Limitation
Last updated on
Oct 4, 2026
Review expected behavioral limitations for each Neural Filter to understand performance boundaries.
Use this reference when Neural Filters produce unexpected results or when planning workflows with specific filter capabilities. These are known behavioral limitations and not errors.
For download failures or processing errors, see Troubleshoot Neural Filters errors.
Skin Smoothing
Skin Smoothing provides optimal results on facial skin but has limited effectiveness in these areas:
- Body skin such as neck and shoulders
- Skin visible behind eyeglasses or other transparent objects
The filter's facial detection algorithms prioritize face regions, that may result in reduced smoothing quality on body areas within the same image.
JPEG Artifacts Removal
JPEG Artifacts Removal excels at cleaning compression artifacts from gradients and geometric shapes but experiences limitations with fine detail, such as:
- Fine textures may appear softer or less defined after artifact removal
- Intricate patterns like fabric weave or hair strands may lose subtle detail
- High-frequency details in images with severe JPEG compression may not fully recover
Note
Balance the Blur and Amount sliders to preserve important details while removing visible artifacts.
Smart Portrait
Smart Portrait may not detect faces or may produce unexpected results in these scenarios:
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|
Description |
|
Face detection failures |
Portraits with curly hair, missing facial features, or profile views may not be recognized |
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Obscured features |
Shadows, facial hair, fingers, or other objects covering facial features reduce accuracy |
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Accessory alterations |
Earrings may change shape or size; the filter may add missing earrings |
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Nose ring preservation |
Nose rings typically remain unchanged because the nose region is preserved |
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Teeth and glasses |
Visible teeth or eyeglasses may produce unexpected modifications |
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Expression sliders |
Happiness, Surprise, and Anger sliders may distort eyes or render them incorrectly |
Tip
For best results, use portraits with clearly visible, unobstructed facial features and frontal or near-frontal face angles.
Makeup Transfer
Makeup Transfer works best on images meeting specific criteria. The filter may fail or produce unexpected results when applied to:
- Closed or partially occluded eyes
- Obscured lips
- Severely tilted faces (beyond 30 degrees from frontal)
- Very dark skin tones
- Target images where makeup is already present
When the target image already has makeup applied, the filter may produce minimal change or unpredictable color blending.
Colorize
Colorize automatically assigns colors to black and white images with following limitations:
|
Limitation |
Behavior |
|
Manual color assignment accuracy |
May not precisely pinpoint specific areas when you manually assign colors |
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Automatic color guessing |
May not select accurate colors for all image regions |
|
Lip oversaturation |
Lips may appear oversaturated in some images |
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Transparent pixels |
Transparent pixels may appear in layers when using the color layer output option |
Note
Use color focal points to correct inaccurate automatic color assignments. If transparent pixels appear, restart Photoshop to resolve the issue.
Keyboard accessibility
Neural Filters currently have limited keyboard navigation support:
- Tab key navigation does not work consistently throughout the gallery
- Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) shortcuts behave inconsistently
- Enter and Esc keys do not work as expected in all contexts
Use mouse or trackpad input for most reliable navigation within the Neural Filters workspace.
Applied filter limit
Photoshop limits the number of Neural Filters you can apply simultaneously to maintain system performance:
- Maximum of 6 Neural Filters can be active at one time
- Attempting to enable a seventh filter prompts you to disable an existing filter first
- The limit applies to the current Neural Filters session
To apply more than 6 filters, apply the first batch and render them, then reopen Neural Filters to apply additional effects.
Depth Blur
Depth Blur automatically generates a depth map to determine which areas to blur, but the calculation may be incorrect for:
- Images with complex spatial arrangements
- Scenes with multiple overlapping depth planes
- Transparent or reflective objects
- Images lacking clear foreground/background separation
Manually refine the depth map using the Focal Distance and Blur Strength sliders to correct inaccurate depth calculations.
Landscape Mixer
Landscape Mixer allows you to transform seasonal characteristics and lighting but has these behavioral limitations:
|
Limitation |
Description |
|
Multiple slider interactions |
Using multiple season or sunset sliders simultaneously causes effects to weaken or overpower each other |
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Incomplete transformations |
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System pauses |
Combining Landscape Mixer with other Neural Filters may cause brief system freezes due to high resource intensity |
Workaround for slider interactions: Apply one seasonal slider, create a new layer with that effect, then apply additional sliders to separate layers rather than adjusting all sliders simultaneously.
Harmonization
Harmonization adjusts lighting and color to blend a selected layer with its background, but requires specific layer configurations:
- The harmonized layer must have a mask or exist as an isolated object on a transparent layer
- The chosen background layer must be visible in the Layers panel
- The background layer must be the topmost visible layer beneath the harmonized layer
If the preview does not display, verify layer visibility and stacking order meet these requirements.
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