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.

[Kevin384309686zfj]

I think it is very helpful. But I agree with most people, it doesn't always remove properly. I think if you guys add an option to add or remove objet that the AI can reconize the request easily, than just asume that a little duck is better person in the background. (Yes, the AI added a duck to replace a person)

[John R Ellis]

@Kevin384309686zfj: "it doesn't always remove properly"

Almost all of the complaints with Remove replacing instead of removing are addressed by this article:

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

If that doesn't help, please attach a full-resolution JPEG exported from the original unmodified photo and call out what you're trying to remove. Of the people who have done that in this thread, we've almost always been able to address the issue.

[Mike_Callahan]

Works OK for me.  Just need to be paitent and redo it, if you want a better repair from the remove tool.  It dose save time in most cases.   

[Alan3843523253g5]

Have used the removal tool several times on very basic objects and it continues to fail so I have to do it in Photoshop.

[John R Ellis]

@Alan3843523253g5: "Have used the removal tool several times on very basic objects and it continues to fail so I have to do it in Photoshop."

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. If the forum won't let you attach it, upload it to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here.

[paulmphotos]

Loving the generative AI remove tool. Here's some feedback that might help:

1. When you hit refresh to "generate again," it would better to add the new variations to the list of existing variations, rather than replacing them. (Sometimes the first results are better, but they're lost.)

2. It'd be nice to have an "on/off" preview switch when choosing the variation, to see how it compares to the original image. This would be especially useful when trying to remove a distracting object from a photo whilst ensuring the result is true to the original image.

[John R Ellis]

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@paulmphotos: "When you hit refresh to "generate again," it would better to add the new variations to the list of existing variations, rather than replacing them. (Sometimes the first results are better, but they're lost.)"

Agreed -- Photoshop builds a list of all the generated variations (as thumbnails). A tip: When you see a variation you like, create a new Snapshot preserving it (Cmd/Ctrl N). Then in the Snapshot panel, you can hover the mouse over all the snapshots to quickly compare which one you like best. Not as convenient as PS's UI, but it gets the job done.

"an "on/off" preview switch when choosing the variation, to see how it compares to the original image."

Click and hold the eyeball icon in the lower-left:

Opt/Alt click it and it becomes a permanent toggle.

[paulmphotos]

"When you see a variation you like, create a new Snapshot preserving it "

That's a good workaround. I'll try it.

"Click and hold the eyeball icon in the lower-left"

I didn't see that! Thanks, it works a treat.

[Matthieu384426282szr]

used it on my bbq aside the white wall of my house. it ALWAYS create a new object when i just wanted to erase the bbq leaving the white wall naked. So frustrating

[John R Ellis]

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@Matthieu384426282szr: "it ALWAYS create a new object when i just wanted to erase the bbq leaving the white wall naked"

Your screenshot suggests you used Object Aware to select the barbeque. Sometimes Object Aware leaves a bit of the object unselected, it doesn't include subtle shadows or reflections, or it doesn't use a large enough boundary around the object.

So the first thing to try when this happens is simply to click Refine and select a larger boundary around the object, which usually corrects the problem.

 I was able to quickly remove the replacement and the white outlines from your screenshot:

See this article for  additional advice on how to use Remove to more reliably remove rather than replace:

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

If that doesn't help, please attach here a JPEG exported from the original unmodified photo. Nearly always there's a simple tip that will correct the issue.

[GIFFOU]

Yup that worked, but that erased some flowers and make it less natural on some variations (not that bad on this photo but on others that could be a down for me). Thank you !

[Love.PhotoandVideo]

Remove AI does not wotk on an image that is HDR combined from three different exposures in lightroom

[John R Ellis]

@Love.PhotoandVideo: "Remove AI does not wotk on an image that is HDR combined from three different exposures in lightroom"

I just did some tests with HDR merges and didn't see any problems with Remove. Most likely, your issue is unrelated to Merge. 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 merged DNG and call out the object you're like to remove.

[Dirk3844418208z3]

I can see it sometimes conflicts with denoice AI. If I removed something and then I do the Denoice AI option it comes back with something strange I already wiped with the AI option. Seems the two are not yet in sync, so when I used AI on the original RAW, I then do denoice with AI, then I have to redo again the same action with Genarative AI to remove an object I didn't see anymore on the RAW. Can this be fixed? Regardless of this I love the options and work above expectations.

[John R Ellis]

@Dirk3844418208z3: "If I removed something and then I do the Denoice AI option it comes back with something strange I already wiped with the AI option."

According to the FAQ posted at the top of this thread, Adobe recommends this order for applying the tools:

"The recommended order for applying is: Denoise; Remove (includes Generative AI Remove); Crop/Edit; AI masking. If you deviate from that you may see the removed object remains 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."

[Dirk3844418208z3]

@John R Ellis Thank, as for me, denoice on 614 (iindoor) photos takes a very long time, so that was the reason for me to do it as last action when I am asleep. Thanks for your reply. 

[F1XX]

Does this work also in the white corners you get with perspective correction/rotate (when you do not constrain crop to maximize image area)? So far LR has considered those areas not picture areas and thus uneditable (for some technical reason), but post headline says "across all surfaces". 🙂

[John R Ellis]

@F1XX: "Does this work also in the white corners you get with perspective correction/rotate (when you do not constrain crop to maximize image area)?"

Unfortunately not -- those corners are off-limits to all LR commands. You'd have to fix them in Photoshop.

"but post headline says "across all surfaces"."

That's Adobe's internal jargon for all the products in the Lightroom family: Classic, Desktop, Mobile, Web, Camera Raw.

[F1XX]

Dämn, I hope this get corrected. Seems so unnecessary to create all new extra 120 MB file fo such small fixup.

[Jose2528480529kp]

works

[MARCEL34521755ixpi]

De gros progrès par rapport à l'ancien outil supprimer. Par contre 2 bugs a améliorer : 1) si on recadre la photo avant de l'utiliser, le résultat est beaucoup moins bon, il reste des petites parties de l'objet. 2) idem si on corrige la selection en ajoutant un morceau oublié, il semble que ce morceau n'est pas bien traité. Pour info j'essaie de supprimer une partie d'un vetement posé sur de l'herbe dans un coin

[John R Ellis]

@MARCEL34521755ixpi: "if you crop the photo before using it, the result is much less good, small parts of the object remain."

Adobe explicitly designed Remove to look at the entire photo, so if you use Remove on a cropped version, you may not be selecting all the pixels of an object, and Remove will generate a replacement that tries to match those remaining pixels.

Their thinking is that if you apply Remove to just the cropped pixels and then change the crop, there won't be odd bits of objects left un-removed.

But this behavior has confused many, many people here thinking that Remove doesn't work very well ("Photoshop works better"). Cropping is the first thing most people do in their workflow.  

So some of us have proposed either that Remove looks only at cropped pixels, or that Remove generates a warning when Crop, Lens Corrections, or Transform have been applied, or that when the Remove panel is open, Crop, Lens Corrections, and Transform are temporarily disabled.

[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.
Object Masking selections are soo much better than the current Remove selections. Is there any reason not to reuse the Object Masking component for the Remove selections?

The extra rectangle would help with many rectangular objects (e.g. bricks, windows, doors, etc.) and is more time and effort efficient.

[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!