Photoshop 2020 June release, new features in Photoshop 21.2

Colin Smith

How to use the new features in Photoshop 21.2, June Photoshop 2020 release. See all the new features and the new ACR 13.

Subscribe on YouTube:

New Features in Photoshop 2020 June update

On June 16th Adobe released a new update to Photoshop. There is definitely something here for both designers and photographers. Watch the video above and see how to use these new features and here is a quick rundown of all that’s new. (Spoiler alert, I saved the best for last, Camera Raw has a whole new interface)

Also see: Lightroom Classic 9.3 March 2020 new features

New App icon

The first thing you might have noticed is the new app icon. Some of the icons have three characters now, such as Psc (Photoshop Camera) and Lightroom Classic. Love ‘em or hate ‘em. They are here to stay and time to get new stickers for my macbook pro.

Photoshop 2020 splash screen with artwork by Vanessa Rivera of a mermaid girl holding a teddy bear

New Adobe Photoshop app icon, blue Ps letters on a dark navy square

Ok, onward with the actual features.

Select Subject portrait optimization

You might be familiar with Auto Select, choose the Quick select or Object selection tool and you will see an option on the toolbar: Select subject. Click the button and Adobe Sensei (AI) finds the main subject in the photo and makes a selection around it.  its pretty neat and it’s AI had undergone some additional training, particularly in the area of portraits. It now does a better job of selecting people. See the comparison between the previous version and the new update here.

Old and new Select Subject results compared on a surprised woman at a desk

Old and new Select Subject comparison on a woman in a pink trench coat with flowing hair

Adobe Fonts Auto activation

When you open a document containing fonts that aren’t on your system, things are smarter. If they are an Adobe font, Photoshop connects with Adobe Font, downloads and installs the fonts you need. For non adobe fonts you can manage the fonts in one place and replace them, or find and install the fonts. It’s a huge time saver.

Manage Missing Fonts dialog with Replace all missing fonts with the default font checked

Rotatable Patterns

When you apply patterns either from the Patterns panel or from layer styles, you have always been able to scale them, but now you can also rotate the patterns in real time.

Woman in a pink coat with a horizontal line pattern fill over the photo

Pattern Fill dialog with the new Angle setting at 90 degrees outlined in red

Woman in a pink coat with the line pattern rotated to a diagonal angle

ACR 13. Camera Raw 13

Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) is now a teen. Welcome to ACR 13. It’s got some slick new features, but the big news is that sexy new modern interface! You can either use a horizontal or vertical filmstrip.

New Camera Raw 13 interface with a seascape at sunset and rocks in the surf

Camera Raw 13 with the filmstrip moved to the left side of the window

The thing I like the best is those tabs are gone. You can new scroll through all the different panels just like in Lightroom. In fact ACR looks and acts very much like the develop module in Lightroom.

You can view the panels in solo mode; when you open a panel, the others collapse. The panel is context sensitive and displays the contents for the tool you select from the new vertical toolbar.

Camera Raw panel menu with Single Panel Mode, Multi Panel Mode and Expand All

A Hue slider has been added to the local corrections; Adjustment brush, Radial and gradient tools. This enables you to change the color of objects in the photo by painting. This is also useful for removing color contamination and evening out the color of skin, such as reducing sunburn. If you hold down the alt/Option key as you move the slider it goes into “use fine adjustments” precision mode and moves very slowly.

Adjustment Brush Hue slider turning the woman's coat from pink to magenta in Camera Raw

Coat changed to a sage green with the local Hue slider at +149.4 in Camera Raw

ISO Adaptive Presets.

Imagine a preset that alters the amount of noise reduction or sharpening depending on the ISO of the photo? You need to select 2 or more photos with different ISO settings. Make a preset and vary settings between the different ISO images, such as turn up noise reduction on the higher ISO image. Save as preset and turn on the magic “Create ISO Adaptive Preset” button.

Create ISO adaptive preset checkbox in the Camera Raw ISO Settings

There are some more features in ACR that you can see in the video and also covered more in depth in my Lightroom Classic article. Yes Lightroom Classic is also updated today.

Adjustment Brush selected in Camera Raw 13 with Size, Feather, Flow and Density sliders

Match Font

Match font now supports Japanese fonts.

Lightroom Classic 9.3 March 2020 new features

Alright everyone, that’s it for the June 2020 Photoshop update.

You can browse all our Superguides, which cover almost every feature and every release in Photoshop since CS3. Also covers all the updates in Lightroom. It’s interesting to see which features went into which version and also it will make you aware of features you didn’t know exist, and of course they are all tutorial style.

