P: (Technology Preview) Reflection Removal (CR)

[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 non-raw photos (e.g., JPEGs or HEICs) will be added in a future 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 the 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 

Posted by:

[woorob]

This new tool worked spectacularly on a picturte taken in front of a fireplace with a glass door. Wonderful!

Just as an FYI and aid to the talented developers of this tool -- did not work with the same image in PSD format, only DNG.  Not a complaint, just an observation.

[Reed Pike]

The tool has real potential. It works well on images take at an angle to the glass surface. WIth images taken straight on my success have varied. Fairly often the AI recognizes my reflection as the subject and takes out what is behind the glass. Really busy reflections with clouds, power lines, autos, etc. seem to confuse the AI or the AI does not recognixe them at all. A great start on a tool that could be very useful in many situations.

[Geoff311665441bsi]

I just tried the Reflection Removal tool for the first time. It totally blew me away. Very cool.

I would love to be able to apply this to existing JPG or PSD files. I don't know what technical limitations may stand in the way, but I can dream can't I?

Geoff Bagnall

[swinsonr]

Trying the reflection removsl on several recent travel photos. The glass reflections in store fronts seem to evade it's detection for some reason. However removing blue sky haze reflection from moving water shot from directly overhead worked great.

[Ray77580]

Hello,

For me, it does'nt work with .nef files.

Raymond from France

[peterpreager@rogers.com]

same with me - doesnt work with nef!

[MadDrongo]

Doesnt work on my dng or nef files either

[TomHackettPhotography]

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work."  I find that there are several conditions where the "Reflections" check box is disabled ("Reflections" is in gray).  This includes any time I open a .nef from Lightroom Classic (CNTL- or Command- e), or when I click "Open" or "Open Object" and then try to use it from Camera Raw Filter.  I thought this might have to do with the existence of an .xmp file, but If I open directly in PS and there is an existing .xmp file, I can still check the "Reflections" box.  Otherwise, it seems to work well in most cases.  For an exception, see my reply from 12/26 (last one on that date).

[Conrad_C]

It’s not about whether an .xmp file exists. It’s about whether Camera Raw has access to the raw data, since reflection removal is currently one of the few features that requires raw. The two conditions you mentioned were explained earlier in the thread, are expected behavior and so are unlikely to change (although the behavior, explained again below, is neither ideal nor made clear to the user).

This includes any time I open a .nef from Lightroom Classic (CNTL- or Command- e)…

By @TomHackettPhotography

In this case, reflection removal doesn’t work because Lightroom Classic isn’t sending a raw file to Photoshop. That is the keyboard shortcut for the command Photo > Edit In > Adobe Photoshop. That command does not, and never has, sent a raw file to Photoshop. What it does is first render the file to RGB using the Camera Raw engine embedded in Lightroom Classic, and then sends that rendered non-raw file to Photoshop. Lightroom Classic does this because Photoshop can’t open raw files. If Lightroom Classic didn’t pre-render the file, Photoshop would have to open Camera Raw to do the conversion out of raw before accepting the file (same as when you use the Open command in Photoshop and select a raw file).

If you want to send an image from Lightroom Classic to Photoshop and keep it raw so that raw-only features work in Camera Raw, instead use the command Photo > Edit In > Open As Smart Object in Photoshop.

or when I click "Open" or "Open Object" and then try to use it from Camera Raw Filter.

By @TomHackettPhotography

In this case, the problem is because the limited Camera Raw Filter is being used, not the full Camera Raw processor. Camera Raw Filter is only able to work as a filter on rendered layer data, so it isn’t working in raw, so no raw-only features work. (Similarly, you’ll never find the Crop tool or Workflow settings in the Camera Raw Filter, because it’s not working with a full raw file, just a Photoshop layer.)

If you want your two conditions to work with raw-only features such as reflection removal or AI denoise, use these two specific steps:

1. With the raw file selected in Lightroom Classic, choose Photo > Edit In > Open As Smart Object in Photoshop. The raw file becomes a raw Smart Object layer in a Photoshop document. 

2. With the raw Smart Object layer selected in Photoshop, choose Layer > Smart Objects > Edit Contents. (The shortcut for this command is, double-click the raw Smart Object layer.) This opens the raw Smart Object into full Camera Raw, so all Camera Raw features will be available: reflection removal, AI Denoise, cropping, workflow settings…

[TomHackettPhotography]

Thank you.  You have clearly and completely explained the behaviors I noticed.  Your explanation taught me a good deal about the handling of raw files in Photoshop.

[carsten_1459]

Doesnt work on Windows apparently - it states that the gpu had a non-fixable error

[Frogman38]

Same with Both my Windows PCs and NEF files

[Jindong Lee]

Not working properly - corrupted image.

AMD Ryzen5 5600X

AMD Radeon RX6800XT - AMD Adrenaline 24.12.1
Windows 11 - 23H2 (22631.4602)

[miguel_angel_6973]

Muy similar a lo que a mí me ocurre.

[erreenne]

Similar Win11 PC, same artefact.

[markvlie]

Exact same for me, RX6600, driver last version on Windows 11.

[uprantl]

Habe genau das gleiche Problem. Ich verwende eine rx 5700 Radeon Graphikkarte.

[AlekRB]

Hi @uprantl! Could you provide more details about the issue you're experiencing with the Reflection Removal tool? A screenshot would also be helpful.

Thanks a lot!

Alek

[alekseyk81004588]

Macbook 13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports 

2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB

MacOS 15.2 

[miguel_angel_6973]

Lo he tratado de hacer con una foto en archivo RAF de Fuji y se queda la foto emborronada, como con rayas. No sé si será por el tipo de archivo o por la capacidad de mi PC.

Adjunto una foto del resultado y también las características de mi ordenador.

Un saludo

[gaudenzw12229394]

Would be great to see this function on glasses. (You may have a look into evoto, they do a very impressive job) 

[peterpreager@rogers.com]

Evoto is great but way too expensive for occasionsl use.

[Alon28873073txva]

Was trying to use this for removing a fence which is close to the camera and creates something similar to reflection. I'm not sure it's the right tool (I'm not a PS expert). Perhaps if there was a way to mask the detected reflection surrface (as can be seen in the attached reflection.png, when setting the bar to -100) could allow manual changes to further fix the image?

[Eric29489323q7t4]

Since remove reflections was able to separate some aspects of the fence into the reflection layer, you can open the clean image, and the reflection image, into two layers of a photoshop composite. You can then make custom adjustments to further improve the result. This will work best if you work in 32-bit mode before you flatten the composite into an 8-bit image for saving. See attached PSD.

[olivert78949376]

The tool makes a fantastic first impression. I tested it with window reflections but also with lens flares and bright spots resulting from dirt or grease on the front element. It was able to correctly isolate most of these distractions.

I like the ability to isolate the distraction with the slider as this can be useful to create a mask in PS.

In all tests I noticed a resolution drop in the final images (left) compared to the unprocessed images (right). If this drop exists in the final version of the tool, I would hesitate to use it, but I assume this will be targeted eventually.