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 

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:

[Conrad_C]

How was the DNG created? Is it from a camera, a smartphone camera, or was it converted to DNG from another format?

[garygardiner]

Hubcaps. First world problem but noted.

[David ART]

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:
:white_heavy_check_mark: Let us manually select the area where Reflection Removal applies.
:white_heavy_check_mark: 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]

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

• https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/remove-reflections.html
• https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/12/12/removing-window-reflections-adobe-camera-raw

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.

[Conrad_C]

You’ll want to adjust your testing plan to account for what the feature is intended to do right now, and also, with a full understanding of the raw workflow. As written, the conclusions were based on assumptions that aren’t correct. 

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.

By David ART

Not a spoiler, because…Adobe already noted that the eyeglasses scenario is out of scope at this time. When they released the Tech Preview of this feature in December, they posted an informative blog article (Removing window reflections in Adobe Camera Raw) that says: 

What's next?

We're planning to support JPEGs, HEICs, and other non-raw files. We're also looking into removing small reflections like eyeglasses and distant windows. We'd also like to extend our tool to the removal of dust, scratches, rain, snow, or other things that land on windows (bugs on windshields?) Finally, while this beta is available only through Camera Raw, we plan to bring an expanded version to the entire Lightroom ecosystem.

Also, for best results, the testing methodology needs to be refined:

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?)

By David ART

That was never going to work, because Lightroom Classic “Edit In” has never resulted in a raw image in Photoshop. It has always resulted in a Photoshop document converted from raw, so it is no longer raw. Because it’s no longer raw, that Photoshop document can’t work with any feature requiring raw data.

If you want to test a workflow that opens a Lightroom Classic image into Photoshop while preserving its full original raw data for Camera Raw, one correct way is:

1. In Lightroom Classic, select the photo and choose Photo > Edit In > Edit as Smart Object in Photoshop. This preserves the original raw data as a raw smart object in a new Photoshop document. 

2. Open it in Camera Raw by double-clicking the raw Smart Object layer. This is a shortcut for the command Layer > Smart Objects > Edit Contents. 

Your workaround is another valid way: Open the raw image straight into Photoshop so that the original raw data is available to the full Camera Raw processor, before being converted out of raw into a Photoshop document.

Important: Do not choose the command Filter > Camera Raw Filter. The filter version of Camera Raw has always been a cut-down version that leaves out several features, because the filter version only operates on a Photoshop layer, not a whole file. The filter version of Camera Raw has never been able to operate on raw data directly, so features requiring raw data have never been available in Camera Raw Filter. You must use the full Camera Raw processor.

These workflow requirements aren’t new. They already applied to other Camera Raw features that require raw, such as Denoise. Also, these points have been covered earlier in this thread, so you might want to review it. For example, you’re not alone…many others have posted about wanting it to work on eyeglasses (and many of them also did not notice that Adobe already said they’d like to make reflection removal work on eyeglasses, but it’s not supposed to work on those yet. Also, many others are also not aware that Camera Raw Filter is not the full Camera Raw processor and never directly edits original raw data). 

[SolarPaul]

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

[Marty_Bigos8577]

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

[colmanc45976152]

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..

[Eric29489323q7t4]

There is a known issue with this hardware. The manufacturer is working on a fix.

[dpick2]

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]

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.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

You can try sharing the raw file using wetransfer.com, as others here have done. There is a link-sharing option if you click the (...).

[dpick2]

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

[Eric29489323q7t4]

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. 

[dpick2]

https://we.tl/t-oii8Haxw68 

Sorry, I realized it a few minutes ago and reuploaded it.  Thanks and sorry.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

 cleaned

[Eric29489323q7t4]

This DNG works just fine. 

[dpick2]

Kind of surprised you think it works fine.  The brigh reflection is from a wall oposite from the flag which you can see extends and perspective fades to the right.  The flimstrip exhibit is easy visible in the reflection on the flag, in the field and below on the stripes.  It is much better, but not complete.  The flag is housed in two sets of glass. That may be the issue (you can google other photos without the reflections from the museum).

This tool is fantastic, and if your thoughts are "It's much better and we're working on it."  That's exceptable.  But, if your thoughts are the tool "DNG works just fine," maybe I'm misinterpreting your comment or we simply have different expectations. 

Thanks and again, love the tool.

[Eric29489323q7t4]

As I understood it, your original post was asking about a photo for which the remove reflections was totally disabled, preventing you from running it at all. So I replied that it "works just fine" because I was able to run remove reflections. I was not commenting on the result. 

[Captainoptic]

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=orq59hpg5gnp645rg...

[Eric29489323q7t4]

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

[pams1639628]

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!! 

[owen_5294]

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

Imported by dragging the ARW file into photoshop

[Eric29489323q7t4]

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

[eva-ter�z_6935]

I tried three different raw files showing framed images behind glass, it did not remove any reflections at all but merely raised the overall contrast.