P: Auto-tone analysis should apply post-crop, scanned photos a problem

I'll look forward to testing it out. I used to really want this, but I've come to realize the auto adjustments are so bad I would rarely use them. Maybe they'll improve by not using discarded information or maybe auto tone is just too hard to get right for my scenarios.

Typical  - another example of a 'too late is as good as never' fix from Adobe.

I cannot see the benefits of paying more than my mobile phone contract to access Lightroom bundled with software for which I have no use i.e. Photoshop. So as I bid farewell to Lightroom - as a long term desktop user - I won't be able to take advantage of this long overdue update to Autotone. 

  

Adobe finally agreed with you all (well, most of you): The new Auto Tone in LR 7.1 is based on the cropped region, not the entire image: 
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/whats-new.html#LightroomClassicCCv71December2017

Yup, still missing.  And the OttoTone plugin mentioned above is no longer available, unfortunately.

It sounds like everyone including Adobe gave up on this topic. Any updates? To the best of my knowledge, it is still missing in Lightroom as of 2016.

OttoTone supports auto-toning which excludes region outside the crop zone.

Actually, it's better than that - you can define auto-toning to include any region you want, without changing the original crop.

For example, if you have a backlit portrait shot, you can optimize auto-toning for the face, despite the fact that around the face is very bright, thus preventing over-dark auto-tone. Likewise, if you have a portrait against a black background, you can optimize for the face, and avoid having it over-brightened by auto-toning.

Todd, you are brilliant, that is what is missing. The controls in lightroom do reflect camera operations, so should the Exposure be based on a specific metering area and approach. Selecting Partial would ignore white borders in a scan. Of course the issue of overly dark photos will still occur if there was a bright source of light inside the metering area, so weighting the exposure based on its distribution in the photo is still required.

The chosen metering approach would normally be targeted at the middle of the photo and could be dragged around the photo if required and potentially resized from a standard "pre-defined" area of the cropped photo. Once applied, you then can fine tune manually (as you do with +/- EV controls).

Agreed, it should allow operation similar to the way camera exposure metering works. The norm today is "Evaluative" metering, which takes readings over the entire image frame. Most cameras also allow selecting a "Partial" or even "Spot" area to determine the exposure setting, which is similar to using the "Crop" area. Autotone adjusts a lot more than just exposure, but the analogy is still valid.

I'd take Todd's idea one step further and allow the user to select the region to be used in the analysis REGARDLESS if the photo is cropped. I'm usually much more interested in getting the primary subject optimized and less concerned with balancing the whole image. That said, I could easily crop, autotone, un-crop. That would be miles better than how it work now IF Auto Tone actually worked well. Step One, FIX EXPOSURE ON AUTOTONE FOR ALL PHOTOs. People might be thinking their horrible autotone results are from data outside the crop when the results are generally poor regardless. It's just less predictably poor.

Fair enough. - there is something to be said for keeping things how they were, by default, if possible, just cause people were used to it, and may have been taking advantage of it, whether you or me or Adobe would have thought of it or not. Perhaps Alt-Autotone to auto-tone the cropped area(?)