What is Adobe Camera Raw's Distraction Removal tool?

Adobe Camera Raw's Distraction Removal tool is a feature that uses AI-powered technology to automatically detect and remove unwanted elements like dust spots, sensor spots, and other distractions from your photographs.

Is the Distraction Removal tool available in Lightroom?

The Distraction Removal tool is not available in Lightroom as yet, but it is available in Photoshop through the Camera Raw filter.

How does the new dust removal tool compare to traditional methods?

The new dust removal tool can save significant time compared to using the Remove tool in Lightroom (Q - shortcut) and setting to Heal, especially when there are many dust spots to remove.

Is the Distraction Removal tool perfect?

While not perfect, the tool is really rather good. There may be a few spots that are missed, but you can review and manually adjust individual dust spots as needed.

Where was the Donegal landscape photo taken?

The landscape photograph was taken at 06:30 in County Donegal, Ireland, during a summer morning with wispy low cloud hanging over the low hills on the edge of the valley.

A landscape of green fields and wisping clouds in Donegal, Ireland

Green Fields on a Summer Morning in Donegal, Ireland

A First Look at Adobe’s Distraction Removal: Dust in Camera Raw - Colour of a Summer Morning in Donegal

: Darren McLoughlin; Category: Photography, Photoshop and Post-processing; 05 September 2025; 14 September 2025

A First Look at Adobe's Distraction Removal: Dust in Camera Raw

If you are signed up to Adobe's Early Access features you can now avail of automatic dust removal in Camera Raw. This isn't available in Lightroom as yet but is in Photoshop through the Camera Raw filter.

Here, I'm going to take a look at an image in Lightroom and try out the feature to see if it will make the job of removing excessive dust spots easier.

The Test Image

Here is a fine image of a summer morning at 06:30 in County Donegal with wispy low cloud hanging over the low hills on the edge of the valley.

Above a blue sky with cloud, it's a scene typical of the Irish countryside but in the sky, cloudy portion we see a number of prominent dust spots.

Summer morning landscape in County Donegal, Ireland showing green fields, wispy clouds, and prominent dust spots in the sky that need removal — Summer morning at 06:30 in County Donegal with wispy low cloud hanging over the low hills. Notice the prominent dust spots visible in the sky area that we'll remove using Adobe's new tool.

Traditional Lightroom Approach

Now I can use the Remove tool in Lightroom (Q - shortcut) and set to Heal to remove these spots but, if there are many then it can become a chore.

Adobe Lightroom interface showing the traditional Remove tool with Heal option for manually removing dust spots one by one — Traditional approach using Lightroom's Remove tool (Q shortcut) with Heal option. This method requires manually removing each dust spot individually, which can be time-consuming.

Testing Adobe's New Dust Removal Tool

But let's try Adobe's new dust removal tool in Camera Raw to see if it can save some time.

Step 1: Right click on the image and choose Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2025…

Lightroom context menu showing 'Edit In' option to open the image in Adobe Photoshop 2025 for advanced editing — Step 1: Right-click on the image in Lightroom and select 'Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop 2025' to access the Camera Raw filter.

Step 2: Shift-CTRL-A or Filter > Camera Raw Filter…

Adobe Photoshop interface showing the Camera Raw Filter option in the Filter menu to access advanced RAW processing tools — Step 2: Use Shift+Ctrl+A or navigate to Filter > Camera Raw Filter to open the Camera Raw interface within Photoshop.

Step 3: In the right hand side panel choose the Remove tool and then Dust under Distraction Removal

Adobe Camera Raw interface showing the Remove tool selected with Dust option highlighted under Distraction Removal settings — Step 3: In the right panel, select the Remove tool and choose 'Dust' under the Distraction Removal options to enable automatic dust detection.

Step 4: Click Apply and in a few seconds the dust spots will disappear.

Clicking into the image will show the dust spots just as in Lightroom and it's possible to remove or regenerate the individual dust spots.

Adobe Camera Raw interface showing dust removal results with options to refresh, delete, or accept the automatic dust removal results — Step 4: After applying the dust removal, you can review individual detections, refresh results, or accept the changes. The interface shows detected dust spots that can be individually adjusted.

Results Assessment

So is it perfect? No, but it's really rather good. There are a few spots here that were missed.

Final result showing the Donegal landscape with dust spots successfully removed, demonstrating the effectiveness of Adobe's automatic dust removal tool — Results after applying Adobe's dust removal tool. The landscape is now clean with dust spots removed, though a few spots may have been missed and can be manually addressed.

Step 5: I'm going to accept the results here by clicking OK and then saving in Photoshop to bring the image back into Lightroom where I can finish editing and add any missed dust spots on a final check.

Conclusion

Will I continue to use this feature? Yes, and as dust removal becomes a main feature, possibly added to Lightroom it will only continue to improve saving time as a result.

ireland , donegal , adobe lightroom , adobe , lightroom tutorial , photography tutorials , photoshop

Darren McLoughlin

Irishman and International travel photographer in search of the best bits of Ireland. Leading photography tours and experiences in Ireland.

Contributor to: New York Times / Sunday Times / Irish Times / Echtra Echtra and Eonmusic

Cancer survivor.

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