P: New AI-powered Generative Remove (Early Access) available across all surfaces.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

This post applies to Lightroom Classic and the Lightroom Ecosystem products.
Post Camera Raw feedback here

This thread is now closed. Please update to LrC 14.x or LrD 8.x. If you wish to provide feedback, please go to the new article.

The Lightroom team is sharing an early look at Generative Remove, which makes it easier to remove unwanted objects and distractions, even on complex backgrounds, with a simple brush stroke. Generative Remove is powered by Firefly AI.

How to use Generative Remove on a desktop:

• You can find Generative Remove under the newly renamed Remove panel (aka “Heal”).
• Make sure the “generative AI” checkbox is enabled before you start brushing (note: when unchecked, Lightroom will use Content-Aware Remove to fill your brushed spots). 
• By default, you will be given a moment to refine your selection with an add or subtract brush. Remember to include shadows for a more accurate result! You can also skip this step by holding down ‘CTRL’ on windows or ‘CMD’ on mac as you finish your brush stroke. 
• Once you’re ready to apply and have accepted the terms, Generative Remove will use Firefly AI to remove your distractions and intelligently fill in the space that’s left by the removed objects. 
• Note: stable internet connection is required to use this feature.
• Generative Remove also lets you choose from multiple variations, so you can pick the one you like best, giving you full creative control. 
  
  Checkout the FAQ and Best Practices

Please give it a try and share feedback and/or report variations in this community forum. It would greatly help to include details like which app you are using (i.e., Lightroom Classic or Camera Raw) and other system details. Our team will continually monitor this thread to track issues to improve the future experience.

Lisa Ngo: Lightroom Product Manager
Posted by: Rikk Flohr 

Update (Dec 2024):  With the new release, it is no longer necessary to perform Generative Remove Operations prior to Cropping. 

Update:

Here are some tips if you are having issues with the feature replacing your object instead of removing it. 

• Enlarge your selection - if your brush stroke is too tight, you will have unexpected results.
• Remember that removing an object means painting over it, its shadow, its reflection, and any non-contiguous pieces. If you leave behind a shadow, a reflection, or a disconnected piece (e.g., a hand on a shoulder), the AI will attempt to create something to cast the shadow, reflect, or complete the unbrushed discontinuous item. You can avoid these issue by following the guidance provided in this linked tutorial. https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace

The recommended order for applying edits is:

1. Denoise 
2. Heal (includes Generative AI Remove)
3. Crop (includes traditional Cropping, Lens Correction, Transform, or any operation changing the geometry of the image, including round-tripping to PS to use Gen-Expand)
4. Global Edits
5. AI Selective edits (Sky, Person, etc)
   
   If you deviate from that, you may see the removed object remain as a ghost image. If this occurs, you will have to use Update AI Settings, which can be found under the Develop module 'Settings' menu.

[Ian Lyons]

@Eva32234968wj8o 

You reason/answer lies in the red dot below the Masks icon on the toolbar. See your screenshots

The red dot indicates that the AI mask needs to be updated because some edit applied after it conflicts. In your case, it was using AI Remove (Generative AI). To fix the issue just choose the 'Update AI Settings', which can be found in the Develop module 'Settings' menu.

[Eva32234968wj8o]

This is my selection: 

[Eva32234968wj8o]

This is the heal tool. 

[Ian Lyons]

The selection/mask is likely fine, but as I wrote above - To fix the issue just choose the 'Update AI Settings', which can be found in the Develop module 'Settings' menu.

Until you use 'Update AI Settings', the ghost of crane will remain.

[Ian Lyons]

The Heal tool will also cause the ghost image. You need to use 'Update AI Settings' so that the masks can be recomputed.

[Eva32234968wj8o]

Okay the update AI settinsgs worked! 

[Ian Lyons]

Thanks for confirming. It's much better photo without the crane.

[redlester]

My first attempts with the new AI removal tool are quite encouraging. Below is an example on a recent iPhone photo taken on a visit to Auschwitz.

Original colour image contains two men in the foreground and another figure in the distance.

For processed b&w image I've used AI Remove on all three figures. The man on the left and the figure in the distance have both been very successfully removed. For the man in the foreground holding what looks like a bag in his right hand, I forgot initially to remove his shadow, so Lightroom has replaced him with what appears at first sight to be the figure of a child, holding the bag in hand. I actually think this adds to the effect of the photo so decided to leave it like this, although I have now removed the shadow using the Heal function. Although it does show that for successful removal of people you really do need to pay attention to shadows, even if fairly insignificant ones!

[JRP27]

Tried to REMOVE a human figure in the background of an image but LRC just kept replacing the human with other humans. Tried refresh but got the same results.

[John R Ellis]

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@JRP27, I get very good results with your sample photo, selecting the person in the background with a generous boundary around him, as recommended in this help article:

 

I suspect the original photo you're working on has a crop and/or lens corrections applied in LR, and if so, you need to temporarily disable the crop and lens corrections before doing Remove, as explained here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/p-new-ai-powered-generative-remove-earl... 

