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Adriaan_S
Inspiring
October 22, 2022
Open for Voting

P:(Masking) Handle gang-scanned images better in AI

  • October 22, 2022
  • 11 replies
  • 430 views

Platform: LRC 12, Camera Raw 15, Windows 11 - all up to date.

I am scanning family photo albums, thus one "image" will have multiple "photos". Sometimes one photo will be lighter/darker than other photos. What I need is to be able to select / mask a simple rectangle so I can apply separate adjustments. However, this does not appear to be possible! One of the masking tools (brush) has an option to start with a rectangle, but then LRC applies "smart" object selection which invariably excludes part of the photo and/or expands beyond it. Selecting a rectangle using a free-hand brush tool is too difficult.

I can do this easily in PS, but then I end up having to create duplicate files and spending extra time. I like LRC for this project because I can quickly crop & (global-)adjust 100+ album pages. It should be very easy to have a rectangle and circle/oval selection that can be left alone by the AI, with just the ususal resize/rotate handles.

Thanks, Adriaan

11 replies

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johnrellis
johnrellis
Legend
October 22, 2022

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"What I need is to be able to select / mask a simple rectangle so I can apply separate adjustments...Selecting a rectangle using a free-hand brush tool is too difficult."

 

While LR doesn't have rectangular or polygonal masking (but should),  you can make this go faster and more precisely in LR with a little known feature of the Brush.  You can draw straight lines by clicking on the first point and then every shift-click draws straight line to there.  Setting Feather to 0 gives you crisp edges, and setting Show Edit Pins to Never lets you click over an existing brush point.  See the attached screen recording for how to get this result:

 

 

 

 

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