Clean film scans.
Keep the grain.

A Lightroom Classic plug-in that finds dust, hairs and scratches, shows you every mark, then removes only what you approve.

Sky over a temple spire after DustSol: the scratches and specks are gone
Drag to compare. Left: the scan. Right: after DustSol.

You decide what goes.

Every defect DustSol finds is marked in red. Click a mark to keep it. Nothing changes until you save.

The DustSol review window: a list of photos on the left, and a scan with dust and scanner streaks marked in red

Three moves inside Lightroom.

  1. Select

    Pick one or more scans in the Library and choose DustSol: Remove Dust. Negatives already inverted with Negative Lab Pro work as they are.

  2. Review

    DustSol opens your photos and marks dust, hairs, scratches and scanner streaks. Zoom in, and click anything you want to keep.

  3. Save

    Cleaned copies come back to your catalog as 16-bit TIFF files, stacked on top of the originals.

Close-up of a scan with a thin vertical scratch The same close-up after DustSol: the scratch is gone and the grain continues

Repairs that keep the grain

Defects are filled from nearby film texture, so the repair carries real grain instead of a smooth smear.

Your originals stay untouched

DustSol always writes a new file. The source photo and its develop settings are never modified.

Runs on your Mac

Detection runs locally with Core ML. Your photos are never uploaded.

Color and metadata carry over

The ICC profile and EXIF data are copied to the cleaned TIFF, and it stays stacked with the original in your catalog.

Install the beta

You need

  • A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later)
  • macOS 14 Sonoma or later
  • Lightroom Classic

Steps

  1. Quit Lightroom Classic and open the DustSol installer.
  2. If macOS says it can't be opened, go to System Settings, then Privacy & Security, and click Open Anyway.
  3. Start Lightroom Classic. DustSol appears under Library, then Plug-in Extras.

The beta is not yet signed with an Apple Developer ID, so macOS asks you to confirm it once. The full guide ships with the plug-in as INSTALL.txt.

Questions

Does it work with color negatives?

Yes. Run it after converting with Negative Lab Pro or any other inversion. Choose Slide when you clean positive film.

Will it change my photo?

No. It creates a new TIFF next to the original and stacks it on top. You can delete the copy at any time.

Does it catch everything?

Not yet. Very faint dust on busy textures and dense clusters can be missed, which is why you review every mark. Beta feedback trains the next version.

Windows or Intel Macs?

Not in the beta. DustSol needs a Mac with Apple silicon.

Is DustSol made by Adobe?

No. DustSol is an independent plug-in and is not affiliated with Adobe.

Help shape DustSol

Beta testers get early builds and send back the marks DustSol got wrong. That feedback trains the next model.

Join the beta