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Rikk Flohr-Retired
Adobe Employee
July 10, 2025
Question

Distraction Removal: Dust (Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic)

  • July 10, 2025
  • 392 replies
  • 28521 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:

392 replies

henryec3c60911936
Participant
August 20, 2025

Failed to spot some dust images.  Preview idea a good idea

Participant
August 20, 2025

Presque parfait !

Je peux montrer des exemples où il reste quelques taches, très atténuées, mais pas totalement disparues.

(Mon capteur était propre au départ, mais BEAUCOUP de poussière dans l'air et au fur et à mesure de la soirée, mon capteur en a chopé énormément. On aurait presque dit qu'il neigeait tant la poussière volait. C'était au mois d'août, sur le Mont Aigoual, avec beaucoup de vent. Aucun changement d'objectif pourtant, mais un zoom Sony 24-105 véritable aspirateur !).

Participant
August 20, 2025

It works, but not always.

Participant
August 20, 2025

Funciona muy bien con manchas, valdría la pena que pueda detectar también pixeles muertos o rayoneso defectos del sensor para cosos extremos, y que se distinguen facilmente por el tono magenta o azulado de los mismos. 

Elwoodjblues1
Inspiring
August 19, 2025

Beim aktuellen Bild hat der Filter kein Staub gefunden, obwohl es ziemlich verstaubt ist.

Participant
August 19, 2025

Brilliant! One of the many recent PS Beta innovations that 'hit the mark'. Thanks,

gregb68838334
Participant
August 19, 2025

Love this feature. I have tried it a couple of times and its been great. Thanks.

Participating Frequently
August 19, 2025

Perhaps this was made to only find dust on the lens? 
I have a RAW file with little white dust dots all over a black product surface and this filter doesn't see it at all and says there is no dust. 

Participant
August 18, 2025

I got a little too excited as I'm scanning in a lifetime of negatives at the moment. Dust removal adds several minutes to every image and I'm somewhat surprised that it's not been automated yet. So that would be my feature request. Sensor dust removal isn't usually a problem for me unless using small apertures (high f-number) which is rare. I find sensor dust a problem mostly when my aperture is set to a range of values where diffraction is negatively affecting my image resolution. That's the same realm where I might see sensor dust. Also the newer DSLRs have pretty effect dust removal tech in my experience. But thanks for chasing this important feature down. We will use the heck out of it.

 

Arlo

Angel Scan
Known Participant
August 18, 2025

Dust removal tool works very good!!!

I hope it will be very soon implemented in Lightroom too 

I do the main RAW development in Lightroom!

 

thanks to de Developer Team

 

Charly