If this doesn't help, please upload the original photo (not one exported from LR) to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar, and post the sharing link here.

[Evolve DPS]

Works great for the most part. I've noticed when removing people it leaves a highlighted sillouette of the person 

[John R Ellis]

@Evolve DPS, "I've noticed when removing people it leaves a highlighted silhouette of the person"

This can happen when you apply Remove (remove, healing, or clone) on top of an area that's already been masked and adjusted (e.g. with a sky mask).  Do the menu command Settings > Update AI Settings -- does the silhouette go away? 

If not, please upload the original photo (not an export or screenshot) to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here. And call out which person you're trying to remove.

[JLobert]

<meta charset="UTF-8" />

I am seeing this, too, and I apply the remove tool before editing anything, before masks or global adjustments. Specifically, if the object to be removed sticks into the sky, after removal, the (lighter) sky has that shadow visible, the (darker) foreground does not. 

[Bob Smith]

Worked beautifully on two fairly complicated removes against a blurred BG and overlapping a bright blue Stellars Jay.

[Barbara34538832bc4s]

First effort terrible result - the person I was trying to delete became "see thru"!

[Ian Lyons]

@Barbara34538832bc4s 

What you describe occurs when you've applied a Generative AI selection/mask to a image that has an AI Mask applied. In this instance, there will be a red dot below the Masks icon on the toolbar. You can fix the issue by choosing 'Update Ai Masks' in Develop module 'Settings' menu or within the Mask panel itself.

[Aline329336468fkd]

Hi, Barbara.
Thanks a lot for your reply.
I'll need to do that individually for all my library photos that shows this warning? As I said before, I tried to do that in library tab, by selecting all photos from my library, but it doesn't work. I'm very concerned about this issue because it's reducing my productivity in a huge maner. This problem is delaying the delivery of several works that I was already finishing before this product version update. 

Kind regards,

Aline Cristofaro.

[JLobert]

<meta charset="UTF-8" />

No, I described that clicking on the UPDATE AI MASKS option returns the error. This is a bug. 

[Aline329336468fkd]

I'm always receiving "some AI masks need updating" message even when I hit "update all" button on Mask panel from develop tab. This issue came after update adobe lightroom classic to Version 13.3. I also tried to do that on library tab by accessing Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings, but this also failed. How can I fix that?

[mediamfilmdude]

Every single time I use it, the 'Brush Size' decreases by 1 point and deselects the heal it just performed. Incredibly frustrating. When zooming in and out the brush doesn't scale with the image. Stop launching in Beta. Make sure it works before forcing users' hands into using it. I wish there was an 'Opt Out' option. The CA Fill is good, but the tool is buggy beyond belief. A travesty to use.

[mediamfilmdude]

It will show the circle indicating a certain brush size but when I click to use the tool, the brush size it actually uses is significantly smaller than what the 'preview' circle indicated. When I try to use the scroll wheel to increase the size, it will decrease in size several steps before starting to go back up in size. Sometimes when I click to use it, the program stalls and I'm stuck staring at my screen for about 5-10 seconds waiting for the program to register that I've clicked the mouse. Pay your developers to do this testing work instead of forcing your paying uses to do your RND. If you're going to take my money, give me a program that works. That's what I'm paying you for.

[John R Ellis]

@mediamfilmdude: "Every single time I use it, the 'Brush Size' decreases by 1 point"

You may be tripping over this bug, which predates LR 13.3:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/camera-raw-bugs/p-retouch-circle-automatically-becomes-smaller-on-ima...

It's frustrating that it hasn't been fixed after nearly a year.

[jupix38]

Au lieu de supprimer des objets non désirés (exemple, des baingeurs dans l'eau de mer que l'on souhaite effacer), la supression générative remplace le sujet par autre chose... 

Pas de différence quand on coche "basé sur l'objet"...

donc Pas bien convaincu pour le moment...

[Ian Lyons]

You need to ensure that all shadows, reflections and projections are selected/masked.

These tips from the post at top of thread should help.

Here are some tips if you are having issues with the feature replacing your object instead of removing it. 

• Enlarge your selection - if your brush stroke is too tight, you will have unexpected results
• Remember that removing an object means painting over it, its shadow, its reflection, and any non-contiguous pieces. If you leave behind a shadow, a reflection, or a disconnected piece (e.g., a hand on a shoulder), the AI will attempt to create something to cast the shadow, reflect, or complete the unbrushed discontinuous item

[John R Ellis]

@jupix38, "Instead of deleting unwanted objects (for example, swimmers in sea water that we want to erase), generative deletion replaces the subject with something else... No difference when you check "based on object"... So not really convinced at the moment..."

Have you tried the tips described in this article?

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/ 

If those don't help, please upload a problem original photo (not an export or screenshot) to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar, and post the sharing link here. Then we can see what you're seeing, and Adobe has an example photo of what might be going wrong.