Reflection NOT working on Mac OS (LrC)

[Radoan A]

It's been a while, and i posted a couple of times, but unfortunatly no group expert replied or helped to figure out the issue. 
Please advise what i can do. This was such an expected feature, and now it's totally useless for me. 
Before and after are attached. 
Mac OS- 15.6.1
LrC- 15.1
Camera Raw- 18.1.1

[nikunj.m]

Hi, thanks for reaching out! Are you experiencing this behavior with multiple images? 

The image you've attached appears to have a lens flare, not a reflection. Are you trying to remove that? 

Thanks,
Nikunj

[Radoan A]

Hello @nikunj.m I don't try batch or mulitple image at once. But i do one by one. And yes, reflection or flare. it was very good result when adobe deplyed first time but recently i see no result or very slightly. 
I had more complex photos before and they worked very well. 

[nikunj.m]

Thanks for the confirmation! The reflection removal may work on some lens flares, but not all. 

For more complex lens flares, you can use a combination of the Remove tool (with generative AI enabled) and masking. 

Thanks,
Nikunj

[Radoan A]

@nikunj.m i use that generative Ai when it is not working but i can't agree with you because, as i said, when adobe added this feature, it was working on every photo i tried. all are similar like this because i am real estate guy. if you say it will not work on all images then i would say adobe must changed something or you guys don't know how to fix it. 

[johnrellis]

"when adobe added this feature, it was working on every photo i tried. "

Reflection removal was introduced in LR 14.4 and significantly changed in LR 15.0.  I tried your screenshot with lens flare with these results:

14.4: Removed almost nothing from the flare.

15.1: Removed about 1/4 of the lens flare.

As nikiunj.m mentioned, the AI models for reflections weren't trained for lens flare. In my experience and that of many others, reflection removal is hit or miss, even on examples that Adobe says were intended to be handled.

If you have additional photos for which LR 15 isn't removing reflections, attach the full-resolution JPEGs exported from the original unedited photos here, and I'll run them in LR 14.4 and 15.1 to see how they compare.

[Radoan A]

Hello @johnrellis 
I just didn't keep that as proof. But I really used every photo like this, and it worked very perfectly, and it just changed over the in the last few weeks. 
Again, i had not changed anything from my end. not in shooting, not in editing or app/mac or any thing at all. 

[Conrad_C]

Hello @johnrellis 
I just didn't keep that as proof. But I really used every photo like this, and it worked very perfectly, and it just changed over the in the last few weeks. 

By @Radoan A

That might mean that they’ve been updating the machine learning model, possibility improving its training on the types of reflections they are currently focusing on, and that might have the side effect of doing a worse job at recognizing and addressing lens flares.

The only long-term solution to this problem is whenever lens flares rise to the top of the Adobe priority list for training the feature’s machine learning model. If one day they officially declare that lens flare removal is supported, then the model would be specifically trained to address lens flares and we wouldn’t have to rely on getting lucky with them. 

[johnrellis]

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With your photo IMG_9507-HDR.jpg, LR 15.1 makes almost no change at all, while LR 14.4 only partially reduces the large circular flare in the lower right but not the smaller green or blue flares (see below).

There are numerous posts here from users who have successfully used a tool in a previous version and then noticed the new version doesn't work as well with seemingly similar photos -- they conclude that the tool has gotten worse. Sometimes it has and sometimes it hasn't. With the AI tools in particular, which are imperfect, you really need example photos to tell, and it can be hard for humans to understand why a tool works on one photo and not a seemingly very similar photo.  For example, see this thread about AI People masking not performing well, where users had good results in LR 14 but not in LR 15, and they erroneously concluded there was a change in the tool:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/no-people-found-in-masking/m-p/15644075

So to persuade Adobe that something has changed for the worse, you need example photos that show the problem.  For example, Generative AI Remove really did change for the worse in LR 14.5, as demonstrated by many examples posted by frustrated users:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-gen-remove-now-changes-elements-outside-the-...

However, even if you come up with a set of examples showing a significant change for the worse using Reflections to remove lens flare, Adobe may not consider that a "bug".  The Help describes the purpose of the tool, which doesn't include lens flare:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/distraction-removal-reflections.html

"The AI-powered Reflections tool lets you easily remove reflections in photos taken through glass windows. This tool eliminates large and prominent window reflections in just a few steps, allowing your image's subject to stand out clearly."

The Lightroom Queen, who's well-connected to the LR team, elaborates:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-2025-06/ 

"The new Reflections Removal tool uses AI to eliminate reflections created by photographing objects through glass, such as items in a shop window, artifacts in a museum, or the view through an airplane window. You do need to be quite close to the glass, so it doesn’t work well for windows in real estate photography. It’s not designed to work with other kinds of reflections, such as water or mirror images."

Especially if others also post their desire to remove lens flare, Adobe might consider that as an enhancement.

[Radoan A]

Thank you @johnrellis @Conrad_C 
This is what i get this morning. it's my everyday works and i don't think i can feel happy with Adobe's decision. Again i would say,  when it was first implemented it worked so nicely, and as i expect
if this is their decision at least they can add Gemini Pro as 2k/4k res so that we can use it on PS. 
That is also not added, but using credit for HD photos. 
So much disappointment. Using generative fill is not idel and not the best workflow when you have 200-300 photos to edit overnight and send to cleint after a whole day of shooting. The denoise feature also another bad part. before it was nice that the background process was running while i can still edit other photos but now it's taking a while for my all drone dng files. not sure how to explain the feelings.