Easily remove a tattoo with AI in Lightroom Classic

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Does your model have a tattoo that does not fit the look of your photo? Using Adobe Lightroom Classic and its built-in AI tools, you can easily remove it. Even if it is an extensive tattoo.

Model Meffy, shown in the photo above, has quite a few tattoos on her arms. They did not really fit the style of the shoot I did, where the emphasis was on softness and a retro feel.

In the past, this would have been quite a job, but thanks to the practical AI tools in Lightroom Classic, it is now a piece of cake. I had also asked Meffy during the shoot whether she was happy for me to remove her tattoos during the editing. It is only fair to check first.

In the Develop module, select 'Remove' on the right below the histogram (keyboard shortcut Q). Under Mode, choose the leftmost option, 'Remove'. Make sure that 'Generative AI' is enabled.

You can now use a brush to mark the areas you want to remove in red. Make the area reasonably wide around the tattoo. It is better to make it a little too wide than too narrow.

It often works well to make it one continuous area rather than several separate sections. Separate sections are processed individually, which can quickly become confusing when there are lots of areas.

All you have to do next is click the 'Remove' button. You need to be patient for a moment, and the tattoo should then be gone.

The removal does not always work straight away, but you do get 3 different variations immediately. You can click through them using the arrows and choose the variation you like best.

If none of them are suitable, you can try again with the 'Generate' button, or remove this selection using the bin and try the whole thing again from scratch.

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