Tech & AIBeginnerPreview
Adobe Firefly & AI Image Editing
A hands-on, beginner-friendly path through Adobe Firefly and Photoshop's generative AI for marketing and brand work. You will learn prompt craft, generative fill and expand, and the commercial-safety rules that make Firefly different.
For marketers, brand designers, content creators, and small-business owners who need on-brand visuals fast without a stock-photo budget.
Course content
Workbook & downloads
Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.
Preview the workbook
This workbook turns the course into reps. Each section pairs a course module with hands-on exercises, fill-in worksheets, and checklists so you build real, commercial-safe assets as you go. Work through it with Firefly and Photoshop open, and keep your prompts, settings, and rights notes in the templates at the end so the whole campaign stays reproducible.
Firefly Foundations and Commercial Safety
Set up your account, learn the credit model, and lock in the commercial-safety habits before you generate anything for a client.
Exercise: Map Your Credit Budget for One Campaign
Pick a real or imagined campaign with a fixed deliverable count. Estimate how many generations and fill/expand actions you will realistically need, then compare the total to your plan's monthly generative credit allotment. Decide where to spend premium generations and where to economize.
- How many finished assets does this campaign need, and at what aspect ratios?
- Assuming 4 to 6 generations per finished asset, what is your total estimated generation count?
- How many credits does that leave for fill and expand edits, and does it fit your monthly allotment?
- Which one or two hero assets justify premium-model generation?
Worksheet: Commercial-Safety Intake Sheet
Fill this out at the start of every project before generating. It forces the rights and disclosure questions to the front of the workflow where they belong.
- Project / campaign name
- Where the images will run (paid ads, organic social, packaging, print, web)
- Firefly model chosen and whether it is cleared for commercial use
- Reference images to be uploaded and the rights you hold for each
- Prohibited content noted (named artists, celebrities, trademarked characters, real-person likeness)
- Disclosure policy that applies (client, platform, jurisdiction)
Checklist: Pre-Generation Safety Check
- Confirmed the selected model is a commercial-safe Firefly image model
- Verified rights for every reference image I plan to upload
- Removed any prompt asking for living artists, celebrities, or trademarked IP
- Noted the monthly credit allotment and a working budget for this project
- Located the Content Credentials indicator in the interface
Text-to-Image and Prompt Craft
Practice the five-part prompt formula and the reference panels until you can hit intent in two or three tries instead of twenty.
Exercise: Rewrite Weak Prompts Into Structured Ones
Take three vague prompts and rewrite each using the formula: subject plus context plus style plus lighting plus composition. Generate both the weak and structured versions in Firefly and compare the results side by side.
- Weak prompt 1 and its structured rewrite (name material, setting, style, light direction, framing)
- Weak prompt 2 and its structured rewrite
- Weak prompt 3 and its structured rewrite
- Which single added detail made the biggest difference in each case?
Worksheet: Prompt Build Worksheet
Use this to assemble a prompt one component at a time, then record the settings so you can reproduce or iterate on the result.
- Subject (concrete nouns, color, material)
- Context / background
- Style (product photo, flat illustration, 3D render, etc.)
- Lighting (direction and quality)
- Composition (angle, depth of field, framing)
- Aspect ratio and model used
- Style/Structure reference and slider strength
Exercise: Lock a Look With a Style Reference
Generate one hero image you like, save it as a Style reference, then create three more images for different subjects using that reference. Tune the strength slider so the new images share the mood without copying the subject.
- What palette, texture, and mood does your hero image establish?
- At what reference strength did the set feel consistent but not cloned?
- Which subject needed the most prompt adjustment to stay on-brand?
Checklist: On-Brand Generation Check
- Set the aspect ratio to match the destination before generating
- Wrote a full five-part prompt rather than a bare noun
- Applied a saved Style reference for consistency
- Changed only one prompt element per iteration
- Saved the winning prompt and settings for reuse
Photoshop Generative Fill and Expand
Build the select-then-generate muscle memory for adding, removing, replacing, and reframing real photos, then inspect like a retoucher.
Exercise: Three Edits on One Photo
Open a single real photo and perform all three generative fill jobs on it: add an object, remove an object, and replace an object. Keep each result on its own generative layer and label the layers.
- What did you add, and how loose was the selection?
- What did you remove, and how much surrounding area did you include for clean reconstruction?
- What did you replace, and what prompt produced the most believable result?
- Which of the three variations did you keep for each edit, and why?
Exercise: Reframe a Horizontal Photo to 9:16
Take a horizontal photo and use Generative Expand to turn it into a 9:16 vertical with room for headline text. Expand in two passes rather than one large jump and compare believability.
- Did expanding in two passes produce a cleaner result than one big expand?
- Was the original subject distorted at all during the expand?
- Where will the headline text sit in the new vertical space?
Worksheet: Edit Log Worksheet
Record each generative edit so a teammate can audit or reproduce the work and so you can revisit decisions later.
- Source file name
- Edit type (add / remove / replace / expand)
- Selection method and prompt used
- Chosen variation number
- Artifacts found and how they were fixed
- Generative layer name in the working file
Checklist: Artifact Inspection Checklist
- Zoomed to 100 percent and checked hands, fingers, eyes, teeth, and text
- Confirmed lighting and shadow direction match across added elements
- Scanned the fill seam for blur, repeats, or color mismatch
- Verified the subject was not warped during expand
- Replaced any garbled AI text with real type on a text layer
Brand Production Workflow
Standardize a consistent image set, keep the rights and provenance trail intact, and export production-ready files for every channel.
Exercise: Produce a Four-Image Brand Set
Using your saved base prompt and Style reference, generate four images that read as one campaign. Review them together on a single screen and re-roll any outlier until the set is cohesive.
- What base prompt block describes your brand style, lighting, and palette?
- Which asset broke the look first, and what brought it back in line?
- Where did you add exact brand colors in Photoshop rather than via prompt?
Worksheet: Rights and Disclosure Record
Complete one record per campaign and archive it with the deliverables as your evidence that the work was cleared.
- Campaign name and date
- Model used and commercial-use status
- References used and their source/rights
- Content Credentials kept intact (yes/no)
- Disclosure decision and the policy it satisfies
- Person responsible for sign-off
Exercise: Export the Same Asset for Three Channels
Take one finished image and export it correctly for a social post, an email banner, and a print flyer. Upscale where needed and confirm actual pixel dimensions instead of assuming.
- What format and pixel size did each channel require?
- Did the print version need an upscale to reach 300 dpi, and how did you do it?
- What file-naming convention did you use to record campaign, asset, and channel?
Checklist: Ship Checklist
- Flattened a copy and added real typography on text layers
- Set exact brand colors on type and shapes
- Ran a final 100 percent artifact inspection
- Exported the correct format and resolution per channel
- Archived the layered source and saved the rights record with credentials intact
Your Action Plan
- Set up your Firefly access and confirm your monthly generative credit allotment.
- Complete the Commercial-Safety Intake Sheet for your first real project.
- Write and save one five-part base prompt that captures your brand's visual style.
- Generate a hero image and save it as a reusable Style reference.
- Produce a cohesive four-image set using the base prompt and Style reference.
- Edit one real photo with all three generative fill jobs and one generative expand.
- Run the Artifact Inspection Checklist and fix every flaw with targeted re-rolls.
- Fill out the Rights and Disclosure Record and keep Content Credentials intact.
- Export each finished asset for social, email, and print at the correct specs.
- Archive layered sources and rights records, then document your repeatable recipe for the team.
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