How to Use Generate Similar in Photoshop Beta

How to Use Generate Similar in Photoshop Beta

Generative Fill has always had the same weakness: you write a prompt, you get three variations, and if one of them is nearly right but not quite, your only option is to generate again from scratch. The next batch is a fresh roll of the dice — it does not know what you liked about the last one.

Generate Similar fixes that. You point at the variation that came closest and ask for more like it. Each round narrows toward what you actually want instead of restarting.

This tutorial builds a composite with it — putting a skateboarder over a hole in the ground, adding flowers along the edges, and extending the frame — and shows where Generate Similar fits at each stage.

Getting It

Generate Similar is a beta feature. Open the Creative Cloud installer, go to Beta Apps, and install or update Photoshop (Beta). It runs alongside your normal Photoshop without affecting it.

Generate Something to Refine

Start with a first pass the normal way.

1. Select the area with the Lasso Tool

   Press L and draw around the region you want to change — here, the patch of ground the skateboarder is jumping over.

2. Click Generative Fill

   It is in the Contextual Task Bar.

3. Describe what you want

   Something like dark hole. Keep it short — a couple of words gives the model room to interpret, which is what you want on a first pass when you are still exploring.

4. Generate

   Three variations come back in the Properties panel.

Look through them and find the one that is closest — not the one that is finished, just the one heading in the right direction. That is all Generate Similar needs.

Ask for More Like That One

Hover the variation you liked in the Properties panel and click the three dots on it. Choose Generate Similar.

Photoshop generates a new set using that specific variation as the reference, rather than working from the prompt alone. The results come back recognizably related to the one you picked — same character, same treatment, different executions.

Run It Again on the New Favorite

The real value is in repeating it. Pick the best result from the new set, click its three dots, and Generate Similar again. Each round starts from a closer reference than the last.

Think of it as steering rather than describing. A prompt is a rough instruction issued once; Generate Similar is a nudge you can give repeatedly, each one narrowing the range. Three or four rounds will usually land somewhere a prompt alone would not have reached, because you are selecting for qualities that are much easier to recognize than to write down.

Each Selection Keeps Its Own History

Add a second element — select along the edges of the frame, Generative Fill, prompt flowers, generate. Work that one with Generate Similar the same way until the flowers look right.

What matters here is that the two elements are independent. Because the flowers came from a different selection than the hole, they live on their own generative layer with their own variation history. You can go back to the hole later and pick a different variation without disturbing the flowers, and vice versa.

This is worth planning around: generate each element as its own selection rather than trying to produce several things in one pass. It costs nothing extra and it keeps every part of the image independently revisable.

It Works on Generative Expand Too

Generate Similar is not limited to fills inside the frame — it also applies to canvas extensions.

1. Take the Crop Tool and drag the frame outward

   Extend it past the edge of the photograph in whichever direction you want more image.

2. Set Fill to Generative Expand

   In the crop options bar. Confirm this before committing — left on the default, you get an ordinary crop with empty space instead of generated content.

3. Generate

   Photoshop fills the new area based on what is already in the frame. Extending downward past a hole, for instance, makes the hole considerably larger and the jump considerably more dramatic.

4. Refine with Generate Similar

   Same three-dot menu on whichever expansion variation you prefer.

This is where it pays off most, because expansions vary a lot between generations — different edges, different curvature, different amounts of clutter. Being able to say “more like this one” rather than rolling again is the difference between converging and going in circles.

How to Work With It

A few things that make the difference between it helping and it wandering.

Start loose. A short prompt on the first pass gives you a wide spread of interpretations to choose from. Over-specify at the start and every variation looks the same, leaving Generate Similar nothing to work with.

Judge direction, not finish. The variation to pick is the one whose character is right, even if the execution is rough. You are choosing what to move toward.

Expect it to converge. After several rounds the results get very close to one another. That is the process working — and it is also the signal to stop, because further rounds will not add much.

Do not lose the earlier options. The full variation history stays in the Properties panel. If a chain of Generate Similar drifts somewhere you do not like, go back to an earlier variation and branch from there instead.

Bear in Mind

This is a beta feature, so behavior and placement may change before it reaches the full release. The idea behind it — steering by example rather than by description — is the part worth internalizing, and it is likely to stay however the interface evolves.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Get the betaCreative Cloud app > Beta Apps > Photoshop (Beta)
• First passL for the Lasso Tool, Generative Fill in the Contextual Task Bar, a short prompt, Generate
• Steer itProperties panel > three dots on the closest variation > Generate Similar
• RepeatThree dots on the new favorite > Generate Similar again
• Second elementA new selection, Generative Fill, “flowers”; each selection keeps its own variations
• Bigger canvasCrop Tool, drag the edge out, Fill: Generative Expand, Generate, then Generate Similar