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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
November 5, 2024
Answered

P: Reflection Removal feedback (CR & LrClassic)

  • November 5, 2024
  • 534 replies
  • 562516 views

This post applies to Adobe Camera Raw plug-in.  

 

Adobe Camera Raw team is sharing an early look of our new Reflection Removal feature, which removes reflections caused by plate glass surfaces from photos. 

 

Note: 

  • The feature currently only works on raw photos. Support for JPEGs & HEICs is added in the April 24 Update.
  • There is a known issue on some Windows machines where the feature may produce a corrupt image. We are working on a fix for the upcoming release. 

 

Check out HelpX for more detailed usage information. For more technical information on the underlying technology, please refer to this Blog post. 

 

Getting started with the Reflection Removal feature: 

  • Make sure you have the “New AI Features and Settings Panel” Technology Preview enabled in the Camera Raw plug-in Preferences dialog (requires restarting the host application to activate). 
  • Go to the Remove panel [B] , and in the “Distraction Removal” section, click on the “Reflections” checkbox. 
  • Optionally adjust the slider after the ML model is done computing. 
  • Use the rest of the Camera Raw tools just like you would otherwise. 

When using the slider, the key values to note are: 

  • 0 – the input photo
  • 100 – de-reflected (window reflections removed) photo 
  • -100 – reflection photo (what the window was reflecting towards the camera) 

 

Please try the feature and share feedback in this community forum. It would help to include details like how you access Camera Raw (via Adobe Bridge or Photoshop), your computer system details, and as much information about what you like or do not like about the resulting photo quality. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues to improve the future experience. 

 

When to use Reflection Removal

The feature is designed to deal with large-area reflections when shooting through windows. Many other types of reflections occur in nature and are captured in photographs, but this feature may not recognize and handle those. We plan to work on expanding the supported reflection types in the future. 

 

Example use-cases for the feature include: 

  • Looking through windows inside-out (e.g., from the car, airplane, room windows, etc.) 
  • Looking through windows outside-in (e.g., shop windows) 
  • Museums (e.g., paintings behind glass, glass case exhibits, etc.) 

 

How best to use Reflection Removal

For best results, try the new feature following these suggestions: 

  • Apply Reflection Removal before applying any other edits to the photo, except for Enhance features such as Denoise
    • The changes made to the photo may be quite profound and render any changes you already made inappropriate.
    • If you plan to use both Enhance (Denoise, Super Resolution, or Raw Details) and Reflection Removal on a photo, it is better to apply Enhance first.
  • Play with the feature slider and adjust the removal strength as appropriate.
  • If you applied Adobe Adaptive (beta) profile prior to running the Reflection Removal feature, please update it or you may see traces of removed reflections still present in the photo (Adobe Camera Raw will remind you to do this).

 

Boris Ajdin: Product Manager, Emerging Products Group 


Update (01-16-2025)

 

To improve the performance and results of this feature, it is important that examples of images that are failing to properly remove the reflections are forwarded to the team via your report.  A large variety of file formats are allowed as attachments in these forum posts. The best option is to attach your image's raw file directly to your feedback post. Note that there is a 50 MB limit on an attachment's file size. If your raw file is too large to attach, the best option is to share the file via a file-sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share the link in your feedback post. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback on this Tech Preview!

If you have already shared your raw file with us - thank you!

 

~Rikk

Posted by:

Correct answer Conrad_C

This reply, earlier in this thread, explains why:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-discussions/p-reflection-removal-feedback-cr-amp-lrclassic/m-p/15405349#M28971

 

Also, it isn’t called “glare reduction.”

534 replies

Participant
January 8, 2025

The replies here have been very helpful. Particularly as some have had the same problem as me - rejection of NEF files. It seems the new tool only works if a NEF raw file is opened directly into Camer Raw from the file explorer (I'm using Windows). Opening a NEF file from Lightroom results in the file being "not recognised". I've had some success. The best was the mummies, wher the tool removed all reflections and with a bit of clean-up, I ended-up with a nice reminder of my visit to the museum. The bronze sculture of the ballet dancer proved a challenge for the tool. It only removed the reflection of the bronze bust and left the reflection of the tutu. Again, some clean-up with the Remove tool gave me a nice image. Finally, the tool removed nearly all the reflectios from the case containing the swords. There's just a hint of reflection in the centre top it couldn't remove.

Participant
January 8, 2025

Sorry - grabbed the wrong files for the swords. Here they are.

Participant
January 7, 2025

 I have tried 4 photos and it pixilates the photo. They are all artworks that I did and are behind glass. I read that it should work but it doesn't. My raw files are not compressed and I use a Canon R6 and it saves raw as CR3. 

