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:

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.

[ThierryH]

I would also add that all these issues would vanish if there were separate buttons for Remove and Replace (with ...). In the latter case there could be a prompt (cfr. PS) the describe with what.

[Corniger]

My words. Remove and Replace should semantically be different!

[John R Ellis]

@ThierryH: "if there were separate buttons for Remove and Replace (with ...). In the latter case there could be a prompt (cfr. PS) the describe with what."

I think there are two separable issues here: 1) Why does Generative Remove seemingly "replace" the selection rather than "remove" it, and 2) Should LR offer Photoshop's Generative Fill, where the replacement can be guided by a text prompt.

1) LR's Generative Remove always creates a replacement for the selection that, in its judgment, best matches the surrounding pixels. In my experience helping dozens of people here, nearly all of the complaints about Remove replacing rather than removing arise because the user didn't select the object's shadows, reflections, cropped-out pixels, and discontiguous pieces of the desired object. So LR generates a replacement that tries to seamlessly match the remaining scene.  If you select a tree but leave parts of its trunk or branches unselected, it's going to generate a replacement that matches the remaining trunk and branches. If you select a person who has an arm draped around another person but don't select the part of the arm visible on the other side of that person, it could generate a replacement person to match the draped arm.  If you select some but not all of a fence, it will replace the selection with variations on the fence.  (All examples here.)

In general, if Generative Remove didn't try to match the unselected bits and pieces seamlessly, it would generate replacements that look unnatural. 

2) I've only played a little with Photoshop's Generative Fill and can't make an informed judgment about whether it would useful to be in LR.

[John R Ellis]

@ThierryH: "Object Masking selections are soo much better than the current Remove selections."

In my observations, Masking > Objects and Remove > Object Aware are nearly identical, except that Object Aware adds a boundary around the object to help make the Generative Remove create a better replacement.

Can you post an example showing where Object Masking and Object Aware generate much different selections?  Export the original unmodified photo as a full-resolution JPEG and attach it here, and show screenshots of the two different selections. The unmodified JPEG will let us and Adobe understand the issue better.

[John R Ellis]

@ThierryH: "I think a fourth option must be considered, (maybe) in comjunction with showing an uncropped version: make selecting compatible with Object Masking: the user could select using the brush and/or the rectangle and let Firefly select the whole object, including the invisible/out-of-crop part of it."

An issue with that approach is that Object masking and Object Aware selections are driven by what the user selects. If there is enough of what we consider an "object" that is cropped out and isn't selected (because it's outside of the crop), then when we select the visible pixels inside the crop, the cropped-out pixels won't be included in the object selection.

Here's an example. I've cropped the photo to include just the right-side 1/3 of the bookshelf, selected it with Object masking, and set Exposure to -4. Then I uncropped the photo, and you can see that the object selection only included the visible pixels and little bit of the cropped-out pixels, leaving the entire left side of the bookshelf unselected:

 

[MarkNF]

I have tried the new Remove tool twice on two different files and each time it failed and could not be used.  In one file I tried to remove the roof of a house sticking out through trees in a small part of the photo. In the second file I tried to remove a small object. In both instances the software generated different versions of what I was trying to remove and did not actually remove anything.  This was true for all three versions and even the refreshed versions. 

[John R Ellis]

@MarkNF: "the software generated different versions of what I was trying to remove and did not actually remove anything. "

See this article for how to remove objects more reliably:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

Most complaints about Remove are addressed in the article. But if it doesn't help, please attach a full-resolution JPEG exported from the unmodified original photo, so we and Adobe can see the issue in detail. With nearly everyone who has posted a problem photo, we've been able to show how to remove the desired objects.

[MarkNF]

I’m attaching a jpeg (exported from LR to my desktop) of one of the files that has not been processed. When I use PS’s Remove tool it works perfectly. I am trying to remove the house in the upper right corner. 

Thanks for your help.

Also, please disregard the Replies I sent via email.

Mark

[John R Ellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

@MarkNF, LR's Remove did quick job of removing the house from the JPEG you posted:

That indicates the original photo was cropped in LR and there were house pixels cropped out and not getting selected by the Remove brush.  Remove will then try to match those unselected pixels.  This is why Photoshop works -- the rendered photo that LR sends to Photoshop doesn't contain cropped-out pixels, and what you see is what you get.

The cropping could come from Crop, Lens Corrections, or Transform. Temporarily undo each of those, apply Remove, then reapply them.  This article gives more details:

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

[MarkNF]

John, the jpeg posted in this thread is straight out of the camera, no processing of any kind, no cropping.  It was taken with a mirrorless camera, no Import presets applied except copyright info, no Lens Correction and no Transform. Did you say that you were able to get the LR Remove tool to eliminate the house on the upper right?

Just as an fyi, although I do not see how this would matter, the jpeg is the result of an in-camera  focus stacking. Again, in-camera and not by LR or PS.

Mark

[MarkNF]

Also, this seems to be the same issue that theother poster mentioned about replacing a rail. In my photo the house roof is replaced by different roofs. And in the other photo (not posted here) a similar issue.

Mark

[John R Ellis]

@MarkNF: "Did you say that you were able to get the LR Remove tool to eliminate the house on the upper right?"

Yes, view my previous post in a web browser to see the images I included.  I've attached a screen recording here (again, view this post in a web browser to see the attachment).

