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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
November 5, 2024
Answered

P: Reflection Removal feedback (CR & LrClassic)

  • November 5, 2024
  • 523 replies
  • 560385 views

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:

Correct answer Conrad_C

This reply, earlier in this thread, explains why:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-discussions/p-reflection-removal-feedback-cr-amp-lrclassic/m-p/15405349#M28971

 

Also, it isn’t called “glare reduction.”

523 replies

Participant
February 5, 2025

Image quality dropped heavily when using this tool - attached images to show this! 

 

Imported by dragging the ARW file into photoshop

Adobe Employee
February 5, 2025

This is known and in work, as the tool is still a tech preview.

pams1639628
Participant
February 3, 2025

I understand the reflection tool only works on RAW files but I am HOPING  it will work on JPG files in the future -- I have so many photos with my android phone with reflections to be removed this would be a real game changer!! 

Participant
February 3, 2025

Not working on 2019 imac, OS 14.2.1.  DId not recognize CR2 format files.  Then converted the CR2 to DNG with Adobe converter.  FIle recognized but nothing but noise as output.  Enclosed 3 files: Original pic from Canon.  CR2 converted to DNG. Result.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/559gj87umugl1s5u7cy7j/ALLzqGyPaWnbqi_Lps-ffis?rlkey=orq59hpg5gnp645rgouoxtdtm&dl=0

Adobe Employee
February 6, 2025

Please share what type of machine, operating system, and graphics card you are using. This usually results from specific  graphics cards

dpick2
Known Participant
February 2, 2025

A photo of the Iwo Jima flag at the US Marine Museum near Quantico, VA.  Reflection feature did not remove all the reflections.  Attempted through Photoshop.  Camera RAW v 17.1.0.2100

Win11 Pro

Nvidia 3060 GPU 12gigs ram (566.36 driver)

i7 8700 cpu

64 gigs ram

dpick2
Known Participant
February 2, 2025

I keep getting this error for a .dng image.  "The attachment's _mg_9258.dng content type (image/dng) does not match its file extension and has been removed." 

It is a CR2 file converted with Adobe RAW to .dng in 2015.  Your site will not let me upload because of this error.  Many other photos in this same batch worked with the new tool, and I wanted to get you that didn't.  Sorry, I tried.

Adobe Employee
February 6, 2025

Used WeTransfer   We'll see if this work.  Thanks for the tip, Eric.


The file you've linked is a JPG. If you'd like me to verify that the tool works on your original DNG or CR2 file, you'd need to send those. 

SolarPaul
Participant
January 31, 2025

Hi, I'm getting the corrupted image using the Remove Reflection tool when using Camera Raw on a raw image. I'm attaching the raw file and a screenprint of the corrupted output. Any advice, including just waiting till fixed would be appreciated

Cheers

Paul Aroney

Participant
February 2, 2025

Hi Solarman-

 

i downloaded your .Arw file and tried it on my system (Mac osx 15.2,apple m2 chip) and reflection removal worked fine. I have a lot of ARW files taken from a bus or train and they all  cleaned up nicely. It would probably help Adobe if you gave hardware and software information as incompatiblity could be your problem. 

Best,

Marty B

 

Participating Frequently
February 2, 2025

Sous Mac OS Sequoia 15.2 carte graphique Radeon Pro 580X 8 Go, pour moi, la suppréssion des reflets ça ne fonctionne pas. J'attends avec impatience que Adobe corrige cette erreur..

 

David ART
Participating Frequently
January 31, 2025

Another Day, Another Bug.

Most of my headshot clients wear glasses, so I thought—what a perfect opportunity to test Lightroom’s new Reflection Removal feature!

Spoiler Alert: Lightroom Classic and Photoshop had other plans.

The Issue

I quickly realized Reflection Removal isn’t available in Lightroom Classic (LrC)—only in Camera Raw via Photoshop. Okay, annoying, but not a dealbreaker.

I right-click the image in my LrC catalog, select "Edit in Photoshop", and once Photoshop opens, I go to Filter → Camera Raw Filter → Remove Distractions… and it’s greyed out. (Why is everything always greyed out when I need it most?)

Clicking the little warning triangle links me to a page that says:

"Note: Currently, the Reflection Removal tool does not support non-raw file formats like JPEG and HEIC."

But wait—my file is a .CR3 (Canon RAW), as displayed at the top of the Camera Raw window.

The Workaround Attempt

Maybe the issue is that LrC is sending a working TIFF to Photoshop instead of the original RAW file. No problem—I’ll bypass LrC entirely and import the file directly from my hard drive into Camera Raw.

Success! The tool is no longer greyed out. Great!

Nope. Not great. Not great at all.

The Results

Camera Raw assumes there's a sheet of glass over the entire image, applying the Reflection Removal algorithm indiscriminately. The result? It looks like someone cranked Clarity and Dehaze to 200%.

No professional photographer could ever consider this usable. This feature needs a lot more work—it's definitely still in its alpha stage.


How to Fix It

Adobe Devs, please:
✅ Let us manually select the area where Reflection Removal applies.
✅ Give us a slider to fine-tune the effect intensity.


Further Testing Plan

When I have time, I’ll try an alternative approach:

  1. Create two separate images—one image for each side of the glasses.
  2. Apply Reflection Removal in each image.
  3. If it works, I’ll overlay the processed lenses images onto the original image and fine-tune opacity for better control.

I’ll report back with my findings, but for now… this tool is far from ready.

 

 

jane-e
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 31, 2025
quote

This feature needs a lot more work—it's definitely still in its alpha stage.

I’ll report back with my findings, but for now… this tool is far from ready.

By @David ART

 

 

Hi David,

 

Be sure to read

 

Also note that the first link tells you:

"This feature is currently available as a Technology Preview. Use the Provide feedback option to share your thoughts directly with the Camera Raw team."

 

You posted to the Photoshop forum and this feature is available in Adobe Camera Raw. I've moved your post to the ACR forum.

 

Jane

 

EDIT: I see that staff has merged your post to the primary thread, so they have read it.

 

 

garygardiner
Participant
January 30, 2025

Hubcaps. First world problem but noted.

Participant
January 30, 2025

Hola, estoy probando la herramienta con una GPU intel HD graphics 620 con el controlador actualizado (19/07/22) en un windows 10 Home (22H2) y el proceso se para por un error inexperado y avisa de que la GPU se ha detenido por un error en tiempo de ejecucion.

Participant
January 28, 2025

My PC also shows this digital mess, quite pretty but utterly useless. It happens with every image.

Inspiring
January 28, 2025

Can you post your RAW file and describe your workflow? How are you opening the RAW file and applying the tool? Of course, it could just be one of the issues with graphics hardware that they're discovering. Not unusual with what's really a beta of this tool. But adding your specs to a description could help them support it in the future.

Participant
January 27, 2025

The Tool does not work on my Windows-PC. I use only raw files (Canon *.CR2) and i get always the answer: not compatible!