P: Reflection Removal feedback (CR & LrClassic)

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

This post applies to Adobe Camera Raw plug-in.  

Adobe Camera Raw team is sharing an early look of our new Reflection Removal feature, which removes reflections caused by plate glass surfaces from photos. 

Note: 

• The feature currently only works on raw photos. Support for JPEGs & HEICs is added in the April 24 Update.

• There is a known issue on some Windows machines where the feature may produce a corrupt image. We are working on a fix for the upcoming release. 

Check out HelpX for more detailed usage information. For more technical information on the underlying technology, please refer to this Blog post. 

Getting started with the Reflection Removal feature: 

• Make sure you have the “New AI Features and Settings Panel” Technology Preview enabled in the Camera Raw plug-in Preferences dialog (requires restarting the host application to activate). 

• Go to the Remove panel [B] , and in the “Distraction Removal” section, click on the “Reflections” checkbox. 

• Optionally adjust the slider after the ML model is done computing. 

• Use the rest of the Camera Raw tools just like you would otherwise. 

When using the slider, the key values to note are: 

• 0 – the input photo

• 100 – de-reflected (window reflections removed) photo 

• -100 – reflection photo (what the window was reflecting towards the camera) 

Please try the feature and share feedback in this community forum. It would help to include details like how you access Camera Raw (via Adobe Bridge or Photoshop), your computer system details, and as much information about what you like or do not like about the resulting photo quality. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues to improve the future experience. 

When to use Reflection Removal

The feature is designed to deal with large-area reflections when shooting through windows. Many other types of reflections occur in nature and are captured in photographs, but this feature may not recognize and handle those. We plan to work on expanding the supported reflection types in the future. 

Example use-cases for the feature include: 

• Looking through windows inside-out (e.g., from the car, airplane, room windows, etc.) 

• Looking through windows outside-in (e.g., shop windows) 

• Museums (e.g., paintings behind glass, glass case exhibits, etc.) 

How best to use Reflection Removal

For best results, try the new feature following these suggestions: 

• Apply Reflection Removal before applying any other edits to the photo, except for Enhance features such as Denoise
  • The changes made to the photo may be quite profound and render any changes you already made inappropriate.
  • If you plan to use both Enhance (Denoise, Super Resolution, or Raw Details) and Reflection Removal on a photo, it is better to apply Enhance first.
• Play with the feature slider and adjust the removal strength as appropriate.
• If you applied Adobe Adaptive (beta) profile prior to running the Reflection Removal feature, please update it or you may see traces of removed reflections still present in the photo (Adobe Camera Raw will remind you to do this).

Boris Ajdin: Product Manager, Emerging Products Group 

Update (01-16-2025)

To improve the performance and results of this feature, it is important that examples of images that are failing to properly remove the reflections are forwarded to the team via your report.  A large variety of file formats are allowed as attachments in these forum posts. The best option is to attach your image's raw file directly to your feedback post. Note that there is a 50 MB limit on an attachment's file size. If your raw file is too large to attach, the best option is to share the file via a file-sharing service (Dropbox or similar) and then share the link in your feedback post. Thank you for continuing to provide feedback on this Tech Preview!

If you have already shared your raw file with us - thank you!

~Rikk

Posted by:

[Eric29489323q7t4]

This tool will not remove reflections from small or distant panes of glass, and that includes eye glasses. Check out the Adobe blog to learn more about what this tool does.

[JapanMike]

I'm really not having any luck with this with a Monochrom raw file. This was taken from inside a cablecar/gondola/ropeway and I don't get any help with the reflections. 

Something I'm doing wrong?
Thanks, Michael

[Eric29489323q7t4]

I'm curious what camera you're using to capture a monochrome RAW photo. I know they exist, but they are also not common. Is this truly a RAW file, or is it actually a JPG/PNG/TIFF from a camera that employs a color sensor and then outputs only one channel?

[nirodhag85436529]

It’s Nikon 7ii z and raw file

Get Outlook for iOS<>

[Eric29489323q7t4]

This Nikon 7ii z clearly has a color sensor, since it captures color images. What specific shooting mode are you using to produce monochrome "RAW" images? Also, what is the file format that you are exporting from the camera?

[Y292244130ld8]

This feature is great, but sometimes it decides to remove stuff that is not a reflection. Having masking could be a good solution for this without moving to PS

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Could you post the image?

