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: 

[PaulTerry]

Have you tried the Blur and Focus options? These allow you to correct blurred or sharp areas which this feature may have updated incorrectly

[lonc96613058]

Please integrate with Masking panel

Lens Blur is a fantastic new tool; however, I often find myslef wanted to make exposure adjustments to the indicated 'Focal Area'. For instance: blurring the background, then brightening it.

A killer feature be to have the ability to apply the Lens Blur 'Focal Area' as a "Depth Range' mask.

[marianod30096590]

For fur and hair it still needs work. Is there an eseir way to select fine detail.

[manuel36837258gdb7]

hola no funciona el desenfoque de lente 

[Dr. Michael369041524rny]

Ich bin begeistert - in Zukunft eines der wesentlichsten Werkzeuge!

[Epic & Forever]

The "Visualize Depth" part is great, but it thought a part of clothing was in the back, when really it was in the front (a tank top), making for a very awkward area to be blurred. Obviously it'd be great to be able to adjust this.

[Stephen35405494ewqr]

I like the feature and would love to take advantage of it but the subject detection fails to get bird beaks almost every time I try to use it.

[Monika280702081lwk]

How to apply it

[Leo34228082480z]

dejo mi prueba, en los cabellos tiene problema para detectarlo

[larmouth]

i just discoverd this ...LOVE THIS 

[Monika Chace]

Love the brush tool.  Couldn't figure out how to make it work with masks.  Field blur would be nice. Also a preview option while hovering over a point or being able to adjust amount of blur "on the fly" instead of deleting & going back with another percentage.

[M3xiz]

I really like this feature. it makes some wonderful magic.

However, I am encountering a technical problem. I can see that the Memory is not released after having used it. The same happens when using it from Photoshop. After a few photos, the memory is full and Lightroom is crashing.

I am forced to close Lightroom after 1 or 2 photos.

I know that my system is quite old, but all drivers are updated.

[Avilev]

I think there are other memory managment problems in the new releases of LR and PS, but I agree very much with this comment. Also, leaving the lens blur option open while moving to another photo in the develop mode can lead to havic. When using lens blur, I'm often having to close LR and start again. 

[sb2314]

It is a memory hog. I have 32gb of RAM and a 10gb graphics card on an i9
processor and it starts to slow down after a while. It does not crash. I
have to reboot the computer to make it snappy again.

--
Sent from Gmail in PC

[Malo58]

Very interesting results so far so good

[patriciar85576808]

I was asked for feedback on the early access lens-blur. I really like it. doesn't work for all photo's but over all; Thank you, nice tool!

[Rado5D50]

The feature with huge perspective. It is pretty useful and I used it already on regular basis if image needs it. Hereby the commetns:

1. Editing the Depth filed is complicated but after some training you can catch the poiunt how it works. Would be good to simplify the Depth filed editing. I would propose to adopt a pointer-cursor into Focal range filed view which will enable me to choose the right depth I want to edit. 

2. There is an issue with manual adaptation of depth of filed (Visualize Depth)  if I return to Camera Raw Filter from Photoshop (DNG opened as smart object): All manual adaptation are removed. All other adjustmets remain OK.

[19Jason84]

Really uncanny how well it works out the box. I think that it is looking for the natural bokeh to run off of first and if that isn't there, it's looking for subject(s) then everything else is blurred. For this photo I wanted to really draw attention to the runner. Normally I would be wide open at f2.8 but the client wanted minimal bokeh photos so I was stopped rather high for my liking. 

When everything is sharp is seemingly where this has a misstep. It seems to go away from single subject to multi subjects, with a default of only the distance out of focus, except with this image she was clearly the subject and it pretty much kept her face in focus with even her fingers and hair blown out. The way it defaulted this image was equivalent to ~ f1.4. Using the selective feature let me paint the fingers, hair, arm, and a couple of other features back in focus; really minimal work, took about 15 seconds. This is a fairly natural bokeh, although it could use -0.2 color edge muting as it seems the colors seem to stay too sharp even though the image has depth of field, but that's really just nitpicking. Over all 10/10 for this feature.

UPDATE REQUEST would be to read EXIF data to use focus point as a bokeh anchor and focus could be selectable in f stop.

[rickm41851996]

If the blurred area could also be treated as a selection, then it could be further edited.  For example, I frequently find it useful to darken a blurred area behind the subject.

[PickyRicky]

I know it's early access but it would be nice if it didn't crash my computer most times I use it, even with latest Windows updates and NVidia graphics drivers.

[Photosportsman]

I have been using the Lens Blur for some time now. Please don't take it away!
Okay its not perfect but that is why we are experimenting. Great first prototype.

[Juan37045365ibrw]

Maravilloso

[hogo phothography]

finding the subject isnt always the best. say in a group of 3 people all different distances away from you, they are all in focus, but the middle subjects are becomes blury  thinking its the background. a better subject detection would be awesome. iv never thought lightrooms brushes where perfect but this brust to refocus the arm needs a lot of work. maybe intergrate a quick selection tool/ brush such as the one in photoshop would be awesome and a way quicker workflow. 

[stephen_color]

Would love to be able to edit the mask. Often there's just a sliver that needs painted out and I don't see a clear way of doing that.

[gary_sc]

Here are the brushes you want. Tap the "Refine" arrowhead. Once "painted," you can adjust the "Boost" to get the degree of sharpness or blur to your satisfaction.