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Lars_L_Sweden
Participant
January 4, 2022
Question

Limitations when working with masks?

  • January 4, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 448 views

After editing masks for a while (about 250 brush strokes and other changes) Lr suddenly becomes very slow and almost impossible to use. A small change like dragging the gradient tool takes time and is jumpy, not smooth, making it very hard to control the effect. Even undoing takes time, more than ten seconds, and the screen goes black twice (a tenth of a second) before the display is correct. This can be repeated with brush tool and other tools: slow and jumpy. When trying to make the same type of changes to a new picture, there are no problems and everything works smoothly.

I enclose screenshots from changing and undoing with the gradient tool, including CPU, and one picture showing the Lr-screen momentarily black.

Is this a known bug? Is there a limitation to how much you may edit a picture when working with masks?

 

Lr Classic 11.1, Camera Raw 14.1, Build 202112022200-7fd1f998

I have tried resetting Lr preferences.

 

Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64 bit), Version (Build) 21H2 (10.0.19044)

Intel Core i7-9700K CPU @ 3.60GHz

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming OC (6GB, GDDR6)
Memory 64 GB (2 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32 GB, 3200 MHz, DDR4, CL16)
Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500GB

2.12.0.0
This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
January 6, 2022

@Lars_L_Sweden 

 

I think the explanations already given and at LightroomQueen.com explain exactly what you are experiencing.

Rob_Cullen
Community Expert
Rob_CullenCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 6, 2022

Re: the answer from @GoldingD - To add another comment: The Lightroom Queen also has an explanation that I like in the Chapter- "Non Destructive Editing" at this link-

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-performance-complete-series-optimizing-lightrooms-speed/

 

Regards. My System: Windows-11, Lightroom-Classic 15.1.1, Photoshop 27.3.1, ACR 18.1.1, Lightroom 9.0, Lr-iOS 10.4.0, Bridge 16.0.2 .
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Lars_L_SwedenAuthor
Participant
January 10, 2022

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out when the site becomes available again.

GoldingD
GoldingD
Legend
January 5, 2022

In Develop module, with each edit, with each history state shown in the history panel, the more LrC has to work on creating and displaying the pixels on the display. The larger the display in pixels, the worse this gets. Each and every time you cause a new history stare, an edit, LrC works it's way thru the states, from first to last to recreate those pixels. 

 

In the past, users were advised to accomplish brush edits at or near the end of their workflow, to put off those edits towards the finish as they are more complex than simple global edits. Especially on displays 4K and beyond. 

 

The new masking is probably even more intensive in that way.

 

Now, 250 brush strokes? And looking at your History panel, why? If you are trying things out, deciding, nope, try again, then perhaps you need to click on the earlier history state, then try again, not pile edit upon edit, it all adds up to slow performance.

 

In your first screenshot, it appears you have created just 2 masks, no big issue, you appear to be working hard on the second mask. The second mask has just one brush, not an issue, but you appear to be altering that brush, over and over, looks like repetitive mods, looks like over kill. 

 

Maybe  a video would clarify.

 

 

 

 

 

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Lars_L_SwedenAuthor
Participant
January 10, 2022

Thanks a lot for your explanations! And sorry for not replying sooner!

It seems that I can't work with Lr in the way I would like to and, optimistically, thought possible.

 

I'm not working with masks in order to make simple cutouts but in order to achieve some 'artistic' adjustments. Therefore I start by making a mask, perhaps through AI, and then successively modifying the mask with brush strokes, like painting, not entirely discarding the last one but building further on the previous ones, with varying degrees of
density/intensity, searching for and trying out the effects.

 

I don't have any problems working so in Photoshop, but the fact that Ps only saves the mask itself and no history from one session to another appears to be of great importance.

 

I was quite enthusiastic about the new mask feature in Lr and started using it instead of doing the mask job in Ps. Now I'll return to my old way of working, perhaps looking for a way of moving masks from Lr to Ps.

 

This limitation in the number of history states is quite fundamental, I would say, but I have totally missed any information about it.

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