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

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)
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.

[johnrellis]

@adb1960: "I still have some remnants that I have to remove"

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.

[andrew_0076]

The spots removed do not stay when moving to the next photo, you have to update it, and if you do a large export you don't get the images you expected.

[johnrellis]

@andrew_0076: "The spots removed do not stay when moving to the next photo, you have to update it, and if you do a large export you don't get the images you expected."

These symptoms can occur when LR can't write the .lrcat-data file for some reason, either because LR has corrupted it or there is a permissions issue. LR stores computed masks in that file. Try these steps:

1. In LR, do Edit > Catalog Settings > General > Show. That will open Windows File Explorer on the current catalog folder.

2. Exit LR.

3. Move the file <catalog>.lrcat-data to the Desktop.

4. Start LR.

5. In Library, select all photos and do Photo > Develop Settings > Update AI Settings. That will recompute all the AI masks, which could take a while. But it won't update Generative Removes, so you'll have to go to each photo with Remove, click on Remove, and then Update.

[Mike_pwrlftr]

I have one complaint about Lightroom Classic Generative Remove. After I highlight a number of small dust spots to remove, I want to see what it looks like in the image. Unfortunately the image continues to show little, I don't know how to describe them other than they look like little, tags with tails do not disappear so I cannot see the results. When I close the section, then I can see them but I cannot scroll through the different choices. Please, remove the little tags so we can see what is actually happening to the image. Thank you.

[johnrellis]

@Mike_pwrlftr: "the image continues to show little, I don't know how to describe them other than they look like little, tags with tails do not disappear so I cannot see the results."

In the Remove panel, change Tool Overlay to Never (keyboard shortcut H).

[Mike_pwrlftr]

Thank you. Much appreciated.

Mike Tiktinsky
Sent from my iPhone

[fred333]

Bonjour, je viens d utiliser Generative AI Remove et j ai deux soucis dont un tres gros ....

D' abord  sur 3 exemples, seulement 1 seul a permis de bien faire le travail ( bravo) mais les deux autres restaient assez loin d etre satisfaisant sur le contenu du remplacement. Mais mon plus gros souci ( peutr etre par manque d experience de mon coté) est que les modifications apportées semblent l etre aussi dans le fichier ORIGINAL ! tout le contraire donc de la philosophie LrC ... pas moyen de retrouver le fichier importé sans la modif ( et parfois mal) faite par l AI Generative. Que dois je faire ? dupliquer d abord en virtuel l image originale et travailler sur le duplicate? Merci de votre aide.

[johnrellis]

@fred333: "out of 3 examples, only 1 allowed the job to be done well (well done) but the other two were still quite far from being satisfactory on the content of the replacement."

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.

[johnrellis]

@fred333: "the modifications made seem to be also in the ORIGINAL file! the complete opposite of the LrC philosophy... no way to find the imported file without the modification (and sometimes badly) made by the Generative AI."

The Remove command is like every other LR Develop settings -- the edits are stored in the catalog and the image in the photo file itself is never modified. Please describe in detail the precise steps you're taking and what you're observing.  Full-resolution screenshots (not cell-phone pics) of the entire LR window are often very helpful.

[abamilen]

Can anyone tell me why this tool only works sometimes ? When its working its working great, but sometimes it just dont do ANYTHING !!

[johnrellis]

@abamilen: "When its working its working great, but sometimes it just dont do 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 quickly remove the desired objects.

[CraigJLang]

Very happy to see this in Lightroom, so far i have not needed to send the pic's to Photoshop.

[arnoldfoto.no]

I love the remove AI tool, but ran into an issue today. The story is this.
Two images .NEF were merged to panorama in LrC, then the DNG was opened in Ps 2024 to correct some geometri, and saved to tif.
Then I discovered an error from the panorama process, a black "stick" in the sky. When I tried to remove this in LrC, every way I tried left a light shadow og the "stick" I tried Remove AI with all alternatives, Heal and Copy, but the lighter stick was still there.
I use LrC 13.4 on fully updated W11 and NVidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU

Lightroom Classic version: 13.5 [ 202408062022-6258095b ]

License: Creative Cloud

Language setting: en

Operating system: Windows 11 - Business Edition

Version: 11.0.22631

Application architecture: x64

System architecture: x64

Logical processor count: 12

Processor speed: 3,6GHz

SqLite Version: 3.36.0

CPU Utilisation: 8,0%

Power Source: Plugged In

Built-in memory: 16317,6 MB

Dedicated GPU memory used by Lightroom: 6367,6MB / 8024,0MB (79%)

