Update, November 10: At Adobe MAX, Adobe listed Open Eyes in Lightroom among its beta features, described as correcting blinks “based on a reference photo.” TNW reports you can pick that reference photo yourself or let Lightroom find one, and PetaPixel calls it a public beta. That’s a different label from October, when Adobe’s post introduced it in Lightroom on mobile without calling it a beta. Adobe hasn’t said whether the MAX version brings it to Lightroom on desktop, so the availability notes below may change.
Everyone has a group shot where one person blinked. Adobe’s answer, announced on October 19, is Open Eyes in Lightroom on mobile: when the app spots closed eyes, it offers a one-tap generative fix. It’s a genuinely handy idea, but the early reports raise a couple of things worth knowing before you lean on it.
What changed
According to Adobe’s post, when Lightroom on mobile detects closed eyes in a photo, it shows an Open Eyes icon as a Quick Action, and you decide whether to generate the fix. It can work without any help, but if your library has other photos of the same person, Adobe says it uses them to match eye color, shape, and size. Videomaker adds that the app asks your permission before scanning your photos for those references.
For now it’s mobile only. PHLEARN’s hands-on write-up says that as of October 19 it isn’t in Lightroom Classic or Lightroom on the desktop. Videomaker points to the App Store and Google Play versions of the app.
Why it matters for designers
If you shoot events, team photos, or headshot days, a blink used to mean digging through the burst for a better frame or doing an eye swap by hand in Photoshop. Having the fix offered automatically, right where you’re culling on your phone, could save a real chunk of time on group shots in particular. PHLEARN found it works best on group portraits and people farther from the camera, which is exactly where manual swaps are most tedious.
What to watch out for
The cost story is confusing. Adobe’s post calls Open Eyes free, and some coverage repeats that. But Videomaker says it runs on generative credits, with two free tries in the free app, and PHLEARN’s test reports 20 credits for every one-face photo it tried and 40 for a large group shot with two blinking faces. Both say the paid Lightroom mobile plan comes with 100 generative credits a month. PHLEARN also notes each retry costs the same again, and the price shows under Generate before you tap, so glance at it first.
The results aren’t exact, either. In PHLEARN’s close-up test the generated irises came out browner and more saturated than the subject’s real eyes, and on one run the eyebrows lifted too, so check the whole face, not just the eyes. Every run generates new eyes, so results vary. Zoom in and compare against the original before you deliver anything, especially for a client who knows what their own eyes look like.
We haven’t tried Open Eyes ourselves yet, so treat the sidebar as a checklist of open questions rather than confirmed answers.
