Lightroom can now redraw your photos from a typed instruction. Adobe's September 2026 update, Lightroom desktop 9.6, added Prompt to Edit, an early-access tool that sends your image and a request like "remove the dust and scratches" or "replace the sky" to Google's Nano Banana 2 model and returns a newly generated version.
There was no major new Adobe photo release between October 12 and 18, so this remains the latest Lightroom change. Adobe's next big round of announcements is due at Adobe MAX, November 10–12.
Quick facts
| App | Lightroom desktop 9.6 (not Lightroom Classic) |
| Released | September 29, 2026 |
| Status | Early access |
| AI model | Google Nano Banana 2 |
| Output | 2K or 4K, saved as a new DNG beside the original |
| Cost | Uses Adobe generative credits; per-use cost not published |
| Also new | Better Reflection Removal; new camera and lens support |
What is Prompt to Edit?
Traditional Lightroom edits change the values of pixels you captured: exposure, color, masks, and so on. Prompt to Edit does not. As Adobe put it in its own demo, "the entire photo is regenerated." Camera Jabber's write-up makes the same point: unlike Lightroom's usual tools, it creates a new image rather than adjusting the existing one.
Adobe pitches it for jobs that are slow or impossible with sliders:
- restoring old photos (dust, scratches, fading)
- colorizing black-and-white images
- unblurring soft shots
- retouching
- bigger transformations, such as replacing a sky or adding fog
How to use Prompt to Edit in Lightroom
- Update Lightroom desktop to version 9.6 through the Creative Cloud app (Apps, then Update).
- Open a photo and find the Prompt to Edit panel in the editing sidebar.
- Pick a sample prompt at the top, or type your own description of the result you want. Sample prompts fill the box, which also shows how to phrase your own.
- In the output settings, choose Nano Banana 2 at 2K or 4K.
- Click Generate. The result is saved as a new DNG next to the original, or in a stack.
- Refine the new file with Lightroom's regular tools if needed. You can save prompts to reuse on other photos, much like presets.
The panel shows your remaining generative credits as you go.
Is it free?
Partly. The feature comes with a Lightroom subscription, but every generation spends generative credits, which Creative Cloud plans include in different amounts. Adobe has not said how many credits one Prompt to Edit generation costs, according to Digital Camera World. Until it does, keep an eye on the balance counter, especially at 4K.
What else is in the September update?
- Reflection Removal is better at erasing reflections in windows, glass and water, with less smudging and ghosting. It is in Lightroom desktop and Lightroom Classic 15.6.
- Lightroom Classic adds Check All / Check None buttons for landscape and people masks.
- Both apps add support for newly released cameras and lenses, plus bug fixes.
Why some photographers are wary
The tool raises two questions Lightroom's sliders never did.
Is it still your photograph? Because the whole image is regenerated, the output can contain details that were never in front of your lens. That matters for photojournalism, documentary work and contests that ban generative changes. The original file is kept, but the edited one is a new creation. It is the same worry wildlife photographer Robert Irwin raised about AI imagery.
Whose model is it? Photoshop's AI tools run on Adobe Firefly, which Adobe says is trained on licensed content. Prompt to Edit runs on Google's Nano Banana 2 instead. Digital Camera World notes that Google does not disclose where Nano Banana's training data comes from, and that the model can pull in images from Google Search while generating.
What's next: Adobe MAX 2026
Adobe MAX 2026 runs November 10–12 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with an online version on November 10–11. Adobe typically uses MAX to launch major Lightroom and Photoshop features. It has not said what it will announce this year, including whether Prompt to Edit will leave early access or come to Lightroom Classic.
Published Sunday, October 18, 2026. Feature details are from Adobe's Lightroom and Lightroom Classic release notes and coverage by Digital Camera World and Camera Jabber. Prompt to Edit is an early-access feature, and Adobe may change how it works or what it costs.
