Lightroom is getting new AI features to speed up image editing

Adobe is releasing new AI features for its Lightroom suite that aim to speed up some of the more tedious parts of image editing. That includes improving masking workflows and removing unwanted elements from your images.

AI masking is being upgraded with new tools such as Select People, Select Objects, and one-click Select Background. The Select People feature can automatically detect and create layer masks in high detail, even on specific areas of a subject. The face, body, skin, eyes, teeth, lips, hair, and more can be detected with a single click, eliminating the time-consuming need to carefully create your own masks and generally speeding up the image editing process.

Previous selective adjustments such as Select Sky and Select Subject were introduced to Lightroom back in October 2021, and Photoshop has had similar Select Subject functionality for some time; however, this new feature specifically optimizes masking areas of human subjects.

Select Objects will similarly detect and mask objects in Lightroom using the Brush Select tool. AI will then automatically refine the edges of your selection to create a mask, which Adobe says is capable of detecting fine details such as stray hair and eyelashes. One-Click Select Background will use a similar AI-powered feature to eradicate the need to invert a mask of a subject in order to change its backdrop, allowing you to directly generate a background mask with a single click. All of the above updates will be available for Lightroom and Lightroom Classic for Windows and Mac and Adobe Camera RAW.

Adaptive Presets for portraits are coming to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic for Windows and Mac, iOS, and iPadOS. These new presets can be used to quickly enhance either the entire subject of an image, much like a mobile beauty filter, or specific areas of the face. Presets will allow users to make predetermined adjustments, such as teeth whitening and eyebrow enhancements, with a single click. Mobile Lightroom users will also gain AI-powered masking for Sky and Subject through Adaptive Presets, with support for AI masking also being introduced for Android devices. 

Finally, a similar Content-Aware Remove feature that’s just been announced for Photoshop is also being rolled out across the various Lightroom applications, allowing creators to swiftly remove or replace objects without manually masking a subject. The AI-powered feature will use content-aware to fill in removed sections based on the surrounding environment and is coming to all versions of Lightroom. Adobe says that all updates will be available for Lightroom customers by the end of the week.