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 with removing distracting spots on an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor. 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:

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

Question

Distraction Removal: Dust (Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic)

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
July 10, 2025
172 replies
18356 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 with removing distracting spots on an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor.

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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woj.dop

Participant

Great feature — I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. It works very well for removing dust on the sensor or lens, but I’d love to see improvements in the types of particles it can detect.

It would also be extremely useful to define or limit the area where Lightroom should look for dust. In my tests across many images, the tool performs reliably for sensor dust but struggles with small particles suspended in the air or water.

As an underwater photographer, I deal with backscatter and floating debris in most images, so extending the AI detection to handle these kinds of particles would be a huge step forward.

Look for example on the attached photo. I'd love to have the particles removed from the shark, but Lifghtroom doesnt detect them at all. Limitong the search area wpuld be helpful, and teach the soft to look for the white dust also

W

woj.dop

Participant

Great feature — I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. It works very well for removing dust on the sensor or lens, but I’d love to see improvements in the types of particles it can detect.

It would also be extremely useful to define or limit the area where Lightroom should look for dust. In my tests across many images, the tool performs reliably for sensor dust but struggles with small particles suspended in the air or water.

As an underwater photographer, I deal with backscatter and floating debris in most images, so extending the AI detection to handle these kinds of particles would be a huge step forward.

D

Doubsie

Known Participant

I totally agree that tool to remove backscatter would be a huge bonus!

neilob

Participant

Very happy with the dust removal. Quick and accurate.

C

claudio_salvador0225

Participant

el removedor de partículas o suciedad, esta peor que nunca, muy malo, no ajusta con precisión y para peor, no deja manipular individualmente cada círculo como antes

A

abqc

Participant

I am working with scanned 35mm colour slides which typically have dust marks, especially in the sky. I have 4000 of these and have been using the remove tool to do them manually. The new tool does not work on these dust marks and I would be interested to know whether Adobe plan a further release which will automate or semi automate this process.

D

deserette

Participant

complete piece of crap, back to Luminar neo!

B

blhogle

Known Participant

missed 2/3s of the spots

dongz14409238

Participating Frequently

great feature, I had always headache while seeing the photos from clear sky because there are very often that dusts were also captured. However, use it carefully. There might be circumstances that this feature also generate ghost effects.

Here are two examples shown before and after:

M

Montpat

Participant

This is a really interesting development for all photos taken with digital cameras since the 2000s, thank you very much... BUT it would be even more fantastic if it worked with scanned slides or films (or re-photographed with a digital camera): I have thousands of slides that I re-photographed with a digital SLR and which are full of dust.

Removing the dust takes hours, so please extend this feature so that it can work (even imperfectly) on scanned photos. For your information, it already works a little bit.

Best regards, Patrick

E

ed_nl@ch

Participant

Quite a useful function, in the B&W view I would like to have the spot identification circle in some color (orange, red?), the white circle is sometimes hard to see.

johnm271253

Participating Frequently

Thanks, the took I was asking about used to circle the blemish to be
removed in pink, and the pixels replacing the area were also shown. I agree
that now the doubled circle is far less useful and often does not seem to
work at all.

John M.

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