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Inspiring
October 31, 2012

P: Adjustment brush Auto Mask broken for 32bit TIFF image

  • October 31, 2012
  • 12 replies
  • 419 views

Hello,

I am using Lightroom 4.2 (updated today) on Windows 7 64bit. I have an issue using the adjustment brush with the option "Auto Mask" within a 32 bit TIFF file: the Auto Mask magic there does not work.

I've created 32 bit TIFF files using the "merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop" workflow, where the resulting TIFF is automatically added back to Lightroom. There, I edit the TIFF just in the same way as I edit any other picture in Lightroom. Some of my TIFF files have very clear edges with high contrast. Example:



I assume you agree with me that the adjustment brush Auto Mask must be able to detect this particular edge between the blue sky and the almost black wall of a building. However, when I use the adjustment brush on this edge (no feather, 100 density and flow, show selected mask overlay in green), it does not detect the transition:



When I do the same in one of the RAW pictures that contributed to the TIFF above, Auto Mask works as expected:



I tried this with various edges in various TIFF and RAW files. In the RAW files, basically all edges are detected, while the Auto Mask feature entirely fails in my TIFFs. I've first observed this in Lightroom 4.1. Then I updated to 4.2 which did not change the behavior.

Is there something I can do wrong? Note that in this tutorial: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-complet... Julieanne Kost is doing exactly this: first she merges a set of pictures to a HDR TIFF and then she uses the adjustment brush with Auto Mask in the resulting TIFF. In the video it looks like the edge detection works properly for her.

Any suggestion is welcome. Thanks!

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12 replies

Inspiring
November 2, 2012
On the one hand this is good to hear. On the other hand, I tried it again and still was not able to get it working. What could I possibly do wrong? I am quite new to Lightroom, so it could be that I'm doing something very stupid. However, as already mentioned, for normal raw files I am able to use the Auto Mask feature.

Maybe the TIFF files I am working on are very special in a certain regard (shouldn't be, I created them with Photoshop CS 5 in the 'normal' HDR Pro merge workflow).

Does it make sense to upload the data I am working on for someone else to try?
dorin_nicolaescu
Inspiring
November 1, 2012
Cannot reproduce in 4.2 Win7 64.
Automask works on a 32-bit TIFF here.