Adobe's new AI tool can save photos with distracting window reflections

Summary

Adobe has introduced Reflection Removal, a new tool for removing window reflections from photographs using AI.
The tool currently only works on RAW photos but will support JPHS and HEICs in the future.
To use the tool, open a RAW photo in Adobe Bridge or Photoshop, enable New AI Settings, and select Reflection Removal under Distraction Removal.

As an amateur photographer, one of the most frustrating things I deal with regularly is reflections in my photographs, especially if they are taken through a window. Now, a new tool by Adobe aims to resolve this dilemma, perhaps once and for all.

Adobe has announced Reflection Removal, a new tool that uses AI technology to remove reflections from photographs taken through a window. The new feature is in beta and is now available for Adobe Bridge and Photoshop with Lightroom support coming soon.

It’s important to note that the tool currently only works on RAW photos, with support for JPGs and HEICs planned for the future. Right now, the feature is designed to work on reflections in windows that cover most of a photo’s field of view, not reflections from small distant windows visible in a shot.

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How to use Reflection Removal

The AI model has been trained on thousands of images

Adobe / Pocket-lint

If you want to give Reflection Removal a go yourself, open up Adobe Bridge or Photoshop and select a RAW photo to edit. The Camera Raw plug-in should pop up automatically when you do this. From there, go to Settings > Technology Previews and enable New AI Settings. Restart the app, go to the remove tool (the eraser icon), and under Distraction Removal, select Reflections.

A few seconds after you select it, Adobe’s AI will process your RAW image and show you what it looks like with reflections removed. A slider also lets you adjust the strength of the reflection removal process. Adobe says the AI model has been trained on “thousands” of photographs. “We train the model by gathering thousands of photographs of varying subjects that contain no reflections.” Adobe said in a press release. “We then add pairs of them together to form millions of simulated photographs that appear to be polluted by reflections.”

“…the company notes that its model isn’t perfect and that if the reflection is so strong that a human still struggles to see through it, the model will too.”

Adobe then runs the simulated photograph through its AI model and asks it to pull out the original without reflections. The model learned how to remove window reflections from a photo by doing this repeatedly. However, the company notes that its model isn’t perfect and that if the reflection is so strong that a human still struggles to see through it, the model will too.

I think this is a fantastic new tool from Adobe that could save photographs that otherwise would’ve been discarded due to a distracting reflection. I can see the Reflection Removal tool being used in many instances, such as a photograph from the window of a house or airplane, where the reflection is so strong it detracts from the image’s primary focus.