AI photo editing does not have to mean handing your entire creative process over to technology. In fact, the best way to use AI in Lightroom is much simpler. Let it handle the repetitive, technical parts of editing so you have more time to focus on color, mood, emotion, and your own personal style.

Lightroom’s AI tools can help you find the strongest image in a large group, reduce noise, select a subject, brighten a face, soften a background, remove distracting people, and make detailed corrections that once required careful manual brushing.

The goal is not to let AI decide what your photo should look like. The goal is to use it as an assistant.

In this guide, we will walk through the most useful Lightroom AI features, when to use each one, and how to combine them with Lightroom presets for a faster and more consistent editing workflow.

What Are Lightroom’s AI Features?

Lightroom’s AI features analyze the content of an image so the program can make more precise selections, recommendations, and corrections.

Instead of treating every part of the photograph the same way, Lightroom can recognize elements such as the subject, sky, background, people, water, vegetation, architecture, and natural ground. It can then create individual masks or perform specific edits based on what it detects.

AI-powered features currently available within the Lightroom ecosystem include:

• Assisted Culling
• Adaptive Profiles
• Denoise
• Raw Details and Super Resolution
• AI Masking
• Generative Remove
• People and reflection removal
• Lens Blur
• AI-powered organization and edit management

The exact tools available may vary depending on whether you use Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Mobile, or Lightroom for the web, so make sure your app is updated before beginning.

Quick Guide to Lightroom’s Best AI Features

Lightroom’s AI tools can help you sort photos, improve image quality, make precise adjustments, remove distractions, and create polished edits faster. Here is a quick look at the most useful features and when to use them.

1. Use Assisted Culling to Find Your Best Photos Faster

Before you begin editing, you have to decide which images are worth editing.

This can take a long time when you have dozens or hundreds of similar photographs from a wedding, portrait session, vacation, sporting event, or family gathering.

Lightroom’s Assisted Culling feature uses AI to evaluate groups of images and help identify the strongest options. It can consider details such as subject focus, eye focus, whether eyes are open, exposure problems, accidental photos, and similar images.

Lightroom can also group similar photographs into stacks and recommend a stronger image from the group. Face View allows you to inspect individual people and evaluate details such as open eyes and eye sharpness more efficiently.

How to Access Assisted Culling in Lightroom

In Lightroom on desktop:

1. Open the album or group of photos you want to review.
2. Select Assisted Culling, and then select Cull.
3. Under Select, choose the qualities Lightroom should look for, such as Subject Focus, Eye Focus, or Eyes Open.
4. Under Reject, choose whether Lightroom should flag exposure problems, accidental photos, documents, or receipts.
5. Use the Selects, Rejects, and All views to review the results before applying any batch actions.

In Lightroom Classic: Go to Catalog Settings > Metadata > Assisted Culling to turn on the feature. Then open the Library module, select a folder or collection, and use the Assisted Culling panel.

This does not mean you should automatically accept every recommendation.

AI cannot always recognize the emotion, expression, movement, or imperfect detail that makes a photograph meaningful. Use Assisted Culling to narrow your options, and then make the final decision yourself.

It is most useful when you have:

• Large portrait galleries
• Burst-mode photographs
• Several nearly identical images
• Group photos where someone may have blinked
• Event or travel photos that need to be sorted quickly

For a small group of images, manual selection may still be faster.

2. Try an Adaptive Profile as Your Starting Point

A profile determines how Lightroom initially interprets the color and tone of an image.

A traditional camera profile applies a consistent interpretation. An Adaptive Profile analyzes the individual photograph and creates image-specific adjustments to color, contrast, and tone.

How to Apply an Adaptive Profile in Lightroom

1. Open a supported RAW or DNG image and select Edit.
2. Open the Profile menu, and then select Browse All Profiles.
3. Open the Adaptive profile group.
4. Select Adaptive Color or Adaptive Black & White.
5. Use the Amount slider to increase or decrease the strength of the profile.