 

Thanks for checking out everything

Colin


Follow along for more tips

Keep growing with Premium Courses

Photoshop 2026 for Digital Photographers

Learn Photoshop properly, from the basics to pro retouching, step by step.

$129.00 · one-time purchase · instant download

Photoshop Vault: free Layer Blend Modes ebook, actions, brushes, presets and cheat sheets

Free for you

The Photoshop Vault

Get my free Layer Blending Modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop goodies: actions, brushes, presets and cheat sheets.

You're on the list, so your free goodies are waiting for you in the Vault.

Get Free Photoshop Goodies Open the Vault

23 comments

  1. Jamie Suplee

    Thank you so much Gor the new information. After 28 years with Photoshop. I always look forward to something new.

  2. Larry L McDonald

    What happend to the camera/lens correction. Also I can not find the correction for level. Most of my photography is hand held so I used often.

  3. Kim Kumpart

    “Select Object” is missing, this happened in the last version as well.
    Is there a way to download it or is it only for special friends of Adobe

    1. Colin Smith Author

      Reset yout toolbar preferences, Click and hold on the 3 dots in the toolbar to do it. I also show it in my fixing 2020 bugs tutorial

  4. Gary McJimsey

    Thanks again Colin. Perfect timing. I always have difficulty finding changes in PS updates.
    Appreciated

  5. Deborah

    Hey Colin, Thanks for the review. Question. When you opened the Detail menu, I did not see these items: Sharpening: amount, radius, detail, masking, and under Noise reduction: Luminance, Luminance Detail, Luminance Contrast, Color Detail and color smoothness. Have these been removed? If they are still there where are they? I ask as I use some of these on a regular basis. Thanks!

  6. Warren Goyne

    Colin, Currently I have PS CC 2019. I have managed to get Raw installed but as I do not want Creative Cloud at all, can I get Bridge installed with out it or not. Lots of places says I can but when I attempt it it installs Creative Cloud desktop.
    Help would be appreciated.

    1. Colin Smith Author

      Probably only an older version of bridge if it’s compatible with your system

  7. Sergiy

    I love new changes, but I have an issue with Liquify, I can’t fast change brush size (with al+right click on the mouse-changing like in slow motion) it’s very very slow (make big or small size of the brush) for some reason! If anyone has the same issue?

  8. Judith E Barat

    after I create a mask for one layer I try to move that object within the background I drag the image , the original stays put and I am moving a copy, why?

  9. John Cornicello

    Is anyone else noticing a big slowdown in saving a file since the update? Saving has been taking a second, maybe two. But now it is more like 8 to 10 seconds. Late 2015 iMac 27″ Mojave 10.14.6 (Guess I should ask if it is time to update to Catalina)

  10. Janice Stevenson

    Hi Will love the new look once I get used to using it. The icons on toolbar are not so obvious without the stroke round them. Find the crop tool in Raw difficult in Custom Mode. It very slow to react, Staighten is ok
    Would love a new tutorial on selecting flyaway hair from a busy background. New select subject much better but when I put it onto a white background get a lot of grey and I don’t have the skills to remove them. Ok on black.
    Thanks for all the wonderful tutorials

  11. Denis Sharpington

    Why can’t I get Liquify ,I’ve had it before ,but since update when I go into it it’s all greyed out .
    Error message says check graphics processor is checked ( which it is ) any ideas ,it’s really frustrating when I want to work on a face and can’t .

  12. Lucia

    QUESTION:
    How in Photoshop 2020 in the Free Shapes Tool to remove all these “Trees”, “Animals”, “Boats”, “Flowers” and install your Shapes downloaded from the Internet?

    1. Colin Smith Author

      You can load and delete. I have another tutorials that shows how to work with presets

  13. Rudi Lauwers

    I have impression that the use of the high paas filter is changed. The change of the blending mode is no visible anymore in the high pass layer. I have to go back to the original image and click on it and then go back to the HP filter layer to adjust the opacity or fill in. Is this normal or is it my computer? In any case it is not an improvement.

    1. Colin Smith Author

      Sounds like your computer. There were no changes made to HP this time around.

  14. Hi Colin, I can’t seem to figure out how to access my camera raw filters/presets in the updated camera raw interface. These are ATN files that aren’t appearing in the “presets” section of the camera raw interface. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks for all your work!

    1. Colin Smith Author

      Actions don’t work in Camera Raw, they never have. You load those into the actions panel in Photoshop

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copy link