[Pippinboy]

Selected 'Best' in the quality setting and did not make any difference at all.  Had I have taken the shot with a polarizer I wouldn't even have even had an issue but the moment did not allow for on-the-fly changes of lenses or filters.  I thought PS had something here, drats!  Hopes were up then squashed like a bug on a windshield.  Not really, I'm not surprised it doesn't work to remove reflections from windows.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

This is a photo of a large tractor, as seen from the ground; within the tractor there is a person sitting behind some glass. The subjects are the tractor, the person, the glass, and the sky. There is not a pane of glass between the camera and those subjects. The tool has correctly detected that there is not a pane of glass, and so it has removed nothing. This is the intended result. So sorry to hear that you were surprised. 

The quality setting only affects the sharpness. Please use the lowest setting to quickly learn which reflections this tool removes. Please also check out the Adobe blog to learn more about what this tool does.

[zaconline]

Missed an obvious relection from a flash on a window in the background, but removed lighting on netting that covered the ceiling.  Weird.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Please post the image. By your description, this does not sound like the kind of image that the tool is designed to fix.

[ECr_9]

I tried to remove the reflections from this image with "best" preset, but it does not work. I don't know what the issue might be, I have a pretty good computer (Ryzen 9 7900x, RTX 4080, and 64gb of RAM), so I doubt that is the problem, I have the image in question attached

[JohnDG Photography]

I tried your picture on my pc (i9 14900KS, RTX4070 12GB VRam, 64GB ram). I'm intrested, because I had something simular, the glass of a train in Kyoto, where I couldn't remove anything at all.
On your picture, it reduces the top glare, but the houses on the bottom still remain.

[ECr_9]

Your attempt looks way better than mine for some reason anyways, since when I do it barely anything changes. Im really confused with what the problem might be

[JohnDG Photography]

I've started from Photoshop 26.11 and camera raw 17.4.2
For the rest I think both are machines are a bit alike, so I would exclude that.
Normally I shoot RAW, which gives better results, but in Kyoto I made a quick picture with my smartphone in JPG of the Haruka train . Even with the latest versions, it diminish the glare just a bit, but doesn't take off any reflections.

[ECr_9]

Im rewriting this reply because I realized i cannot upload my raw file for some reason, but what I wanted to say is that not even the raw (.cr3) file seems to work

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Photos like this one of the car window are not really ideal examples of the kinds of reflections that this tool is intended to remove. I agree with you that removing this reflection would be a useful thing to do. That said, the image does also show the car and the region around the car. In those situations the tool might not work at all, or the results might be less complete. 

Definintely RAW will work better. I would be interested to know what systems you both are testing on. Seems like ECr_9's system is Ryzen 9 7900x, RTX 4080, and 64gb of RAM? Some GPU devices have driver issues, and its possible that not all driver issues are self-evident. So if you could post your system information I might be able to guess whether there is a subtle device driver issue at play.

[ECr_9]

My cpu drivers are up to date, so are my gpu drivers, but they are gaming drivers since I use this computer for gaming and I got into photography about a month ago. Should I should try studio drivers instead or a whole other system? My friend does have another good computer (Ryzen 9 9000x if im not wrong, and a 5080), so I could ask him to test it out there as well

[Bill Quinby]

Hello, 

I notice that there seems to be an inordinately long list of situations that "are not really ideal examples of the kinds of reflections that this tool is intended to remove." Any idea when the updates will remove any reflections it can find? 

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Bill, the list is not long. The tool is designed to remove reflections from plate glass windows that cover your camera's field of view. These are situations when you are trying to look out of a window to see your subject. This surprises users who initially assume that any reflection on any surface in the world will be removed, and so you will find many posts in which I re-explain the same thing. The tool must behave this way because it cannot read the user's mind to discover what things they do want to remove reflections from, and what things they do not. As mentioned elsewhere, and in the Adobe blog we hope to handle more situations in the future. I hope you'll check out the blog.

[JohnDG Photography · Accepted solution]

Eric,

do I understand it well the reflections will only be removed when the glass plate fills the whole frame of the picture. As it won't remove reflections from a windows that's part of a larger picture. 

[Eric29489323q7t4]

That's right John. Despite this, sometimes the tool does often work in other situations, so you can still try. We are continuing to work on this feature, so do stay tuned for updates.

[André36678699dyam]

refelction remove tool still not working on Mac OS see screenshot info mac.
got the latest RAW update of today.
Thank you.

 

[No Quarter]

I haven't tested it on many images but I have a heic picture sent from a client with reflections in large windows.  The slider just blacks out the whole image when taken to -100.  No reflections are removed at either end of the slider.  Windows 10.  Using Best Quality.  Same effect on Camera RAW in Photoshop Beta as in Lightroom Classic.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Please consider posting the photo if you can. Without seeing the photo it's difficult to help. In general, when the tool removes nothing, its because there is not a pane of glass covering the view of your camera. And, when the tool removes nothing, that means the reflection is a black image—no reflection. Also keep in mind that you will get best results on RAW photos, rather than HEIC.