Adobe Lightroom is best known for its powerful photo-organising tools and quick colour corrections, but it's also packed with clever AI features that make editing far easier than it used to be.
Among these are background and object removal tools - perfect for cleaning up messy shots, highlighting your subject, or giving your images a completely new look and feel.
Beyond simple touch-ups, these tools open up creative possibilities. You might want to create a consistent look across a series of product photos, replace a dull background with something more vibrant, or use selective edits to draw the eye exactly where you want it.
Lightroom's latest AI-driven masking and healing options make all of this possible without steep learning curves, and they work just as well on your phone as they do on your desktop.
In this guide, we'll show you how to use them effectively, step-by-step, compare Lightroom and Photoshop, and answer some quick questions at the end.
Before diving into background and object removal, it's worth making sure you have the right setup.
Lightroom's AI masking and healing features are available in both Lightroom (the cloud-based version) and desktop app Lightroom Classic, but you'll need an active Adobe Creative Cloud subscription to access the latest tools.
You'll also want to choose the right image to work with.
For the best results, pick a high-resolution photo where your subject is clearly separated from the background - this makes it easier for Lightroom's AI to detect edges accurately. That said, even busier images can be cleaned up with a little manual refinement.
Finally, make sure your software is up to date.
Adobe regularly improves its AI detection and content-aware algorithms, so the latest version will give you the smoothest experience.
It's also a good idea to work on a duplicate image or virtual copy. That way, you can experiment freely without losing your original shot.
Before we start, it's worth noting that at the time of writing, Adobe's Generative Remove does not consume Firefly generative credits but requires an internet connection.
At its core, Lightroom's background removal is powered by Adobe's AI masking tech, which can detect and separate the subject from its surroundings in just a couple of clicks.
The two most useful options are Select Subject - which automatically picks out the main focus of your photo - and Select Background, which does the opposite by highlighting everything except the subject.
These tools are available in both Lightroom versions, and they're designed to save you the painstaking manual selections that used to be standard in photo editing. While some might not like AI, this is a clear win for most users.
Once the AI has created the mask, you can refine it by adding or subtracting areas manually with a brush, linear gradient, or radial gradient, which is particularly handy if the edges aren't perfect, or if there are multiple subjects.
While Lightroom can't completely delete the background in the same way Photoshop can, you can use masks to blur it, darken it, or even change its colour tone - effectively pushing it out of focus and making your subject pop.
For more complex edits, Lightroom's masks can be sent directly into Photoshop for pixel-level work, thanks to the tight integration between the two apps.
Lightroom's AI masking tools make background removal quick and intuitive, whether you're working on a desktop or editing on the go.
The process is largely the same in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, though the interface layout differs slightly.
Please note that these instructions are correct at the time of writing, and Adobe may update its products in the future. For example, the Remove tool is a new AI-infused addition to older versions of Lightroom.
Lightroom's object removal relies on its Remove tools - a set of brushes that can intelligently fill in areas where you've painted over unwanted elements.
The most powerful of these is Content-Aware Remove, which uses AI to blend the replacement area seamlessly with the surrounding pixels. You'll also find Heal and Clone options, which work well for smaller or more precise fixes.
Adobe has its own Firefly generative AI models that power much of the removals in 2025, and you'll be working with those.
Broadly, here's where to use each tool:
The workflows described above will cover most use removals, but what about harder images and difficult edge cases?
We've compiled some pro tips for Lightroom to help.
Lightroom's masking and healing tools are more than enough for many editing jobs. Its AI-powered tools are fast, intuitive, and available across desktop and mobile - ideal for quick turnarounds.
However, Lightroom doesn't truly "delete" backgrounds in the way Photoshop can. Instead, it works by masking and adjusting, which is great for subtle edits but less effective if you need a completely transparent background or want to replace it entirely.
The same goes for complex object removals: intricate patterns, overlapping shapes, or tricky shadows are often easier to handle in Photoshop, where you have pixel-level control, advanced selection tools, and layers.
If you have both as part of your Creative Cloud plan, the two work hand-in-hand. You can start in Lightroom for quick adjustments and overall colour work, then send the file directly to Photoshop for precision edits.
Once finished, your changes are synced back into Lightroom, ready for export or further tweaks.