Real memory available to Lightroom: 16317,6 MB

Real memory used by Lightroom: 5032,1 MB (30,8%)

Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 19725,8 MB

GDI objects count: 1405

USER objects count: 4226

Process handles count: 5056

Memory cache size: 765,3MB

Internal Camera Raw version: 16.5 [ 1953 ]

Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5

Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2

Camera Raw virtual memory: 3660MB / 8158MB (44%)

Camera Raw real memory: -16324MB / 16317MB (-100%)

Cache1:

Final1- RAM:279,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0845-Pano-2-Edit.tif

Final2- RAM:165,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0288.NEF

Preview3- RAM:42,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0289.NEF

Preview4- RAM:22,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0750.NEF

Preview5- RAM:42,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0291.NEF

Final6- RAM:216,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0845-Pano-2.dng

Preview7- RAM:22,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0749.NEF

Preview8- RAM:22,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0293.NEF

Preview9- RAM:42,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0292.NEF

Preview10- RAM:42,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, _AHO0290.NEF

NT- RAM:894,0MB, VRAM:0,0MB, Combined:894,0MB

Cache2:

m:765,3MB, n:830,1MB

U-main: 212,0MB

System DPI setting: 96 DPI

Desktop composition enabled: Yes

Standard Preview Size: 2560 pixels

Displays: 1) 2560x1440, 2) 1600x1200

Input types: Multitouch: No, Integrated touch: No, Integrated pen: No, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: No

Graphics Processor Info:

DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (32.0.15.5585)

Init State: GPU for Display supported by default

User Preference: Auto

Enable HDR in Library: OFF

Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic

Library Path: E:\LR-Catalog\Classic-CC\Classic-2-V11-V12-v13-3.lrcat

Settings Folder: C:\Users\arnol\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom

[johnrellis]

@arnoldfoto.no: "every way I tried left a light shadow of the "stick""

Your screenshot suggests you previously applied a Sky mask before doing Remove. Do the menu command Settings > Update AI Settings to recompute the Sky mask -- does the shadow stick go away?

If that doesn't help, then in Library, select the photo and do Metadata > Save Metadata To File. Upload that original photo (not an export) to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar, and we can see what's going wrong.

[arnoldfoto.no]

Ouch. Of course you are correct, @johnrellis - sorry. I now found I had even made a mask - a subject mask - over the "stick". That was the main problem. Problem solved.

[arnoldfoto.no]

Here is the final successful result with correct workflow.

[johnrellis]

Good. It's unfortunate that LR is a little fussy about the order in which you have to apply corrections.

[arnoldfoto.no]

The order is something to learn. In this case the problem seems to be my fault, because I had masked the object in the sky. Removing the object mask helped.

[sb2314]

Gotta use generative remove BEFORE you do anything else.

Sent from Gmail on iPhone

[macey_9516]

This feature has been a God send for me! I'd say it works perfectly 8/10 times. The other two times, it  can't get removing frizzy hair quite right. Overall very impressed and excited for it to get stronger and better.

[Anne27463624wqqc]

The tool is phenomenal for removing branches across birds.  But I just tried to remove an electrical wire from the sky and it wouldn't do it.  It only smoothed out the twisted wire.   I would think that would be the easiest thing to remove.  I tried various diameter removal tools also.  See photo- middle wire has been "removed."

[Anne27463624wqqc]

I just perfectly removed the wire from the tail of the bird, now it looks like the wire is behind the bird! I guess I will use photoshop to remove the rest of the wire.

[johnrellis]

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@Anne27463624wqqc: " But I just tried to remove an electrical wire from the sky and it wouldn't do it.  It only smoothed out the twisted wire."

Remove did a good job of removing all three wires from your exported JPEG:

Its metadata indicates you were editing a .CR3 raw that you had cropped. When you use Remove on a cropped photo, it examines the cropped-out pixels as well, and in your example, it's generating a replacement matching the cropped-out part of the wires.  

Adobe recommends removing first, then cropping, which doesn't match many (most?) people's workflow.  So in your photo, undo the crop, remove the wires, then redo the crop. 

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

[Anne27463624wqqc]

Thanks!!! I won’t crop first!!! Crazy how it works tho.

[Goldilocks208]

Sometimes it gets glitchy and doesn't retain the full area selected when generating.  Very frustrating.