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.

[Annette387858694ds0]

Lightroom: If I want to delete a person or a part of a person Lightroom often places new persons in the picture even if i I try again. I don't see why I should want a new person but it would be nice that at least one of the suggestions is without a person. I think Photoshop does a better job even without instruction ( at least if you try several times, but in Lightroom new people keep coming back)

[Ian Lyons]

@Annette387858694ds0 

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

[Jack32501827kj3s]

Hands down this is a game CHANGER! It took this masterpiece bird photo and removed a significant tree limb encroaching on the subject. I CAN'T even tell where the branch was loacted. 80 to 90% of the time it gets the correction I'm looking for right the first time. Can't thank you enough!

[Jan29076768c2o2]

the remove tool works pretty decent when an object has to be removed from te center of the image. but when you want to remove an object that is on the border, it never works. It would be great if this can be implemented better. because a lot of times I want to remove objects that are partially in the frame. 

[John R Ellis]

@Jan29076768c2o2: "when you want to remove an object that is on the border, it never works. "

This happens when there are pixels that have been cropped out due to Crop, Lens Corrections, or Transform. Remove looks at all the pixels of the photo and is generating a replacement that matches those cropped-out pixels. Apply Remove first before those cropping commands.

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 quickly remove the desired objects.

[SBainbridge]

Worked great to remove a blown out cloud and fill it in to blend with the other clouds!

[Gert-Jan258753178qxq]

When removing abjects against a clear, equally colored background (eg a blue sky), it does often not match the present color so the slightly different replaced color stands out against the original color of the background

[Gert-Jan258753178qxq]

excuse me, please ignore my earlier comment, as when creating a mask by auto selecting Sky before removing objects AND using inverted mask of that same sky, again before removing objects, I now understand that all earlier edits counted towards the inverted mask, as at that given moment they were not (yet) part of the Sky. 
Now when I changed my sequence on this, removing objects, then selecting Sky and next using and inverted mask for Sky, it is all looking great!

[Ian Lyons]

Thanks for reporting that you've identified the cause of your issue and revised the order of your edits accordingly.

[Florian29065506ij2l]

Sweet lord the remove algorithm is so bad. 
Absolutely never works properly even for the simplest tasks (speaking removing a yellow ball in a contrasty background, or a tiny black corner against a blue sky). Just put the photoshop remove algorithm instead because Lightroom's sucks. 

[John R Ellis]

@Florian29065506ij2l, "a tiny black corner against a blue sky"

There a couple of gotchas that might be causing this, which are easy to avoid. 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 quickly remove the desired objects.

[gordonm67764613]

I'm betting user error like cropping , or masking first. Don't do that
before you use the new AI tool!

[arosvaldo]

Estou simplesmente amando!!! IA realmente é o futuro!

[Mr.Azpeytia]

LOVE IT AMAIZING AND FAST TOOL

[andrews_good_photos]

I use generative remove to quickly click through deleting dust specks in the sky when shooting at f/16+. Going from photo to photo, it's fastest to copy edit settings (just Remove) and paste to the next photo. However, sometimes spots that were previously in the sky are now on a mountain or trees, where I don't want to have a Remove spot. To get rid of these, I have to click on each one and hit the delete button. It would be nice to multi-select or use a lasso or box selector to quickly select all of the pasted Removes I don't want and get rid of them.

OR if I could suggest an AI-powered dust removal feature. Have an algorithm look for circular, slightly off-color dots in the sky or something, idk that's up to you to figure out 🙂

[Nate5C87]

I like to use this feature to delete people from my photos. However, it often wants to replace the people with one or more birds. I don't want to invent birds, I just want to fill in the background. I also have problems when deleting people with sky in the background. The AI generated replacement sky doesn't quite match the color/tone of the sky, so that I can still see the area that was cut out. The healing brush does a much better job of matching the color/tone of the surroundings.

[John R Ellis]

@Nate5C87: "it often wants to replace the people with one or more birds."

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 quickly remove the desired objects.

[John R Ellis]

@Nate5C87: "The AI generated replacement sky doesn't quite match the color/tone of the sky, so that I can still see the area that was cut out."

Did you apply Remove on top of a Sky mask?  If so, do the command Settings > Update AI Settings.

If not, there have been other posts about the replacement not quite matching the color of the sky or background. Making a much larger, ragged selection around the object often avoids the problem.

[nando3887372324we]

eccezionale

[matt23382267brvi]

I'm trying to remove a person from a shot and it's just putting a different person in their place. 

[Ian Lyons]

@matt23382267brvi 

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

[matt23382267brvi]

That's not the case for this one. The shot was of a mate scrambling up rocks. The entire frame was rock apart from my friend and then one other person to the side. This person had a cap on, a grey shirt and pink shorts. When I brush them out (I tried many times), the ai tool replaces them with a different person wearing the same clothes but in a different position. I took it into PS and did the job in 2 seconds using the Spot Healing Brush Tool. 

It's as if the LR ai tool is sampling from under where I've brushed instead of around it. 

[John R Ellis]

@matt23382267brvi: "That's not the case for this one."

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 quickly remove the desired objects.

[matt23382267brvi]

I've just read another comment saying it could be related to crop, transform or lens corrections. This seems to be the case. I reset the image and tried the tool and it worked well... The problem with that is, sometimes you only want to remove something after other work has been done. There needs to be a work around for that.

[John R Ellis]

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@matt23382267brvi: "The problem with that is, sometimes you only want to remove something after other work has been done. There needs to be a work around for that."

Agreed. For many people including me, the most natural workflow is to apply crop, lens corrections, and transform first and then apply further edits.

A mildly inconvenient workaround is to press Alt / Opt and then toggle off Lens Corrections and Transform:

After applying Remove, toggle the corrections back on.

There is no such toggle for Crop, but you can do Settings > Copy Settings to copy the current crop, reset the crop, apply Remove, and then do Settings > Paste Settings to restore the crop.