This post applies to Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic. Dust Removal is no longer in Early Access status and can be found in the Remove edit panel for Camera Raw & Lightroom Classic. Dust Removal helps with removing distracting spots on an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor. Once enabled, your image will be scanned, and any detected dust spots will be automatically removed using Content-Aware Remove. For refinement, you can select one or multiple spots to delete or refresh. Batch removal is also supported; simply select the "Dust" checkbox under "Remove" in the copy settings dialog.Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time. Dust spots on scans tend to be located in the focal plane, with the negative and very sharp, while sensor dust is typically positioned out of the focal plane and therefore not in focus. Scanned negative dust typically appears as white spots on a darker background, whereas perceived sensor dust tends to appear as dark spots in lighter areas. We would love to hear your feedback on Dust Removal! Please give it a try and let us know what you think: How is it useful? How could it be more useful? What could we do to improve your experience? Lisa Ngo, Product Manager Also see this video by @brianmatiash where he demos the feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwpUX4b6igY Posted by:

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

Question

Distraction Removal: Dust (Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic)

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
July 10, 2025
157 replies
17159 views

This post applies to Camera Raw and Lightroom Classic.

Dust Removal is no longer in Early Access status and can be found in the Remove edit panel for Camera Raw & Lightroom Classic. Dust Removal helps with removing distracting spots on an image that may be caused by dust on a camera's sensor.

Once enabled, your image will be scanned, and any detected dust spots will be automatically removed using Content-Aware Remove. For refinement, you can select one or multiple spots to delete or refresh. Batch removal is also supported; simply select the "Dust" checkbox under "Remove" in the copy settings dialog.

Please note that scanned negatives are not in the scope of this feature at this time.

Dust spots on scans tend to be located in the focal plane, with the negative and very sharp, while sensor dust is typically positioned out of the focal plane and therefore not in focus.
Scanned negative dust typically appears as white spots on a darker background, whereas perceived sensor dust tends to appear as dark spots in lighter areas.

We would love to hear your feedback on Dust Removal! Please give it a try and let us know what you think:

How is it useful?
How could it be more useful?
What could we do to improve your experience?

Lisa Ngo, Product Manager

Also see this video by @brianmatiash where he demos the feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwpUX4b6igY

Posted by:

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christiankremser

Participant

It doesn't work with merged HDR photos. It works perfectly with individual single images.

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Electric_Sunflower0D4B

Participant

I do quite a bit of aquatic / underwater photography with split shots - Often have little droplets as well as a few spots coming from the camera (especially visible on the sky area) and although it is not 100 % it does help and works well.

E

Electric_Sunflower0D4B

Participant

L

Lucille_Skye

Participant

This is a feature I've been waiting on forever. Thanks.
It works great on the sky, but not so well in water. Please see attached.

JBedfordPhoto

Inspiring

In addition to dust removal, a dead pixel removal tool would be very helpful.

M

mR73

Participant

Love this new feature!!!! It saves me so much time, BRAVO!

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woj.dop

Participant

Great feature — I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. It works very well for removing dust on the sensor or lens, but I’d love to see improvements in the types of particles it can detect.

It would also be extremely useful to define or limit the area where Lightroom should look for dust. In my tests across many images, the tool performs reliably for sensor dust but struggles with small particles suspended in the air or water.

As an underwater photographer, I deal with backscatter and floating debris in most images, so extending the AI detection to handle these kinds of particles would be a huge step forward.

Look for example on the attached photo. I'd love to have the particles removed from the shark, but Lifghtroom doesnt detect them at all. Limitong the search area wpuld be helpful, and teach the soft to look for the white dust also

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woj.dop

Participant

Great feature — I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. It works very well for removing dust on the sensor or lens, but I’d love to see improvements in the types of particles it can detect.

It would also be extremely useful to define or limit the area where Lightroom should look for dust. In my tests across many images, the tool performs reliably for sensor dust but struggles with small particles suspended in the air or water.

As an underwater photographer, I deal with backscatter and floating debris in most images, so extending the AI detection to handle these kinds of particles would be a huge step forward.

D

Doubsie

Known Participant

I totally agree that tool to remove backscatter would be a huge bonus!

neilob

Participant

Very happy with the dust removal. Quick and accurate.

C

claudio_salvador0225

Participant

el removedor de partículas o suciedad, esta peor que nunca, muy malo, no ajusta con precisión y para peor, no deja manipular individualmente cada círculo como antes

A

abqc

Participant

I am working with scanned 35mm colour slides which typically have dust marks, especially in the sky. I have 4000 of these and have been using the remove tool to do them manually. The new tool does not work on these dust marks and I would be interested to know whether Adobe plan a further release which will automate or semi automate this process.

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