however you want.

If you already have a Creative Cloud subscription to use Photoshop, you don’t have to pay anything extra for Generative Fill.

Although Photoshop is one of the most powerful image editing programs out there, it is not easy to use. So if that’s a priority for you, consider the Luminar Neo instead. It retains most of the essential features you’d expect from a typical photo editing software and packages it into a beautiful and intuitive interface.

Luminar Neo has a lot of AI features like relight to brighten dark subjects, background removal, portrait bokeh and an assisted cropping tool to help you achieve the best composition. It doesn’t have the same deep cataloging system as Adobe’s products, but it’s an acceptable compromise. Luminar Neo will also soon get generative AI features to add new objects, expand existing images and more. It should bring it up to par with the competition, especially Photoshop.

The definition of photo editing can vary greatly, so these recommendations only apply if you want to completely remix your images. Midjourney and DALL-E 2 are not editing programs, but rather AI generators that primarily convert text into images. However, they both also pack editing features known as inpainting and outpainting to modify existing pictures. The idea is simple: you enter a prompt that tells the service how you want to change the image. Inpainting changes the image, while outpainting will expand the image beyond its original boundaries

In the screenshot above, for example, you can see how we told the DALL-E 2 to turn the vacuum tube in the image into a vase. Here is the before and after:

It’s not a perfect result, but luckily, you can do a lot better with competing AI image generators like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. The only downside is that these services don’t have intuitive user interfaces, so read our guide before getting started.

Topaz Photo AI

We’re returning to dedicated photo editing programs with Topaz Photo AI, a relative newcomer to the space. However, the company has also developed several other AI-based tools that have become very popular in the creative industry. For example, Topaz’s Gigapixel AI is considered one of the best options for upscaling or enlarging images without sacrificing quality.

Topaz Photo AI doesn’t overcomplicate things because it only has a handful of key features that are directly related to enhancing your images rather than replacing them entirely. Topaz AI gives you a handful of AI-assisted retouching features, though you’ll need another full-fledged editor like Lightroom in your arsenal.

That said, if you’re looking for a tool to upscale, denoise, and sharpen moving objects, Topaz Photo AI works wonders. It will also gain object extraction capabilities in the near future.

All other AI image editors on this list require either a powerful computer or an internet connection. This is because any kind of AI processing (even text-based chatbots like ChatGPT) requires a lot of computing power. But if you don’t need absolute perfection, we can still recommend some AI photo editing apps that you can download directly to your smartphone.

Fotor is a cross-platform image editing app that has been around for a decade at this point. It’s also recently gained a bunch of AI features, from basics like drawing backgrounds to fun ones like Cartoon-Eyeser. It also has a built-in free image generator, which you can use to create images using just text.

Meanwhile, Lensa looks like a traditional photo editor with some AI-powered additions like sky replacement and custom “magic” avatars. This is a great choice if you are looking for a robust image editor on mobile that also has the ability to defocus and retouch your images with a single tap.