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, 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.

[Layseahughes]

I suggest when you select the 'remove' option it just removes the object, and fills in the background with the surrounding area, rather than replace it with an object that isn't even in the image. 

[John R Ellis]

@Layseahughes: "I suggest when you select the 'remove' option it just removes the object, and fills in the background with the surrounding area, rather than replace it with an object that isn't even in the image."

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.

[Ashlee25745148jlp5]

completely game changing for editing!!!

[rossograph]

Power line removal in LrC is somewhat a pain. Especially when they cross the sky, buildings and foliage. I have found that Luminar Neo does this extremely well. It somehow recognizes the actually line no matter the background, it takes them out. In LrC the new removal tool is iffy if it does this as well

[John R Ellis]

@rossograph: "Power line removal ... In LrC the new removal tool is iffy"

Please attach a full-resolution JPEG exported from the unmodified original photo, so we and Adobe can see the issue in detail.  There are examples in this thread of other users removing power lines with Remove, and it's worked well for me.

[AzureSkiesPhotographyAZ]

I love this feature, but it often gets confused between remove and replace. If I want to remove an object, it will often just replace the object with a similar one and not remove them. You may want to have a checkbox or something to differentiate between the two.

[John R Ellis]

@AzureSkiesPhotographyAZ: "it often gets confused between remove and replace"

See this article for how to more reliably remove objects rather than replace them:
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.

[FabBZH]

I tried the Lightroom AI Generative Rmove tool a couple of days before and I'm not as satisfied as I've been used with the Generative AI in Photoshop. 

In Lightroom the Generative Remove Tool doesn't have any prompt possible and the tool does... what it wants !

I would have appreciated that this Remove Tool could... remove and fill the area I've selected, but it didn't really !

I'm a studio photographer and I often have parts of my studio background visible on the photos taken with cyclo paper, sometimes not larger enough to fill the whole photo frame. In Photoshop it's easy to remove, but in Lightroom the Generative Remove Tool always trys to recreate the background I wanted to remove ! I'd like the AI to generate the studio paper background to replace the selected "hole", not to generate a new messy background I wanted to delete ! 🙂

So I think the Generative AI Remove Tool in Lightroom should be focused on deleting objects or recreating neutral backgrounds but not creating new objects in place of the ones we want to delete ! Photoshop is the software made for retouching and creating, Lightroom is a photographer tool to prepare images before finalizing them in Photoshop if necessary. 

AI tools in Lightroom should be focused on time saving for photographers who want to propose direct clean images to their clients, even if theses pictures are not 100% finalized (my customers select the out-of-LR pictures they prefer and I finalize only these ones in Photoshop). My time-saving goal is just having a simple tool in Lightroom to easily remove objects instead of tre need to transfer the picture in Photoshop and retouch it, even if that's not a finalized image.

The existing traditionnal tools in LR do a good job, but if AI could help us for more complex removals, it would be cool !

Thank you.

[John R Ellis]

@FabBZH: "I'd like the AI to generate the studio paper background to replace the selected "hole", not to generate a new messy background I wanted to delete !"

Please attach a full-resolution JPEG exported from the unmodified original phot. With nearly everyone who has posted a problem photo, we've been able to show how to quickly remove the desired objects. But it would be good for Adobe to see examples where it's not working well.

[calvin_gustinov_jaya]

Wow nice 

[CarloBarbieriPh]

personally i am not thrilled with it, in fact i was very disappointed with it compared to other brands. i live in a city with a lot of cables( electrical and telephone) in the old city center, and when i use the remove option with IA , it does not remove them, i have to do it manually. different thing on PS instead

[S.Seng]

What's the point of restricting how many times on can use it. There are lots of issues with it despite the author pretend all the faults are with the user. My iPad only Lightroom tells me I have zero credit out of 50. Most were used up trying umpteen times to get some near desired results. As I raised before in this thread, all it does try am I formed guess. There is no real way for it to be absolutely certain and hence this arbitrary cut-off is not appropriate. My AI tells me that this gimmick will become pay as you use feature. 

[Eric Wessman]

Overall I have been very happy with the results from this feature in LrC. Usually one of the first 3 versions offered works well. The only time I have a problem is with objects at the very edge of the frame.

[John R Ellis]

@Eric Wessman: "The only time I have a problem is with objects at the very edge of the frame."

@CarloBarbieriPh: "a lot of cables( electrical and telephone) in the old city center, and when i use the remove option with IA , it does not remove them"

With objects touching the very edge of the image (such as cables), the beta ("early access") Remove has some gotchas that trip people up. Before doing Remove, you have to undo any Crop, Lens Corrections, and Transform, to expose hidden pixels near the edge. Then for many cameras for which Camera Raw applies a hidden crop of border pixels, you have to carefully select beyond the visible edge. This article gives more details:

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

Most complaints about Remove are addressed in the article, and once you know how to work around the rough edges, the tool works very well most of the time. But if that article 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.

[csdphoto100]

I removed a trash can in an compicated image using object aware.  It did a good job replacing the trash can with its surroundings, but a small amount of the replacement was blurred as if at a different focus.

[Andrew_Hill6878]

it includes all that and don't work.

I always rely on photoshop to remove anything. the remove tab in lightroom needs a lot more work, not a clue why they sent it out other than this... to get feed back. don't they have people working there to see how bad it is, get it to a good level and then send it out. its ok for dust spots... 

[John R Ellis]

@Andrew_Hill6878: "don't work."

Many, many people here are finding it works well. The beta ("early access") Remove does have some rough edges that are easy to accommodate once you learn how to use the tool. 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.

[creative_7207]

I have tried this a couple of times and find it has left a shadow of the area I was trying to remove - not impressed so far

[John R Ellis]

@creative_7207: "it has left a shadow of the area I was trying to remove"

This can happen if you're applying Remove on top of an existing AI mask (e.g. Sky). Do the menu command Settings > Update AI Settings to recompute the mask. In general, apply Remove first, then AI masks. 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.

[lloyd1986]

Generative Remove really is an incredible feature! To be able to remove simple items that otherwise would have taken hours of cloning and blending of pixels is a godsend! My only request would be that when removing features that cover subjects faces, if the feature could, where possible, use information about the subjects actual face, possibly gleaned from when Lightroom identified individual faces on import, to rebuild the subjects face and provide a more accurate portrayal, would be an immesurably beneficial addition.