Question

Distraction Removal: Dust (Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic)

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
July 10, 2025
225 replies
23686 views

This post applies to Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic.

Dust Removal is no longer in Early Access status and can be found in the Remove edit panel for Camera Raw & Lightroom Classic. Dust Removal helps remove distracting spots in an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor and is also effective on dust on the rear lens element.

Once enabled, your image will be scanned, and any detected dust spots will be automatically removed using Content-Aware Remove. For refinement, you can select one or multiple spots to delete or refresh. Batch removal is also supported; simply select the "Dust" checkbox under "Remove" in the copy settings dialog.

Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time.

Dust spots on scans tend to be located in the focal plane, with the negative and very sharp, while sensor dust is typically positioned out of the focal plane and therefore not in focus.
Scanned negative dust typically appears as white spots on a darker background, whereas perceived sensor dust tends to appear as dark spots in lighter areas.

We would love to hear your feedback on Dust Removal! Please give it a try and let us know what you think:

How is it useful?
How could it be more useful?
What could we do to improve your experience?

Lisa Ngo, Product Manager

Also see this video by @brianmatiash where he demos the feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwpUX4b6igY

Posted by:

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Brian Buchard

Participant

Unfortunatly it does not work on negative film dust. Maybe the functions is tuned towards sensor dust and not film scans

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Author

The post at the top of this thread explains that quite clearly, @Brian Buchard

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

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Brian Buchard

Participant

Than you @Rikk Flohr: Photography Will wait for an update focusing on scans. As a pretty obvious thing when metioning small white dust particles in focal plane is of course that they are black when scanning positive film .

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consilience8

Participant

Since most dust occurs from scanned negatives, this isn't particularly helpful as a tool. I have never had a dust problem with digital imaages.

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Geoff79

Participating Frequently

Surprised about the latest very positive reviews... makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. Like a few of the early repliers, I am not having great luck with it. I won't say it does nothing at all, and when it comes to dust removal, any assistance is good assistance. But I'd say it removes 10-20% of dust spots in my experience so far, which still leaves at least 80% for me to clean up manually. And sadly, I have an atrociously dusty sensor.

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Geoff79

Participating Frequently

I wanted to follow this one up with two screen shots, in case it can help the situation. One shows the image before the dust removal, and the other one shows after. As you can see, a handful of spots have been removed, but most were left behind. This is at very least how it is for me every time. If anything, I believe that generally it removes even less than on this one.

And yes, I am aware my sensor is as bad as it gets. I've tried to clean it myself, and use the blower where and when I can, but can't seem to have any impact. I used to have "a guy" but no one I know of anywhere near where I am exists, so I've had to resign to removing it in post processing, with heavy sadness.

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default61l29ne7irsl

Participant

Absoultely fabulous. First time user, forever converted. Would be nice to be able to enlarge certain spots to make sure it gets all of the dust. Still waiting on using the other parts of the distraction removal. Bravo.

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rebecca_8935

Participant

I digitize old family photos and dust spots are always a problem. This feature would be a great time saver, yet it did not find any dust in two very dusty / spotty photos. Help!

Erik Bloodaxe

Legend

This tool is for the the removal of sensor dust spots only. It is stated very clearly in the initial, topmost post:

"Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time. "

So unfortunately you are trying to perform a task for which this tool was not designed.

P

photoguy505

Participant

Absolutely astonished at how well this feature works! I just accidentally found it, tried it, and I am truly amazed. Please forgive my initial doubt, I was well satisfied with the result

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Blakkur

Participant

Staubentfernung: spart viel Zeit, funktioniert sehr gut.

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andreww93331702

Participant

Brilliant! Thank you!

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Niclas Magnusson

Participant

One thing that I would like to see in the future would be dust removal for bigger circuls from dust on the lens when shot agains strong light.

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Tilinski

Participant

I was waiting for a tool like this for decades because Im a film shooter and high res scann always render dust and particals which i remove by hand with the heal tool but it takes ages,

Having said that not even one photo was recognized by the AI tool, always the same massage "no dust was found"

I always scan RAW and convert with negative lab pro, then i access camera Raw but nothing. never..

Erik Bloodaxe

Legend

This tool is for removing sensor dust spots.

You should read the very topmost post.

"Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time."

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