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.

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.

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…

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

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

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.

Results Assessment

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

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.