This post applies to Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic & the Lightroom Ecosystem products. The Lightroom team is sharing an early look for AI-powered Lens Blur–giving you the ability to apply optical blur on any image regardless of how it was taken. Lens Blur is now available to try on all Lightroom surfaces. How does Lens Blur work? Lens blur applies a depth-based blur effect, similar to what can be achieved with real-world optical lenses, by using AI-generated or device-captured depth data (when available). Lens blur will automatically prioritize focus for the detected subject, but you can also interactively adjust the focus distance. Precise focus range tuning is also available (currently desktop only: Lightroom Desktop, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw). You can also further customize the Bokeh shapes, highlight Boost (desktop only), and make depth map refinements (desktop only). Will my Lens Blur adjustments on one surface be synced to other surfaces? I.e. mobile to web to desktop, and vice versa? Yes, all edits will sync. To revert settings, you can go back to previous versions or history steps, or un-apply Lens Blur settings. Can I add Lens Blur settings to my presets? No, presets and copy + paste workflows are not currently enabled for Lens Blur during Early Access. For more information, please check out Lens Blur. Please give it a try and share feedback in this thread as we continually improve this feature. Lisa Ngo: Lightroom Product Manager Current Popular Lens Blur Feature Requests: Add Noise Option Custom Bokeh Stop by and give them a vote if they're of interest to you! Posted by:

Rikk Flohr_Photography

Community Manager

Question

P: New AI-powered Lens Blur (Early Access) available across all surfaces.

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
September 27, 2023
1380 replies
722084 views

This post applies to Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic & the Lightroom Ecosystem products.

The Lightroom team is sharing an early look for AI-powered Lens Blur–giving you the ability to apply optical blur on any image regardless of how it was taken. Lens Blur is now available to try on all Lightroom surfaces.

How does Lens Blur work?

Lens blur applies a depth-based blur effect, similar to what can be achieved with real-world optical lenses, by using AI-generated or device-captured depth data (when available).
Lens blur will automatically prioritize focus for the detected subject, but you can also interactively adjust the focus distance. Precise focus range tuning is also available (currently desktop only: Lightroom Desktop, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw).
You can also further customize the Bokeh shapes, highlight Boost (desktop only), and make depth map refinements (desktop only).

Will my Lens Blur adjustments on one surface be synced to other surfaces? I.e. mobile to web to desktop, and vice versa?

Yes, all edits will sync. To revert settings, you can go back to previous versions or history steps, or un-apply Lens Blur settings.

Can I add Lens Blur settings to my presets?

No, presets and copy + paste workflows are not currently enabled for Lens Blur during Early Access.

For more information, please check out Lens Blur.

Please give it a try and share feedback in this thread as we continually improve this feature.

Lisa Ngo: Lightroom Product Manager

Current Popular Lens Blur Feature Requests:

Add Noise Option
Custom Bokeh

Stop by and give them a vote if they're of interest to you!

Posted by:

Show previous replies

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Dr Bogus

Participant

The sceen went black intermittently. Win 10

Sean McCormack

Community Expert

Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date.

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.

ProduzerPlayer

Participant

I had this same problem. Anytime I make an adjustement with this feature, my screen goes black and says up top "not responding" for a few seconds, then it comes back and seems okay till I make another adjustment and it does the same thing. I have my graphics card should be able to keep up with this with no problem.

Z

zwdb08wdb

Participant

Though in theory the blurr feature is interesting and It would or should work for portraits much like the camera features do on samsung galaxy phones,making people stand out. However for landscapes to create an orton effect , it needs to be attached to the mask toolbox . This would allow masking of areas where we woulnt want the blurr affect. I have poor eyes and use my phone and ipad pro for editing. I also wished to be a complete and amazing program lightroom mobile should feature better noise reduction , and allow focus stacking , and layers ...im still waiting ... it is a good program and becoming easier to use but to make it a great program add those features. Thanks Bill Butcher. <Removed for Privacy>

KeithAB

Participant

I agree, the refine feature is difficult to use on complex images. Having a flyout like the mask function, which whosw the brushes uses and a mopnochrome image indicating to which part of an image the specific brush instance applies, would be extremely useful.

That said, early indications are that it is an incredibly powerful feature.

J

JD27266218lz0i

Participant

Needs a "refine edge" function when multiple subjects are close together.

Sean McCormack

Community Expert

Have you tried using the Refine brushes zoomed in with Auto Mask on?

I'd love more refine options as well though.

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.

J

JD27266218lz0i

Participant

Not yet. First time using it. I'll give a shot. Thx

J

justinw74800426

Participating Frequently

Just played around with lens blur a bit. Really excited about this and need to practice a bit more. Would love to see a few things moving foward:

-the integration of the "refine edge" tool from photoshop select and mask workspace. In my initial experiements I had a lot of trouble with fly away hairs looking very un natural with the lens blur added. A refine edge tool could fix this quickly when refining the depth map

-Some way to fine tune the quality of the blur. some images it looks good, some not so much. I tried on a shot with my om system 40-150 f4 pro lens and the blur added to the background softened the background but in an un natural way. A person in the background got blurrier but the contour edge around them got more distinct (images attached). Not sure how to describe it in words further. Didn't compete with bokeh straight out of a fast aperture lens just yet.

Otherwise, this seems like an amazing feature that could really change how I work with images once it gets refined a bit further. Really will make a big difference if using a small aperture lens (ie: f/4 or f/5.6 or smaller) or shooting with small formats such as micro four thirds. Now we can easily simulate more shallow depth of field.

S

snaphappymemphis

Participant

I can't make it a preset. I can't copy and paste it. I can't sync it across multiple photos. Guys, it's really really good. I just want to sync it across dozens, maybe hundreds, of photos and answer a few emails while it runs in the background

johnrellis

Legend

@snaphappymemphis, "I can't copy and paste it. I can't sync it across multiple photos."

The Copy Settings plugin can copy/sync Lens Blur, though due to LR limitations, it can't copy any lens-blur refinements.

deejjjaaaa

Inspiring

are you going to support Canon's Dual Pixel raw files to facilitate depth mapping ?

E

elmanaguita

Participant

At first glance , it is amazing. I think will benefit to add a tool to modify its mask to add or subtract edges where the blur is, that at this stage are not perfect

J

justinw74800426

Participating Frequently

You can already do that...there is an option to "refine" the depth map in the lens blur panel. You can basically paint the depth map with a brush. Works pretty well if not a bit basic.

LarryLMMMTT

Participating Frequently

That is exactly what I want, but I am not finding this brush on the lens blur panel. I see a "subject focus" icon and a "point/area focus" tool, but no brush. What am I missing or where should I be going for this?

B

brykaj

Participant

Works great on people and subjects both on jpg and RAW. The depth map is amazing.

In some cases, hair selection is not perfect, it blurs around the edge of the head, so single hairs are blurred which looks fazy, also jewelry on hair is blured. In some cases, triangular shaped space between legs or arms is not detected; adding blur or focus with brush is not perfect, it looks like working on 2D not on 3D depth map.