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.

[Wiebke37888945kwnw]

I do like the feature - it seems way more accurate than the old healing (or PS spot healing tools) on many occasions.
However, the Metadata logging seems somewhat off, as I have a few photos marked from the LR filters (Library panel) as edited using AI technology, which I edited the last time way before AI was available in LR. Looking into those spots where I used the healing tool, these are clearly marked as not being healed by Generative Remove. Thus images might get flagged for (excessive) use of AI, which were never touched by AI in the first place.

Hope this can be adjusted in a future fix.

[Ian Lyons]

The Content-Aware Remove tool from LrC 12.x uses AI technology, albeit based solely on the pixels within the image. Therefore, any images edited using that tool will be flagged as having AI.

[John R Ellis]

@Wiebke37888945kwnw, "I have a few photos marked from the LR filters (Library panel) as edited using AI technology, which I edited the last time way before AI was available in LR."

There are two filter/smart criteria, Has AI Mask and Has AI Remove. Which one was given wrong results?

"Hope this can be adjusted in a future fix."

I tested these against a couple of my catalogs and didn't observe the bad results. Adobe won't pay any attention unless a very large number of people complain or a formal bug report is submitted from which Adobe can reproduce the problem:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/how-do-i-write-a-bug-report/idi-p/12386373 

[Wiebke37888945kwnw]

Hi @John R Ellis,

Thanks for your reply 😊

I used the Has AI Remove Filter, however, considering @Ian Lyons' reply the old healing tool might be flagged as AI as well.

[John R Ellis]

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

That tool was formerly called Content-Aware Remove and did indeed use AI technology, as Ian explained. You can still access it by clicking the same Remove icon and unchecking Generative AI and Object Aware:

[Ian Lyons]

I was referring to the Content-Aware Remal tool introduced in LrC 12 (October 2022 - https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-classic/help/whats-new/2023.html), not the old heal tool. I've highlighted the Content-Aware Removal tool in the attached screenshot. It uses AI technology, but the model is restricted to using the pixels within the image.

[John R Ellis]

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

LR used ambiguous terminology in 13.3 and earlier. The top bandaid button was called "Healing", and the Help calls it "Healing Mode":

The bottom bandaid button was called "Heal", and was one of three Heal Types according to the help or one of three Heal Modes according to the user interface:

[MaryEllyn22562693ti8v]

I was having trouble with using the remove feature, but this morning I reset everything in the Remove portion of the menu.  Then once again checked only the box for Generative AI and my results are stellar today.  I even looked through all three of the ones generated and it was usually the first one that did the trick.

[Ian Lyons]

Good news that you resolved whatever the issue was causing bad results.

[Thomas37593117qy7v]

when I try and remove an object instead of removing it a different version of it is presented

[Ian Lyons]

@Thomas37593117qy7v 

Have a look at below linked tutorial. It demonstrates how to use the tool to remove rather than replace.

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

[papkinator42]

I think this function would dramastically benefit, if it would include an option to choose whether I want to erase an object, or replace it. Other than that, It is sufficiently satisfying with its results.

[jrsforums]

But it's always replacing!!  The question is with what.

[Ian Lyons]

@jrsforums 

Have a look at below linked tutorial. It demonstrates how to use the tool to remove rather than replace.

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

[jrsforums]

Ian, I understand.  However, isn't the tool ALWAYS replacing something?  If you do the selection on a person correctly, it will not replace it with another person....however, it will replace it with a newly created background.  The key is, I thing, understanding how the AI tool was trained to determine which path to take.

[John R Ellis]

Yes, technically, the tool is always replacing the selected area with generated imagery. But in common usage by non-engineers, it's intuitive to use the term "remove" to mean replacing a visually distinct object by background or imagery that we don't perceive as a foreground object, and to use the term "replace" to mean substituting a new generated object for the selected object.

With this understanding of the terms, the help article gives useful advice about how to use the tool to remove instead of replace.

[jrsforums]

I agree to the 'KISS' principle.  However, even for "non-engineers", I would think it helpful to understand that the process is the same...and the masking process, as show so well in the article, is set to instruct the AI process in what to replace it with.....but maybe I'm being to logical and not 'artistic' enough 😀

[PhotoInge]

When removing objects against a clear sky, the sky is darkened around where the objects was

[John R Ellis]

@PhotoInge: "When removing objects against a clear sky, the sky is darkened around where the objects was"

That can happen if you apply any of the Remove tools on top of an existing mask. In Develop, do Settings > Update AI Settings.  In general, do Remove first, then create the mask.

[GLIMSHOT_BE]

Hi,

Love the feature, but...

Remove should be more of a ''remove'' thing than a ''replace'' thing.

The selection of remove areas isn't intuitive.

The results are very volatile (sometimes very good, sometimes pretty bad).

The general application of the generative removal tool should be more like in Photoshop, where you have more control over the affected areas.

Kind regards,

[John R Ellis]

See this article for how to use the tool more reliably to remove rather than replace:

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

[Lapuce69]

Hello, I'm new to using PS and LRC. I'd done some tests with the AI element suppression in PS and I'm delighted to see the function arrive in LRC. I generated a first time the choice N°2 was good but not perfect, I then updated and the 3 new proposals were not good, when I wanted to return to the proposal N°2 of the first generation that was not possible whereas one can baculate in PS. Did I make a mistake? If not, it would be nice to be able to go back to the previous generated version.

Thank you Corinne

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

[John R Ellis]

@Lapuce69: "it would be nice to be able to go back to the previous generated version."

The command Edit > Undo will back up to the previous version. See the attached screen recording for an example.

[heartburnNL]

Really an amazing addition! I find myself using it al the time and I'n pleasantly surprized by it's accuracy. Bravo!

[sheilah77]

I have the same issue as many do, it doesn't remove, just replaces with similar object. I end up going to PS to use it there. For me it has been completely unusable. Hopefully all this helps. Will be nice when it works like PS. Which is amazing.