I would love some suggestions and help

Jane

David Franzen at Work
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
January 8, 2025
quote

 I have tried 4 photos and it pixilates the photo. They are all artworks that I did and are behind glass. I read that it should work but it doesn't. My raw files are not compressed and I use a Canon R6 and it saves raw as CR3. 

I would love some suggestions and help

Jane


By @painterjan


Can you please provide a link to download one of the CR3 files that does not work?
Can you please send me the full system info for your computer? In Photoshop please select "System Info" from the Help menu and copy the information.

Thanks for your help!

Participant
January 9, 2025

[PII removed by moderator as per OP's request - Details can be found on post history by employees only]

Participant
January 7, 2025

Didn't work. Just get this every time...

 

David Franzen at Work
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
January 8, 2025
quote

Didn't work. Just get this every time...

 


By @Leigh Gray

 

Can you please send me the full system info for your computer? In Photoshop please select "System Info" from the Help menu and copy the information.

Thanks for your help!

Participant
January 7, 2025

I keep getting 'not currently compatible with this photo format' yet it is a .cr2 I am working on.

I am using a windows 11 machine and phtoshop 2025 and camera raw 17.1

Participant
January 7, 2025

I get this message when I choose the option "edit with photoshop beta" on a raw file in Lightroom . The raw file then directly opens in Photoshop Beta. When I then open the raw filter and try to apply the reflection removal, it always says  'not currently compatible with this photo format' , although I work with Nikon raws (NEF). If I open the NEF file directly in Photoshop Beta, the raw filter first starts and I can use reflexion removal before I open the file in photoshop.... 

Participant
January 7, 2025

Hi,

I used this new feature to correct flare on many of my photos with excellent results.

Thanks

Michel Flohr

Inspiring
January 5, 2025

I thought I'd share a particularly successful use case of the reflection removal tool. I had thought that a photo I took at the Metropolitan Museum in New York was unusable, due to reflections and haze, and the reflective coating on this encaustic (colored wax) mummy portrait from Roman Egypt. But the tool saved the photo very effectively. The three attachments show the RAW file (denoise was used), the resulting image with reflections removed (not yet adjusted for color and lighting issues), and the image showing exactly what reflections were removed. As a great deal of my work involves my photographing museum displays (with no special lighting), this is a big deal for me. 

 

I'm crossing my fingers that you rapidly evolve the tool to work with JPEGs and TIFFs, as there are times I don't have my professional camera with me, and have to use an iPhone to record a display - I have tons of 'unusable' reflection-ruined photos in those formats.

Adobe Employee
January 6, 2025

Wow, that's a terrific example! We are working on JPEG/TIFF support. In the meantime, many iPhones support RAW as follows: Settings->Camera->Formats->ProRAW. Then when you are using the camera app, in the upper right you'll see an option to turn on RAW capture for your shot.

Inspiring
January 6, 2025

Oh, I know the RAW setting on the iPhone very well. Unfortunately, my old iPhone 15's RAW setting produced some very poor results (possibly a software bug), so I'd try to shoot with both RAW and default settings, just to see which ones came out best. My newer iPhone 16 Pro Max has far better results, although it still struggles with gold metallics, removing all highlights (impossible to retrieve with LR or PS, because they just don't exist). For most official museum visits, I bring my Canon with me, and always set it to RAW, which still stuns me to see how much detail I can retrieve even from poorly lit displays. 

massimoc34505475
Participant
January 5, 2025

Hi,

 

Am an ex Adobe employee (10 years ago, when we switched to CC 🙂

 

I am using the Reflection removal very successfully but have noticed an issue where fringes are significantly increased and the Defringing is unable to correct it any longer.  Admittedly, I am using the Reflection removal for images that it was not designed for (for example where only a case with glass appears in the picture and not where the whole picture is a pane of glass).  Note in the enclosed file that Reflection removal has an effect on the reflection in the case but it modifies the frine on the edge of the case and in the lamp above.  Nonetheless, I wanted to inform you of my observation.  RAW file enclosed.

 

Thanks and best regards

Adobe Employee
January 6, 2025

It seems that the attachment didn't make it. Could you attach the images to show what you are seeing?

massimoc34505475
Participant
January 8, 2025

There you go.  Thanks for any input

Participant
January 4, 2025

Doesn't it work with NEF files?

Participant
January 4, 2025

Sorry, the error was sitting in front of the computer.... it works! 

Participant
January 4, 2025

Reflections removal A+, however when I try to save the DNG and open in lightroom it still has the reflections, odd the preview doesn't show the reflections???

Also open in photoshop from lightroom makes it a tif and then the camera raw reflection removal doesn't work. 

Thanks. 

Participating Frequently
January 3, 2025

I did a different test today. I had a photo with a reflection caused by my grey grad filter. I used the reflection removal tool and it worked really well. Will need to remember this if it happens again in future. Normally I would delete the image.