[John R Ellis]

@MarkNF: "the jpeg posted in this thread is straight out of the camera, no processing of any kind, no cropping."

The attachment in your original post is only 2400 x 1800 and is stripped of all the camera EXIF metadata. Was it exported from LR at reduced size?

[MarkNF]

John, I'm reposting a jpeg image, straight out of the camera with no processing of any kind. I've exported it from LR Classic using settings of 4,000 for width and height, and 300 dpi.  Also, all exif data attached.  I hope that should be sufficiently hi-res. 

I do not understand why the tool works for you and not me.

Thanks for your help.

[MarkNF]

Hello again,

I messed up in my explanation. The attached jpeg is not a jpeg generated from a PS composite after focus bracketing, but the LR composite generated from focus stacking. My apologies.

Mark


Hi,

I cannot find my original post so am replying to the email instead. Sorry.

Anyway, I’m attaching a jpeg (exported from LR to my desktop) of one of the files that has not been processed. However, it is the resulting composite file that PS generated from stacking a bunch of images. I do not know if that has any effect on the LR Remove function, but when I use PS’s Remove tool it works perfectly on the composite image.

The roof I am trying to remove is in the upper right corner sticking out from the trees.

Thanks for your very prompt reply.

Mark



[MarkNF]

I posted this message (the ones beginning with "Hi Again" and "I cannot find my original post")  in error, please ignore it. Sorry.

Mark

[John R Ellis]

@MarkNF, using the high-res 6000 x 4000 JPEG you posted, my LR's Remove does a good job of removing the house in the upper-right corner. I've attached two screen recordings. The first one shows it removing the house, first using Object Aware option, then without (Object Aware tends to exclude the black satellite dish).  The second one shows what happens when you don't quite select all of the bits and pieces of the house partially hidden by the trees -- Remove does an excellent job of generating a replacement house that matches the unselected bits!

If you import that exact JPEG back into your LR, zoom into the house, being careful to select a large boundary around it, and try Remove again, does it work well?

If you're still having problems, perhaps post a screen recording showing what happens in your LR.

[waltweiss]

So a tool where Adobe decides to implement censorship on what can and cannot be processed is not something I am interested in.  How long before you apply the same censorship to Photoshop and Lightroom.?  I am purchasing a tool to use as I see fit.  I am not processing anything I do not own and I am not modifying images other than to expand portrait to landscape and to remove background content.  Your "censorship" has on several occasions refused to function because of supposed guidelines.  In most cases it was people wearing bathing suits.  In some cases they were fully clothed.  I do not need a censor.  I need tools that work.  

[John R Ellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

@waltweiss: "Your "censorship" has on several occasions refused to function because of supposed guidelines.  In most cases it was people wearing bathing suits."

Do you get any kind of notification when Remove doesn't remove a person in a bathing suit? There haven't been any other reports of this here.

I downloaded about 20 beach photos from Google of men and women, half in skimpy bathing suits and half with full-frontal nudity, and each time Remove did a good job of removing them. For example:

 

More likely, you're encountering the "replace instead of remove" issue.  See this article for how to remove objects more reliably:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

Most complaints about Remove are addressed in the article. But if it doesn't help, please attach a full-resolution JPEG exported from the unmodified original photo, so we and Adobe can see the issue in detail. With nearly everyone who has posted a problem photo, we've been able to show how to remove the desired objects.

[waltweiss]

I want the people in bathing suits - I dont want things in the background.

For example, this was shot in an airplane hangar and there was a helicopter and part of a cessna in the background.  I had to use content aware and clone tool to get rid of it because Lightroom generative remove refused due to "guidelines"

I still have a lot more to do to the image - but got frustrated with the repeated "guidelines" warning - which only said to review the guidelines

[waltweiss]

here is the original hi res jpeg

[John R Ellis]

@waltweiss: "Lightroom generative remove refused due to "guidelines""

1. Can you post a full-resolution screenshot of the entire LR window showing that notification?

2. Which version of Lightroom are you using: Classic, Desktop, Mobile, or Web?

3. I tried both LR Classic and LR Desktop on your JPEG and got similar results in both apps with no notifications about "guidelines":

[waltweiss]

Ok so I went back and took the original image and went through it again and it did a much better job.  The first time I attempted it I got guidelines warning multiple times.  On this run I selected the whole area I wanted to get rid of and it only selected parts of it so I would add to the mask and eventually after a few iterations I got down to this - then I got the guidelines warning.  I don't remember the other images where it occurred - but it has occurred before.

Lightroom classic 13.4 - I always let it auto update so it should be the latest version of everything

Its is desktop on a Windows 11 machine 12 gen I7-12700 2.10 GHZ with 64GB ram nVidia TRX 3060 Ti

So it worked a lot better on the last attempts than previously.  I was quite surprised at the results when I redid it.  I did get the warning one time - but I dont know why - but much happier with the result

[waltweiss]

In the past I got that warning and it said violated guidelines - that may have been using generative ai in Photoshop but I am pretty sure I got it here also.  Just not this time

[John R Ellis]

That's very interesting:

I tried Remove at least a 15 times on your photo, trying different things and never saw that error. And I don't think anyone else has posted about it here.  I don't think Adobe intends this (i.e. it's a bug).

If you encounter it again on other photos, please post a screenshot showing the entire photo and what's been selected.