It sounds nigh-on impossible, but Lightroom’s new AI powered Remove option really can wipe away reflections in glass as if they had never existed. This is something which would be very, very difficult to achieve using regular editing tools. I’ve tried it out on a number of different images and been impressed by just how effective it is.
Here’s a side-by-side before-and-after version of my main image. You can see how Lightroom has removed the reflection on the glass of the shop window so effectively that you would never know it had been there.
To find this new tool, first swap to the Remove tool in Develop mode and then choose the Remove option (not Heal or Clone). You’ll also need to check the Generative AI box. Then, in the Distraction Removal panel below, click the disclosure arrow alongside to display its options.
Note: this post is based on an early version of this feature and if you can’t get the Distraction Removal options to display, try making a regular editing adjustment first, such as moving the Exposure slider. You can undo your adjustment straight away, but just doing this seems to ‘wake up’ the Distraction Removal tools and make them usable.
The Reflection tool is really simple to use – so simple that all you have to do is click a checkbox. The AI will then spend a few seconds doing its stuff and then display the finished, corrected image.
There are a couple of things to be aware of at this point. First, note the drop-down Quality menu offering Preview, Standard and Best modes. This may be set to Preview by default, which will give you a low-resolution ‘repair’. Use the Best option to achieve the best quality. The rendering times will be a little longer but you won’t lose resolution.
You’ll see that there’s also a slider for controlling the strength, so that you can choose how much of the reflection is removed if you want to.
Here’s another example. This was taken through the window of an office and the original shows strong reflections from the brightly-lit street. The corrected version looks like there was no glass there at all.
And here’s another (apologies if you don’t like creepy fairground puppets). This was shot through glass in a museum, and there was no way to get a good arrangement of the puppets without also picking up some reflections from the glass. In the corrected version, these are gone.
The Reflections removal tool shares a panel with the new People removal tool, but I have to say I find Lightroom’s reflection removal far more impressive. Its AI people removal can be good, but very often it produces distorted, low-resolution repairs and strange alien artefacts.