Important: Adobe’s Adaptive Profiles are currently available only for supported RAW and DNG images. The Adaptive group will not appear when you are editing a JPEG or another non-RAW file.

Adobe’s Adaptive Color and Adaptive Black & White profiles are designed primarily for RAW images, and their intensity can be adjusted using the Amount slider.

Adaptive Profiles can be especially useful for photographs with:

• Bright skies and dark foregrounds
• Strong window light
• Backlit subjects
• Deep shadows
• High-contrast landscapes
• Uneven indoor lighting

Think of the profile as your starting foundation, not the finished edit.

After applying it, check the highlights, shadows, and skin tones carefully. Lower the profile amount when the result feels too bright, dramatic, or processed.

You can then apply your favorite Lightroom preset to create the overall aesthetic you want.

3. Use Denoise Before Making Detailed Adjustments

Noise often appears in photographs taken at a high ISO, in dim indoor spaces, at night, or with an underexposed image that has been brightened during editing.

Lightroom’s AI Denoise analyzes the image and reduces digital noise while attempting to preserve natural detail.

Adobe includes Denoise alongside Raw Details and Super Resolution within Lightroom’s Enhance tools. Raw Details is intended to improve fine detail and edge rendering, while Super Resolution increases the image’s width and height to produce four times the total pixel count.

How to Use AI Denoise in Lightroom

1. Open a supported RAW image in Detail view.
2. Open the Detail section in the Edit panel and select Denoise. You can also choose Photo > Enhance from the top menu.
3. Use the Amount slider to control how much digital noise Lightroom removes.
4. Inspect the preview at 100% to make sure important details and natural texture are still visible.
5. Select Enhance when you are satisfied with the result.

When you run Denoise through the Enhance window, Lightroom saves the result as a new DNG file while keeping the original image unchanged. Lightroom also allows Denoise adjustments from the Detail panel on supported files.

Denoise is most helpful for:

• Indoor photographs
• Night photography
• Concert or event images
• High-ISO RAW files
• Photos with grainy shadows
• Images captured in difficult lighting

Apply Denoise near the beginning of your workflow, before adding artificial grain or making detailed sharpening adjustments.

Be careful not to remove every trace of texture. Too much noise reduction can make skin, hair, fabric, and natural surfaces appear waxy or overly smooth.

Zoom in to 100% while adjusting the amount, but also zoom back out before deciding. A photograph can look slightly noisy up close while still appearing completely natural at its intended viewing size.

4. Apply Your Lightroom Preset for the Overall Style

Once you have corrected any major image-quality problems, apply your Lightroom preset.

Presets and AI serve two different purposes.

AI tools are helpful for technical corrections and targeted adjustments. Presets create the color palette, contrast, warmth, softness, fade, and overall mood of the photograph.

A preset gives the image its style.

AI helps refine how that style works with the individual photo.

How to Apply and Adjust a Lightroom Preset

1. Open the photo in Detail view and select the Presets tool.
2. Open the Yours category to find presets you created or installed.
3. Open the appropriate preset group and select the preset you want to use.
4. Select the applied preset thumbnail to reveal the Amount slider.
5. Move the Amount slider down when the preset looks too strong or increase it when the image needs more of the effect.
6. Select Done to save the preset adjustment.

After applying the preset, return to the Edit panel to make small adjustments to exposure, white balance, highlights, and shadows for the individual photograph.

After applying your preset, use the Amount or Opacity slider to control its strength. This is especially helpful for JPEG images, which often already contain additional contrast, saturation, and sharpening from the camera or phone.

Lower the preset amount when the result looks too strong. You do not need to use every preset at 100%.

Then adjust the exposure and white balance for the specific lighting conditions in your image.

5. Use AI Masks for Precise, Natural Adjustments

AI Masking is one of Lightroom’s most useful features because it allows you to edit one part of a photograph without changing everything else.

