Adobe’s new tool wipes ugly window reflections from photos

There is nothing more annoying than taking a stunning photo from an airplane window, only to realize the shot is ruined by the overhead cabin lights reflected in the glass.

Adobe is finally rolling out a fix. On December 12, the company launched its Reflection Removal tool as a technology preview inside Adobe Camera Raw. The feature was originally teased as a Project See Through demo at last year's Adobe Max conference, and a Lightroom release is coming soon.

Splitting one image into two worlds

The feature works by analyzing the two distinct layers that make up a reflection photo. Glass reflections usually have different visual characteristics than the background scene, such as differing sharpness, composition, and white balance, since indoor lighting is usually much warmer than outdoor light.

To build the underlying AI model, Adobe trained it on thousands of clean photos without reflections. By blending pairs of these shots together, they created millions of synthetic reflection images and used reinforcement learning to teach the model how to cleanly separate them back into two distinct frames.

The resulting tool goes beyond just deleting reflections. Once Camera Raw finishes processing, it gives you a slider set to 100 for a completely clean shot. Pull it down to 0, and the reflection comes back. Drag it all the way to -100, and the tool completely isolates the reflected image while stripping out the background.

The fine print

If you want to try it out right now, there are a few hurdles.

The biggest catch is that it currently only supports RAW files, though Adobe says JPEG and HEIC support will arrive down the road. You also have to dig into Camera Raw's preferences under Technology Previews, enable the New AI Settings and Features Panel, and restart Photoshop or Adobe Bridge.

Adobe also caveats that the model isn't magic. If a reflection is so severe or complex that a human cannot tell what is behind the glass and what is on it, the AI will likely fail as well.

Why it matters

Window glare is one of photography's most frustrating physical limitations. Fixing it traditionally meant painstaking brushwork and masking that often left behind blurry artifacts. Being able to strip out an entire reflection layer in seconds turns previously ruined shots into keepers.

We think the cleverest part of this release is the bi-directional slider. Instead of treating reflections merely as visual garbage to be erased, allowing creators to isolate the reflection at -100 turns an accidental flaw into a useful creative asset for composites.

That said, limiting the tool to RAW desktop workflows keeps it away from where it is needed most. Most window reflections happen on casual smartphone shots taken on trains, planes, and observation decks. Until Adobe rolls this out to Lightroom mobile with JPEG and HEIC support, it remains a neat preview for pros rather than a mass-market rescue tool.