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Rikk Flohr_Photography
Community Manager
Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
September 27, 2023
Question

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

  • September 27, 2023
  • 1380 replies
  • 726512 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:

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

 

 

Posted by: 

    1380 replies

    Show previous replies
    J
    jacquit39058026
    Participant
    October 16, 2023

    Seems pretty good on the 5 or so images I tried it on. I lost the subject's nose, though, on the most recent one. 

    S
    Adobe Employee
    simonsaith
    Adobe Employee
    October 16, 2023

    The first thing I would suggest you trying is to do some fine tuning of the focus depth range via the manual focus range slider control or the Point/Area Focus sampler.

    J
    jacquit39058026
    Participant
    October 16, 2023

    I did that. Just letting you know there was a glitch in the subject recognition

     

      S
      Sheen W
      Participant
      October 16, 2023

      Lens blur is on the right track - love the concept and it works.  What I've discovered is once you blur a background, it seems as if the local adjustment tool does not work as well on that area if I wanted to continue modifying texture, clarity, etc.  Just started playing with it tonight...  New color tool and being able to apply it in the local adjustment area is terrific.  Overall performance is slower on my system 64GB on iMAC.  

      R
      Rafael29206609k0ap
      Participant
      October 16, 2023

      Unfortunately, I couldn’t have a good experience, I believe it’s because of my computer. Every time I try to enable blur, my computer crashes, to the point of having to turn it off. I’m using a notebook with a dedicated Nvidia 940mx video card. I’ve tried updating and reverting drivers, but the same thing happens. This is a tool that I would really like to use!

      Bob Ulius
      Bob Ulius
      Known Participant
      October 16, 2023

      Just tried this first time. Picked a compex image that definitely would benefit separating subject from background here, saw the popup and clicked APPLY. HARD computer crash. Nothing. No mouse, no Alt Tab, nothing at all. Waited a couple of minutes then had to do a hard boot.

       

      Did I do something wrong?

      S
      Adobe Employee
      simonsaith
      Adobe Employee
      October 16, 2023

      Sorry to hear this. It is typically due to out-dated GPU driver. Try this tip:

       

      If you encounter GPU driver issues while using ML features in LrClassic/LrD/ACR, please try to update to the latest macOS version or if you are on a Windows machine, follow https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/troubleshoot-gpu.html to update your machine to the latest GPU driver and  see if the problem resolves itself.

       

      If the OS or the driver is not available or possible and the problem persists, then try the following workaround method as a last resort. The method provides a mechanism to allow LrDesktop/LrClassic/ACR customers to force the ML inference to always run on CPU instead of default. See details here https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/acr-gpu-faq.html#lens-blur

      Bob Ulius
      Bob Ulius
      Known Participant
      October 16, 2023

      Thanks. I will be testing this today.!

      G
      Guy3262078276mo
      Participant
      October 16, 2023

      Its cool. could use a pusher finger to move it around. it got on a few areas i couldnt figure out but wow great to do shoulder shots any where. 

      T
      TannerYPhoto
      Participant
      October 15, 2023

      Haven't been able to get it to work so far. I get a "something went wrong message" each time.

      K
      Kevin Hehl
      Participating Frequently
      October 15, 2023

      Well, this is really a bad 1st impression. I have a photo I wanted to try it on and the Len Blur amount slider is grayed out w/out any context of why. I've try two different photos. Don't know what I need to do to use this.

      joshuabury
      Adobe Employee
      joshuabury
      Adobe Employee
      October 20, 2023

      There should be an "Apply" checkbox above the blur amount slider that activates the Lens Blur feature for that photo by estimating scene depth and subject placement. The other lens blur controls, including blur amount, will be disabled until Apply is checked and depth estimation has completed.

      DerekMorrison
      DerekMorrison
      Participant
      October 15, 2023

      Looks great at first use. On some group portraits I had against a wall it worked really well and fast. Even getting the gaps between arms and body and legs. With a shot that included some of the pavement they were standing on it got confused and appears to have left a gap where the gradient blur should have been (between subjects). But for specific shots it will be a fantastic tool. Nice work.

      Derek Morrison+64 21 139 8188“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
      R
      ralphh5683629
      Known Participant
      October 15, 2023

      I am a bird photographer, but I was unable to use on any photo.  Always "There was an unexpected error and your request could not be completed" popped up.  Was I expecting too much?

      D
      Daniel J24241165m679
      Participant
      October 15, 2023

      I thought that I was going to have a way to blur all or part of my image but was quite disappointed by the way blur treated a bright object over a dark background.  It doesn't really seem to defocus in this case as the affect of blur shrinks the bright object, making it smaller.  I expected it to blur the edge of a bright object so that the bright object would diffuse out into the dark while at the same time the dark would diffuse into the bright object.  Doesn't do this.  This seems to me to be a major flaw since that is not what a defocused lens would actually do.  Am I missing something?  As it is, it is not very useful to me.

      Riggsy53
      Riggsy53
      Inspiring
      October 15, 2023

      Love it for portraits with busy backgrounds! Please add "Lens Blur" to the Syncronize Settings diologue box so I can apply the same amount across a number of similar images using AI to seperate the subject from the background in each. 

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