Lightroom can automatically create masks for the subject, sky, background, people, objects, and specific landscape elements. Landscape masks can identify features such as vegetation, water, architecture, mountains, snow, and different types of ground.

How to Create an AI Mask in Lightroom

1. Open the photograph in Detail view.
2. Select the Masking icon from the right-hand toolbar.
3. Choose an AI selection such as Select Subject, Select Sky, Select Background, Select People, Select Objects, or Select Landscape.
4. Wait for Lightroom to analyze the photograph and display the selected area as an overlay.
5. Use the editing sliders to adjust exposure, color, contrast, texture, sharpness, or other settings within the selected area.
6. Use Add or Subtract when you need to refine the automatic selection.

When using People masking, select an individual person to access more detailed options for areas such as facial skin, body skin, hair, clothing, eyes, lips, and teeth.

Select Subject

Select Subject is useful when the person, animal, object, or main focal point needs to stand out slightly more.

You might use it to:

• Raise the exposure on the subject
• Add a small amount of warmth
• Restore shadow detail
• Increase sharpness or texture
• Reduce excessive saturation
• Correct skin tones without changing the background

Keep the adjustment subtle. A subject that is dramatically brighter than the surrounding scene can look artificial or pasted into the photograph.

Select Background

The Background mask is helpful when the surroundings are distracting from the main subject.

You can gently lower the exposure, reduce texture, soften clarity, or adjust the background color without affecting the person or object in front of it.

This can create more separation while still keeping the image realistic.

Select Sky

A Sky mask allows you to adjust the sky independently from the rest of a landscape or outdoor portrait.

Use it to recover bright highlights, add a little warmth, reduce haze, or deepen a pale sky.

Avoid making the sky dramatically darker than the natural lighting in the rest of the photograph. The sky and foreground should still feel like they belong in the same scene.

Select People

People masking can recognize individual people and, depending on the image, specific features such as facial skin, body skin, hair, clothing, eyes, lips, and teeth.

This is useful for small portrait corrections, but it is also one of the easiest tools to overuse.

Natural skin should still have texture. Teeth should not become pure white. Eyes should not appear unnaturally bright or sharp.

A good portrait edit should still look like the person.

6. Remove Distractions With Generative Remove

Sometimes a small distraction is the only thing keeping an otherwise beautiful photograph from feeling finished.

Lightroom’s Generative Remove tool uses Adobe Firefly to remove selected objects and generate new content that blends with the surrounding area. It can be used on distractions such as background people, signs, clutter, power lines, trash, or unwanted objects.

How to Use Generative Remove in Lightroom

1. Open the photograph in Edit view and select the Remove tool.
2. Turn on Use Generative AI.
3. For a more accurate automatic selection, also turn on Detect Objects.
4. Loosely circle or brush over the complete object you want Lightroom to remove.
5. Use Add or Subtract to correct the selected area when needed.
6. Select Remove and allow Lightroom to generate replacement content.
7. Compare the generated variations and choose the one that blends most naturally with the surrounding area.

When Detect Objects is selected, Lightroom can also include a connected shadow or reflection in the removal mask.

For the best results:

Choose an object that is clearly separated from important details. Brush slightly beyond the object’s edges so Lightroom understands the complete area that needs to be replaced.

After the removal, zoom in and inspect:

• Repeating patterns
• Warped edges
• Smudged textures
• Missing shadows
• Altered hands or body parts
• Changes to nearby objects

Generative Remove can work beautifully, but complex backgrounds may require several attempts.

Lightroom may provide different generated variations. Compare them carefully rather than automatically accepting the first result.

7. Remove Extra People and Window Reflections

Lightroom also includes more specialized distraction-removal tools.

People Removal can automatically identify distracting people in the background and remove them from the image. Reflection Removal is designed to reduce prominent reflections in photographs taken through windows or glass doors.

How to Remove Extra People in Lightroom

1. Open the photograph in Detail view and select the Remove tool.
2. Find the Distraction Removal section and select People.
3. Wait for Lightroom to detect and highlight distracting people in the background.
4. Deselect any highlighted person you want to keep in the photograph.
5. Select Remove.
6. Review the generated variations and choose the most natural-looking result.

