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: 

[Emmett0204]

it would be very useful if one could add and remove a blurred area with a brush. Thanks

[StefanKlein]

I guess, it has been said a million times already that those brushes are already there!

[LoisD77]

Perfect. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. Very easy to use and adjust. 

[柚月35381115mkxk]

良かったです

[ALPER35381896aajc]

thanks.watching

[Brauneddy]

A really powerfull tool which works great, but only in the case that the background is already separated form the model. In case of a party with many peaople, I have dificulties to define the model/object which should be sharp and the rest. Of course perhaps I did not yet understand how to do...

[Pedro Lima Art]

Great addition, but lacks something fundamental like a linear gradient to apply a smooth and realistic focus fall-off, rather than trying to guess what's in focus with AI by analysing edge sharpness - which is what seems to be that is being applied by default, made evident by the Visualize Depth graph. Love the different choices of bokeh shapes.

[edvirden]

Absolutly love the lens blur, it is so smooth and I have had zero issues with it.

[jacobsquires]

Would really love to be able to mask, and invert mask things I wanted bokeh blur on rather than this focal range. Focal range is wildly unreliable currently, would rather just mask the background, would be quicker and more accurate and you could build your ai modeling better with the results of the masks being shared.

[Douglas16B8]

I get this error everytime I use it and It will not work. I am using it with Bridge 2021 on a Mac. Any advice?

Model Name: iMac

  Model Identifier: iMac20,2

  Processor Name: 10-Core Intel Core i9

  Processor Speed: 3.6 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 10

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 20 MB

  Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled

  Memory: 32 GB

  System Firmware Version: 1968.140.7.0.0 (iBridge: 20.16.6072.0.0,0)

[keithm70009634]

I'm getting a kind of bright edge to some areas of the image when I apply the lens blur., like edges of clothing.  Happens both at in-focus/out-of-focus edges as well as in areas that are both in the blurred range.  Changing bokeh styles helps a little but doesn't eliminate it.  Same with "Boost". 

[Brauneddy]

Yeah, had this as well and even worse at a group photo. The only chance was to cancel it again... 🤷🏻‍:male_sign:

[thornell3d]

Thanks for continuing to improve Lightroom.  Love the blur feature.

[mDietsch]

This is SOOOOO COOOL!!!  Give the guy who came up with this a raise!

[MasatoKato]

Is it possible to export the depth information as a color image and import it after correction?


















If this is possible, I think that even if automatic depth detection fails,
the necessary parts can be corrected using Photoshop, etc. 
(Photoshop's object detection function is quite effective.)

[merics98297120]

I would love to see the algorithm improved to not apply lens blur to people with tattoos. It currently has trouble differentiating between skin with tattoos and a background that has paisley floral print on it. For reference, the tattoos are traditional style, and are not at all floral in nature, yet the AI is still confused about what is skin and what isn't. 

[nick61711952]

I usually flip my canvas often inorder to get a better perception and catch distorted perspective in my sketches. Whenever I use "flip canvas horizontal" the depth map will not update with the new canvas, but instead remain in the same previous position. I am using the Camera Raw filter on a "smart object" image. Other than tat, works nice!

[Jvickers]

so far so good. 

[Céline Caudal Photographe]

Un très bel outil en devenir! J'étais un peu sceptique mais ça m'a bluffée, je pense que cet outil va me servir de temps en temps. Merci! 
Bon, ça n'arrange pas le fait que LR fait toujours chauffer la machine, disons que ça en ajoute (malgré l'augmentation des caches etc...)

[Jean Philippe35518687hie8]

Bonjour

Cela a l'air d'un outil formidable. je le découvre progressivement.

La documentation courante est un peu succincte. Je souhairearis une documentation plus détaillée.

Merci

[superyeti80]

Would be great if I could turn off the preview while I adjust the heatmap style (visualiser) mask. That way I can make precise adjustments to the mask without having to run heavy computation every time I release the mouse.

[superyeti80]

For clarity, I mean turn of the preview of the blur effect whilst still retaining the heatmap

[shankarhokie]

The lens blur option is awesome! Recently, I was in NYC for the fashion week. I did a night time street shoot on Broadway with my Canon R6 and a 240240 lens. I was at F5.6. The street was busy with people and cars and the building and signs were too much in focus. On a whim, I tried the lens blur and I was blown away. The photos looked (to me) like they were shot with an expensive  lens. Maybe purists will figure it out that this was done is software, but to me and my friends they look amazing. Now I can postpone buying that $2000 F2.8 lens for a bit. 🙂

[default9st4oq3cj5zg]

Holy S***, I REALLY love this!!

[Wilbur16B8]

A very nice feature.  I especially like the ability to refine the effect as the software does not always get all of the details right, such as the stick being held by a snowman.  Natural bokeh is certainly the best, but there are times when you just don't have the ability/gear to get the shallow depth of field you would like.