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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
September 27, 2023
Question

P: New AI-powered Lens Blur (Early Access) available across all surfaces.

  • September 27, 2023
  • 1380 replies
  • 726506 views

This post applies to Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic & the Lightroom Ecosystem products.

The Lightroom team is sharing an early look for AI-powered Lens Blur–giving you the ability to apply optical blur on any image regardless of how it was taken. Lens Blur is now available to try on all Lightroom surfaces.
 
How does Lens Blur work?
  • Lens blur applies a depth-based blur effect, similar to what can be achieved with real-world optical lenses, by using AI-generated or device-captured depth data (when available).
  • Lens blur will automatically prioritize focus for the detected subject, but you can also interactively adjust the focus distance. Precise focus range tuning is also available (currently desktop only: Lightroom Desktop, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw).
  • You can also further customize the Bokeh shapes, highlight Boost (desktop only), and make depth map refinements (desktop only).
 
Will my Lens Blur adjustments on one surface be synced to other surfaces? I.e. mobile to web to desktop, and vice versa?
  • Yes, all edits will sync. To revert settings, you can go back to previous versions or history steps, or un-apply Lens Blur settings.
 
Can I add Lens Blur settings to my presets?
  • No, presets and copy + paste workflows are not currently enabled for Lens Blur during Early Access.
 
For more information, please check out Lens Blur. 
 
Please give it a try and share feedback in this thread as we continually improve this feature.
 
Lisa Ngo: Lightroom Product Manager
 
Current Popular Lens Blur Feature Requests:

Stop by and give them a vote if they're of interest to you!

 

 

Posted by: 

1380 replies

Participant
October 14, 2023

Looks really great at first glance but breaks down with long hair and fur. As long as the subject has neither of those it works pretty well but it can't handle hair and fur well.

Participant
October 14, 2023

Lens Blur looks very good, but the following should be improved:

1. better selection of the blur picture portion

2. faster elaboration time. It is a slow process, I' using a Mac studio and I see the elaboration time increasing, mainly in the passage from picture to picture.

3.  hair or small obects disappier in the process.

in any case is a very interesting tool

Sarah13242
Participating Frequently
October 14, 2023

Very much enjoyed Lens Blur, and more specifically the ability to customize the depth map.

 

It would be great if you added the ability to copy and save it as a separate layer in the project, because it would be useful not only for background blurring but also for working with curves, etc. ^_^

Participant
October 14, 2023

Great idea but I think when it comes to images with detailed hair you can tell it cuts it off like on an iphone. You can tell its AI. Here is a sample photo. You can tell on the right hand side the hair. Also the focus was on the nails on purpose to show off the nails. 

Participant
October 14, 2023

Great idea but I think when it comes to images with detailed hair you can tell it cuts it off like on an iphone. You can tell its AI.

Participant
October 14, 2023

Hello, the early access functionality is a great start.  Two comments:

` If there are people close behind subject, they are not blurred at all...background farther back looks great.  Suggest a "select subject" function that "blacks out" the blur.  More "selective blur."

- Focal range is a good idea, it just needs some tweaking.  I didn't see much differerence in the seclections.  To be fair, I'm really tired and didn't play with it that long.

This will be an awesome feature.

charliep28988368
Participant
October 14, 2023

This sh*t cray! Great update. 

 

Would be nice to have a reference in the focal range to know where the original focus was.

Adobe Employee
October 14, 2023

You can double-click on the range slider or re-click the subject focus to get to the original default focus.

健治長33016109
Participant
October 14, 2023

When there is a fence in the focused range, it seems to be difficult to blur the image behind the fence. It is the only way to correct this is to use a brush, but it is hard to do when the fence is fine mesh.

Participating Frequently
October 14, 2023

That's my experience too.

Participating Frequently
October 14, 2023

The feature is really nice! I would add an ability to add objects to the focal range. Right now it's either a person, or another object that I select a band around. I'd like this to be additive (e.g. this person + the rail that they're leaning on). Adjusting this by distance range alone doesn't always work, since the AI doesn't always detect the distance of objects correctly.

 

In addition, please work quickly to improve performance and memory footprint of this feature. It's almost unusable at this time. Clicking "Apply" for the first time adds 6-8 GB of memory, and eventually LR (and the entire machine) hangs. I also see huge memory fluctuations througout the usage, gigs of change all the time, up and down. To be able to seriously test the feature, this needs to improve.

Participating Frequently
October 13, 2023

When I use lens blur on a furry animal, the fur is blurred along with the background.  This is a great feature.

 

ACEkin
Participating Frequently
October 13, 2023

Somehow, it does not look believable to me. I tried it on a photograph with a wall on my left and a ninety-degree wall straight ahead. There are a few cars in the middle. Auto apply looked really odd as part of the car closest to me was out of focus while others behind it were in focus. Also, the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus looks unrealistic compared to what a lens might produce.

ACEkin
Participating Frequently
October 14, 2023

I should have added the sample pictures. Here they are. Look at the roof of the car in front and the lamp pole. Also, see how the bricks go from sharp to blurry almost suddenly.