How to Remove Window Reflections in Lightroom

1. Open a photograph taken through a window or another piece of glass.
2. Select Remove > Distraction Removal.
3. Open the Reflections section and select Apply.
4. Allow Lightroom to analyze the photograph and remove the detected reflection.
5. Use the Amount slider to control the strength of the reflection removal.
6. Compare the edited image with the original to make sure important details have not been removed.

People Removal can be helpful for:

• Travel photographs in crowded locations
• Beach photos
• Tourist attractions
• Events
• Street scenes
• Family photos with someone walking through the background

Reflection Removal is useful for photographs taken through:

• Car windows
• Airplane windows
• Storefront glass
• Museum displays
• Home windows
• Glass doors

These tools work best when the distraction is visually separate from the main subject.

Always inspect the finished image closely. Removing a person can sometimes affect the ground, shadows, furniture, or other objects surrounding them.

8. Create More Depth With Lens Blur

Lens Blur uses AI to analyze the depth of a photograph and create a softer background.

Lightroom can identify the main subject and scan the scene before applying the blur. Adaptive Blur Background presets can also apply the effect in one click, with an Amount slider controlling the intensity.

How to Apply Lens Blur in Lightroom

1. Open the photograph and select Edit > Lens Blur.
2. Select Apply to allow Lightroom to create an AI-generated depth map.
3. Choose Subject Focus to keep the detected subject sharp, or use Point/Area Focus to choose the focal area manually.
4. Adjust the Blur Amount slider to control the intensity of the background or foreground blur.
5. Select a Bokeh option when you want to change the appearance of the blurred highlights.
6. Turn on Visualize Depth to see which areas Lightroom considers near, far, or in focus.
7. Use the Focus and Blur refinement brushes to correct hair, clothing, fingers, plants, and other detailed edges.

Lens Blur works best when:

• The subject has a clear outline
• There is visible space between the subject and background
• The background already contains some natural depth
• Hair and fine details are easy to distinguish
• The original lighting supports the effect

It may be less convincing when the subject is standing directly against a wall or when several objects overlap.

Start with a low amount. A gentle blur can direct attention toward the subject, while an extremely strong blur may look artificial.

Pay special attention to hair, fingers, clothing edges, plants, and transparent objects. These are areas where an AI-generated depth map may need manual refinement.

9. Use Super Resolution When You Need a Larger Image

Super Resolution can be helpful when you have cropped heavily or need a larger file for printing.

The feature creates an enhanced image with twice the original width and twice the original height, resulting in four times the total pixel count. It supports RAW files as well as formats including JPEG and TIFF.

How to Use Super Resolution in Lightroom

1. Open a supported RAW, JPEG, or TIFF image in Detail view.
2. Select Photo > Enhance. You can also right-click the photograph and select Enhance.
3. Select Super Resolution in the Enhance window.
4. Inspect the preview to make sure the enhanced details look natural.
5. Select Enhance to create the larger image.

Lightroom creates a new enhanced DNG with twice the original width and twice the original height, resulting in four times the total number of pixels.

Consider using it when:

• A distant subject required a heavy crop
• You need a larger print
• You are working with an older, lower-resolution camera
• The original file is too small for your intended use

Super Resolution cannot recreate every detail that was absent from the original photograph, so begin with the highest-quality file available.

It is a useful enhancement, not a replacement for good focus and sufficient resolution at the time of capture.

10. Review Your AI Edits Before Exporting

Some Lightroom AI edits may need to be refreshed after you crop the image, change its orientation, synchronize settings, or make another adjustment that affects how Lightroom analyzes the photo.

Lightroom’s AI Edit Status control allows you to review the AI-powered adjustments used on an image and identify any that require updating. Lightroom Classic also includes AI-focused metadata filters for locating images with AI edits, generative edits, or updates still needed.

