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.

[frankk88475297]

I have been trying to remove people from the background of a picture I took of my wife in Venice using manual Lightroom and photoshop edits but could never get it right.  The new AI feature easily removed the people and filled in the background with what it "thought"  should be there. I am not sure if the new background is accurate but I love what it did.  Great tool and can't wait to see what the final product does.

[SeniorPhotoshopGeek]

Removing power lines or cables sometimes works great, sometimes draws cables / lines back in, even with image created by pano merge  which has no overall lens correction or transform applied. Using bigger / more unevenly shaped selection sometimes helps.

Removing something against sky sometimes generates strange textures (see image. This view is zoomed to 300%). 

[default0j54qibpting]

I have just worked through this very thing. I tried a number of approaches, being careful not to apply generative remove before masking, and had very little success with lines against a clear blue sky.

[Ian Lyons]

@default0j54qibpting 

Remove should be applied before masking otherwise you may see artefacts (e.g ghosts of removed object)

[default0j54qibpting]

Yes - should have said "being careful to apply ... before ".

[John R Ellis]

@default0j54qibpting: "I have just worked through this very thing. I tried a number of approaches, being careful not to apply generative remove before masking, and had very little success with lines against a clear blue sky."

Please attach here a full-resolution JPEG exported from the original *unmodified* photo, and include a full-resolution screenshot of your failed attempts. As with @SeniorPhotoshopGeek's example, we can probably figure out quickly some tips for making this easier.

[default0j54qibpting]

I took some time to read more of this forum and some of the article referenced here. My first attempt was to apply the remove feature to a raw file containing overhead lines, then convert it to a dng and continue the editing. Adjusting the contrast of the sky where the lines had been removed produced a darker outline of the original remove. By simply going back to the first step in the raw file and increasing the size of the area around the lines, the problem was solved in subsequent editing.

[John R Ellis]

@SeniorPhotoshopGeek, there have been a couple of other reports about this. Could you please attach here a full-resolution JPEG exported from the original unmodified photo so Adobe can reproduce the bad results.

[SeniorPhotoshopGeek]

Here you go. I realize that trying to take out the cables supporting a cable car is suspect, but they are a mess as a result of the pano merge and so I thought I'd see what it looked like with them taken out. I was surprised at how hard it was to get rid of them with AI and how much the sky behind was messed up (per previous image upload). 

[John R Ellis]

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With your uploaded image, which already had some removes applied and has some artifacts in the sky, it was straightforward for me to select the cables and remove them with the Generative AI option. Observations:

- Don't use Object Aware -- it doesn't recognize most of the cables.

- When selecting the cables, if you don't select all the cables from the right edge to the mountains, and don't select all the pieces of the cable that are touching and try to remove them one piece at a time, Remove will be too clever and generate replacement cables to match the bits left unselected.

Here was my first attempt:

But Remove hasn't quite matched the blue-sky-and-haze replacements, as you observed, and you can see faint outlines of the selections. There are several reports of that here. 

In this case, I found that selecting most of the sky around the cables generated a replacement that more smoothly matched the remaining sky (and also got rid of the artifacts from your previous edits):

[brunol79928023]

Very good tool

[USCfan13]

I was having a bit of an issue with the desk top untilI realized that my photo somehow had been cropped.  Once I uncropped I had not trouble.  It is awesome.  See example. 

[Corniger]

What I forgot to mention:
when selecting on any of my 3 machines (i7-9850H, 128 RAM, Quadro RTX 3000; 2x Xeon e5-2667, 128 RAM, Quadro M5000; AMD FX 8350, 32 RAM, GTX 980; all Win 10 x64) the selecting tool likes to stop working until I apply the edit. I can, after selecting the first are, only to a straight line or dot, with some delay, or not brush anymore period. After commiting the edit, it works again. 

[Jeffrey38584742n0b0]

Amazing! Thank you for this new feature. I do astrophotography, and removing satellite trails is difficult at best. The new AI-assisted Generative Removal is the perfect answer!

[DaHaLe255371]

It doesn't work,or I am doing something wrong.  I select a shoulder on the edge of the picture that intrudes on a group photograph.  It should be easy - the background is trees and sky.   The generative Ai replaces it with a distorted shoulder. 

[John R Ellis]

@DaHaLe255371: " I select a shoulder on the edge of the picture that intrudes on a group photograph.  It should be easy - the background is trees and sky.   The generative Ai replaces it with a distorted shoulder. "

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.

[Annie38369804a1jp]

Hi, my AI remove can't work😬

[Ian Lyons]

@Annie38369804a1jp 

You'll need to provide more information on what your trying to do and in what way it doesn't work. It would also be helpful if you uploaded a screenshot showing what is failing. Use the Insert Photos button (see attached) to upload your screenshot. This linked tutorial provides some tips on how to remove objects more reliably:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/generative-remove-replace/

[yDrink]

Generative Ai was amazing at first, but now when I try to remove an object (ex. foot, branch, hand, ball) from my image, it replaces that with an Ai version of the same object (a different foot, branch, hand, ball, etc) instead of whats surrounding it (grass, dirt, rocks, etc). Quite dissapointed as this was expremely helpful for those moments I wasn't able to crop something out.

[Ian Lyons]

@yDrink 

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

[Whoisbenjamin]

It would be great if you could circle an object with the heal tool and automatically fills it with the selection. This could make in initial selection more precise and save time with brushing around to cover large areas. 

[Corniger]

Definitely, but if so, only combined with a keystroke - Ctrl, Alt or something. I have to revove tons of fine hair spreading around on ears etc with a fine brush, having that auto fill might be catastrophic

[Gerard6363]

Bien compris

[DTungate]

I can't seem to select the 1st variation with the enter key - after I move through the variations the enter key will select the variation I have open.  I'm using Classic on Windows 11.  This is truly an amazing feature!!

[dave38605869uy4h]

This feature is legit the best thing i have ever seen. I am a long time LR user, and wedding photographer. Being able to remove people in photos (guests taking photos down isle, second shooter, etc) is UNREAL.