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
18363 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:

Show previous replies

dagnyg

Participant

Nice! A good way to deal with this annoyance

S

SmoothAsL

Participant

So I've been dreading going through pictures from my last trip, because I had a few ill-advised lens changes. The Lightroom tools were amazing for seamlessly removing the dust spots, but when you're doing that for 100 pictures it gets...rather tedious.

This automatic removal is amazing so far and such a time saver! Even if it only gets 90% there, the last 10% is trivial as opposed to removing 10 spots on every single image.

J

jrwilander

Participant

AI Noise reduction + Dust removal does not work well together.

J

jrsforums

Inspiring

@jrwilander the orange/yellow button on upper right (under histogram) needs to be press. See what you get then.

J

jrwilander

Participant

Whoops, thank you looks great now ❤️

syndicate2001

Participant

Bin sehr zufrieden mit meinem ersten Versuch. Fast alle sichtbaren Blendenflecke sind wie von Zauberhand verschwunden. Vielen Dankm das erspart mir ne Menge Arbeit. Best regards ... Claus

JeffMSmith

Participating Frequently

As of 31 Oct 25, the removal tool is frustrating to use. It highlights about 50% of the dust specks for removal (cool). In selecting a few of the remaining specks, the software says it will take 10 seconds to complete the action....but it never completes the task. After two minutes, the user is forced to cancel the request and move on without success.

johnm271253

Participating Frequently

Thanks Jeff,

Yes it is frustrating as to why it once worked well and now barely works at
all.

--
John M.

J

johnt41947401

Inspiring

I've tried using it a few times, whilst it finds some of the dust spots it then doesn't remove them. I've stopped using it as its not working, I'll try it again when its been upgraded to be more effective.

D

default4n2q5q4g607q

Participant

fungerar bra

C

craigd80112855

Participant

I am enjoying this thread. Especially the complaints. There are certainly some constructive concerns and some great ideas for a wish list. However, there are some who are being offered the very beginnings of a combustion engine, and are demanding a brand-new Rolls Royce. I think we need to remember that these are the early stages of development for this feature. I truly believe that Adobe will make this a more competent addition. They have told us that this is currently a feature that is in its nascent form and we were told upfront that it is only for dust and only for digital so far. Patience friends! It WILL improve and grow and will (probably...possibly) eventually have a solution for all things "negative."

C

Colorful_force3394

Participant

Just did my upgrade to LR 15 and tried the new dust removal. Unfortunately it did not work. It identified the dust well, but the auto remove did not work.

P

Pavel VK

Participant

Amazing! Love it!

*** Please Add Wires and telephone poles Removal Next! This will take the world of retouching to the next level!

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