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 issues 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.

[lupji]

Its not working for me. It cannot remove it. 

[johnrellis]

@lupji, see this article about how to use Remove:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

If that doesn't help, please attach an original photo (not an export) here and call out the object you can't remove.

[pierre37931906gwbj]

Just wonderful, a game changer ! 
It was funny to see sometimes it replaces a dustbin by a flower pot !!!?

It would be great if it could comparer similar photos where i used it, to get similar results from one photo to the other,

Thanks!

[Juall]

A feature that requires users to look up on various blogs how to use it isn't a feature.

Do you really need AI to replace a black spot against the blue sky on the corner of a photo with a slightly smaller grey spot? One would think that should be pretty basic for a generative remove feature to do that...

[johnrellis]

@Juall: "Do you really need AI to replace a black spot against the blue sky"

No. Adobe recommends using the existing Remove tools for small spots (Clone, Heal, non-AI Remove, formerly called Content Aware). 

"replace a black spot against the blue sky on the corner of a photo with a slightly smaller grey spot?"

You may not have read the help article, but most likely this is caused by the photo being cropped or having lens corrections enabled (which also crops pixels).  In such cases, Remove is trying to generate a replacement that matches the surrounding (cropped-out) pixels.  Temporarily removing the crop and disabling lens corrections will let you select the entire object and surrounding boundary.

I think many people are getting tripped up by this aspect of the "Early Access" version of the tool, which fools them into thinking Photoshop's Remove works while LR's Remove doesn't.  It would be better if, when you selected Generative AI in the tool, it automatically temporarily disabled crops and lens corrections (analogous to how the crop tool shows you the entire photo).  Or if it worked on just the currently visible pixels.

[jonathanp41403920]

First use of the feature - consistently seems to remove the item I brush over but the replacement is more exposed than the areas around the removed item. Example - dark coloured stone on a sandy beach. Stone is removed and replaced by sand but the replacement sand where the stone was is more exposed than the sand is around the replaced stone

[jonathanp41403920]

[johnrellis]

@jonathanp41403920: "the replacement is more exposed than the areas around the removed item. "

I've found that increasing the selection to include more of the background I'd like to see used often improves the match with the surrounding background.   Attach the full photo here (not an export) so we and Adobe can see what you're working with.

[jonathanp41403920]

Thanks @johnrellis - appreciated

I’ll try your suggestion once Adobe fix a significant problem they’ve introduced with the latest version of LrC which is effectively preventing me from using LrC altogether. They’ve changed the synch architecture in this new version resulting in photos which previously synched perfectly between LrC on my iMac (latest MacOs), & the cloud, no longer synching. I changed nothing except upgrade LrC. After 2 very long & frustrating days speaking to various help desk people (one of whom made it worse) and letting them access my desktop, they’ve admitted “a serious issue” and are escalating internally. In the meantime, I can’t use LrC because they don’t want me to make any changes/edits and also because it runs so slowly now when LrC is open.

From what I’ve seen, Adobe released this version far too early & before it was fully tested (not just for Generative AI Remove which Adobe, to be fair, have said isn’t fully there yet).

I don’t want to initiate further discussion on this synch problem on this thread as I have an open Adobe case for it

[saydelah]

Removing some distracting out of focus flowers against a blurred background in a relatively high ISO photo - removed them, sort of matched the background colour but the grain was totally different to that of the background it was awful and obvious.

[johnrellis]

@saydelah, attach the full photo here (not an export) so we and Adobe can see what you're working with.

[judyc46]

I have been using the Generative AI tool in Lightroom Classic to remove glare from glasses. Here are a few tips I have learned. First remove the glare before making any other changes. Second be sure to cover the eyeglasses completely. Third do one eye at a time. It works great. It was a life saver at a 50th anniversary party.

[brianp36230040]

Not working in LrC. Works nicely in Photoshop, but in LrC I'm getting zip

[johnrellis]

@brianp36230040: "Not working in LrC. Works nicely in Photoshop, but in LrC I'm getting zip"

See this article about how to use Remove and why you're probably getting different results in Photoshop:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

If that doesn't help, please attach an original photo (not an export) here and call out the object you can't remove.

[Hussain Khalaf]

It dosn't work as good as photoshop AI 
and hope you incloude croping with AI just like photoshop

[judyc46]

I worked great for me.

[johnrellis]

@Hussain Khalaf, can you please attach an original photo that doesn't work as well in LR as in PS? That would let us and Adobe see what's not working.

[Lisa C Photography]

Very happy with the new updates! Saves me tons of time on switching to Ps! But i've come across this bug (?) a couple of times now. It removes the person I want to remove, but it keeps a shadow there. Even after selecting it multiple times and rerunning the Generative AI it still keeps the shaduw. Anyone know a solution to this?  

[johnrellis]

@Lisa C Photography, did you apply a mask to the sky?  Do the menu command Settings > Update AI Settings to recompute the sky mask, and the shadows should go away.

[Paul26878110874f]

Hi.

After Adobe's update to 13.3.1 version with AI healing brush, regular work in Lightroom became very slow.  I'm using healing brush 1 time per 100 photos, but I always need speed in Develop module because I working with it 8 hours per day.

We all need speed up Lightroom now. Version 13.0.1 were qiute fast. 

My PC: Win11, intel 13900, 128gb ram, GeForce 4060Ti, few ssd's 

[jonathans95928936]

When removing objects blurred in bokeh, some borders with shading are visible afterwards. 

[jonathans95928936]

Also, when zoomed in on corrected area, some artificial texturing is visible. 

[Henrik34037016ir40]

Does not remotely work as well as in Photoshop; I have a picture of a conference speaker and mic coming into the frame in front of a clear grey background. Microphone is not removed but replaced with another microphone. Funny if it woudnt be so sad. Also typically: a tree branch in front of a clear blue gets to be removed but leaves a clearly visible rest of the branch at the picture. I know that from the other "removal"-tools in Lightroom. None of them is as good as in photoshop. Why is that?

[johnrellis]

@Henrik34037016ir40: "a tree branch in front of a clear blue gets to be removed but leaves a clearly visible rest of the branch at the picture."

Do you have a mask applied to the sky?  Do the menu command Settings > Update AI Settings to recompute the mask and get rid of the shadow branch.

[johnrellis]

@Henrik34037016ir40: "I have a picture of a conference speaker and mic coming into the frame in front of a clear grey background. Microphone is not removed but replaced with another microphone."

Temporarily remove any crop and disable Lens Corrections and Transform. Include a generous boundary around the object, and then it should be replaced with background (removed) rather than with another version of the object. See this article:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

If that doesn't help, please attach the original photo here (not an export) so we and Adobe can see the issue in detail.