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

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

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: 

[BreezeGraphics]

Quick usage looks fantastic. Right off the bat, one thing I would like to see is an indicator in filmstrip as to which images have lens blur applied.

[mary loud25956991]

I agree, adding the indicator in filmstrip would be great.

[ChrisD-1955]

I don't understand the request for indication in the filmstrip??

[DerekRBMorrison]

It would be super useful so you can see which ones the blur has been applied to.

[Ladar31219717zsco]

buler

[holgerr62513408]

I agree too! On the first glimpse - after a couple of developed images - I am positively surprised. And yes, an indicator would be quite helpful.

[Shelley3330417049ge]

Would be nice if you could apply to more than one image at a time.  It shows it works for auto sync, but when you select the other images it isn't applied. It is listed in the hostory of the image.  Also, it is sooooo slow.  Not sure how others are getting it to work quicky.  Refining takes a long time and it gets hung up. 

[Yves-CH]

Le temps d'exécution va beaucoup dépendre des performnces de votre ordinateur, personnellement sur iMac 24' M1 avec 16 Go de RAM, la vitesse est satisfaisante avec des raw de 20 méga-pixels.  macOS Sonoma 14.0.

[Jim #jiminashland]

I am using my 4 year old Microsoft Surface Studio 2 (not laptop) 16 Gig and it is lightning fast.  You may have an excuse to upgrade your hardware?  Just a thought. 
I am happy I just dumped my "pro" 85mm F1.2 lens  because this feature makes it overkill.

[Meaghen27944953zxsa]

I have to agree; I was pleasantly surprised as to how well this looked. When I first saw the option, I was a little skeptical. An indicator on the film strip would help identify where it has been used.

[jerseyjon]

Good idea!

[Jen33552273kz2g]

I LOVE this feature. It works great for the most part, here are my 2 suggestions.

1. Indicator to see which images are "blured"
2. A tool to add/remove blur from a certain spot

Very happy about this new feature!

[andrewjen]

2. there is a tool to add or remove the blur, in refine then select focus or blur just paint in on with the brush. 

[suzannegoodwinphoto]

I agree, you really need to be able to mask it off a certain area if it catches a spot you dont want. Or to add it to a apot you do want it more !

[defaultojrnkf83v4lx]

You can add to the selection, but I haven't found out how to deselect an area. Using ctrl or alt just makes LR hang!

[chrisd21395404]

You can add and remove now, not sure if the buttons were just added under the refine option.

[josephs31374006]

This actually brought tears to my eyes. Been waiting for this... I am so happy and my portraits will be now to to the next level

[heidim39963299]

yes we need to be able to REMOVE/ADD just like the other masks. Stray hairs get chopped off but look very much fake and I need to get some of them back. thanks!

[default0j54qibpting]

ABSOLUTELY AGREE! The feature works great but occasionally can't differentiate parts of the file correctly. Here's an example - chimney on the barn gets blurred.

[default0j54qibpting]

Thinking this through, the barn, including its chimney, existed as a mask before the lens blur was added. Should the lens blur should have excluded all of that mask from its effect?

[Henrik34870960tzdb]

So true. If you check the colored areas, I do not understand why the purple areas are still included in the process - even if the choosen range is clearly out of purple... It should be fixed and it is absolutly neccesary to be able to add/remove areas.

[Vanessa5FE9]

Same here. The head of the small sculpture in the background is missing.

[mkrohne]

I find that changing the depth of focus sometimes helps. The chimney in this photo might just be out of that range.

[default0j54qibpting]

Thanks for the reply - I did try that: LR thinks the chimney is an object much further away than the barn. The Refine/Focus feature cleaned it up perfectly.