Question

Distraction Removal: Dust (Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic)

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
July 10, 2025
232 replies
24543 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:

Show previous replies

jaded60122495

Participant

This tool ONLY works for digital files, as in coming from a digital camera. It’s great for this purpose. I also shoot film and would really appreciate it if this technology could be changed to understand dust and dirt on negative scans as well. That’s a lot more work than digital file retouching.

jonathanp96416794

Honestly, this is pathetic-- just a heads up to all my Adobe users, threaten to cancel, talk to a real agent, and get your subscriptions dropped 50% for a year. Showing something like this should be more than sufficient to get a reduction in your payments.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Author

If this is a scanned image (which it appears to be) then this feature is not designed to work here (as explained in the top post).

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

H

han52

Participant

Tried the tool for the first time today. Clearly visible specks of white dust on a black cloth background. The results were: No dust was found.

That’s a big fail.

C

christinef58502318

Known Participant

My take on this feature, and I could be wrong, is that it is only designed (to quote the original post) to remove "distracting spots on an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor", and also to quote "please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time".

I guess the term 'dust removal' unfortunately implies far more than just sensor dust!

What users (including me) are clamouring for is a tool that will remove dust spots from scanned photos, negatives and slides. Will this ever be introduced?

(PS: the video attached to the original post seems to be for Lightroom, not Lightroom Classic?)

L

Lucio27965222ckpl

Participating Frequently

Ciao volevo segnalare che su PS 26 filtro raw , “ elimina polvere ” sotto i 10/12 praticamente le piccole macchie non le elimina . Spero d’essere stato utile per il 2027. Lucio Bertani

P

Paul McMurrick

Participating Frequently

absolutely hopeless. It is not recognising any dust at all on a scan of a color negative

J

Joehigham_s_Reportage

Participant

See above notes from the product manager … “Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time.” ;)

I’m disappointed that I had to come to this feedback forum just to learn the same!

My project involved scanning thousands of 60+ year old slides; and this feature would obviously benefit my workflow 10000x !!

artw61974141

Participant

This does not seem to work at all, even on the most obvious dust spots (white specks on black surface). What gives?

D

Dan The Photo Man

Inspiring

Maybe Adobe should clarify if this feature is just for sensor dust or dust in general.

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Author

The Original Post contains this information.

Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org

mcohnphoto

Participating Frequently

Why is Adobe not responding to any of these threads, saying that this tool doesn’t work?

S

sjdeere

Participant

they are waiting to collate all our photos and eventualy the tool will get better I guess. it needs to make mistakes and gather a greater spectrum in order to improve. they just need to analyse everyones dusty photos so they can make a tool that works maybe.

remokoller

Participant

I have tried using the tool several times now, but unfortunately it doesn't work at all. I have to do everything manually every time or resort to using another application (Topaz).

R

relent107

Participant

Honestly had so much faith in this, considering how well the “remove” AI tool works...nope. The dust feature so far has done absolutely nothing on every single photo I’ve tried it on. Most of them with blatantly obvious dust, in very easy to detect places.

TERRIBLE tool. I’m sure you guy’s will fix it though, considering everyone else says the same thing.