Native Windows apps are always a tough sell, but the Photos app hides a great suite of image editing and preview features. I tried Generative Erase, and here’s how it went.
How to Use Generative Erase in Microsoft Photos
Generative Erase is a deletion tool that can fix blemishes from your photos. Earlier, you coulduse Spot Fix in Microsoft Photoswith the same controls, but with the advent of Copilot, Microsoft rebranded it asGenerative Eraseand added AI to the app.
In simple terms, Generative Erase can help you iron out the kinks in any photo, be it a passerby in your group photo or an unwanted spot or visual noise due to bad camera timing. The feature tries to extract the selected image portion and blend it with accurate background and colors. So, you get the illusion that nothing is there. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Microsoft’s official announcementshowcased an example of removing a dog collar from an image. But I tried it with something very basic, like the official home page of Chrome, to check the overall feel of the Generative Erase.
You only need to open the Photos app and preview an image. Then, click theEditbutton to launch a new window with all the editing options.
Does AI Magic Work?
I clicked onErase, which presented a brush tool and a slider to adjust the tool’s size. I tried wiping the big, bold text at the top, which went well. It didn’t seem like any text existed before, and the tool perfectly blended the background colors, so the overall effect didn’t appear patchy. Next, I highlighted the Download Chrome button, and the tool worked well.
The last leg of the test for this image was to remove the golden earring on the graphic of a woman at the bottom. It took a few tries, but the tool hid the star shape while retaining the black and blue colors. You won’t notice any jagged edges until you zoom in.
Generative Erase fared well in my graphic image tests, which gave me confidence in the real-life image tests. Here’s a photo of a bug on a leaf I found in my terrace garden, and I tried to erase the bug.
The tool removed the bug but did an average job blending the actual textures on the leaf. The results were similar when I tried removing a ring from the finger. The Erase tool did its task but left a dent on the finger, resulting in a weird-looking photo.
Even when I tried removing a tie and collar from my friend’s pet, the tool delivered mixed results.
The collar strap blending was spot on, and it replaced it with something that mimicked actual hair, while the tie erases resulted in that same smudgy effect.
The main gripe with the Erase tool is that it offers a circular brush to select the area, which doesn’t work well in every scenario. Selecting complicated bits is a pain, and I found Paint better due to its multiple selection tools, including the free-form tool. In the Photos app, you must zoom in and then use a smaller size to hide the edges.
Still, I wouldn’t mind using it for less complicated image-hiding scenarios, such as my personal information in images. It’s much better than adding a shape of bold color to hide sensitive information. Generative Erase cannot compete withPhotoshop’s AI removal tool, but you get a straightforward one-click approach, which works fine for most scenarios, such as the Chrome webpage example.
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I don’t expect it to get so much better that it’ll produce Photoshop-like quality, but it beats the effort of using a web tool with no data safety policies. You don’t need to upload images anywhere and can do basic edits offline—a feature that’s becoming scarce these days.