How to Review and Update Your Lightroom AI Edits

1. Open a photograph that contains edits made with tools such as Masking, Generative Remove, Lens Blur, Denoise, or an Adaptive Profile.
2. Look for the AI Edit Status or Update AI Edits icon.
3. If the icon has a yellow highlight, select it to see which AI adjustments need to be refreshed.
4. Review the list of affected edits.
5. Select Update All to allow Lightroom to process the AI adjustments again in the recommended order.
6. Inspect the photograph after the updates are complete, especially around masks, removed objects, and blurred edges.

Before exporting:

• Review the photograph at full size
• Update any AI settings that require refreshing
• Check removed objects and mask edges
• Inspect skin and fine details
• Confirm the background blur looks natural
• Look for noise or sharpening artifacts
• Make sure the edit still looks good when zoomed out

This final check is especially important when applying AI settings to several images at once.

The Best Order for Using Lightroom AI and Presets

You do not need to use every AI feature on every photograph.

A simple editing order is usually best:

1. Select the strongest image.
2. Crop and straighten the photograph.
3. Apply Denoise, Raw Details, or Super Resolution only when needed.
4. Choose a profile and correct the basic exposure and white balance.
5. Apply your Lightroom preset.
6. Adjust the preset amount.
7. Use AI masks for the subject, background, sky, or people.
8. Remove distracting objects or people.
9. Add subtle Lens Blur when appropriate.
10. Review all AI edits before exporting.

The order can change depending on the image, but this workflow keeps the technical corrections separate from the creative style.

Common Lightroom AI Mistakes to Avoid

Using every feature simply because it is available

Not every photograph needs Denoise, Generative Remove, Lens Blur, several masks, and an Adaptive Profile.

Use only the tools that solve an actual problem.

Making the subject too bright

A small subject adjustment can help guide the viewer’s eye. A large exposure difference can make the subject look disconnected from the surroundings.

Over-smoothing skin

Skin has pores, lines, texture, highlights, and shadows. Removing all of them usually makes a portrait look less professional rather than more polished.

Applying too much artificial blur

Strong background blur does not automatically make an image look as though it was taken with an expensive lens.

Natural depth still depends on the original perspective, lighting, subject placement, and distance from the background.

Failing to inspect removed objects

AI-generated replacements can look convincing at first glance while containing small distortions that become obvious after export.

Always zoom in.

Letting AI choose the entire aesthetic

AI can identify a subject or correct technical issues, but it does not know what you want the photograph to feel like.

Warm and nostalgic. Bright and airy. Dark and cinematic. Soft and dreamy. Natural and timeless.

Those decisions still belong to you.

Do Lightroom’s AI Features Replace Presets?

No. They work best together.

AI tools help Lightroom understand what is inside the image. They can select areas, repair distractions, improve image quality, and speed up repetitive tasks.

Presets create a consistent visual style across different images.

A preset can give an entire gallery the same warmth, contrast, softness, film-inspired color, or nostalgic finish, while AI masks help adjust the preset for each individual lighting situation.

For example, you might apply a warm film-inspired preset and then use Select Subject to restore a small amount of brightness to the person’s face. Or you might apply a bright preset and use Select Sky to recover highlights in the clouds.

The preset establishes the look.

The AI adjustment helps perfect it.

Final Thoughts

Lightroom’s AI features are most helpful when they make editing feel easier without making the finished photograph feel artificial.

Use Assisted Culling to sort large groups of images. Use Denoise to improve difficult low-light photographs. Use masks to make precise adjustments. Remove distractions that take attention away from the moment. Add Lens Blur carefully, and always review the final result.

Most importantly, keep making the creative decisions yourself. The strongest edits are not the ones that use the most technology. They are the ones that still feel natural, intentional, and true to the photograph.

Ready to create a consistent editing style in less time? Explore our Lightroom presets for one-click color, warmth, softness, and film-inspired edits on Lightroom Mobile and Desktop.