Allow copying the settings from one mask type to another.

[Printing]

Ever since the new masking features became available in ACR and LR my workflow has gradually changed from 10% raw/90% Photoshop, to in most cases, the complete opposite. That said, there is one feature I would love to see added at  some point and that is the ability to copy the settings from a particular mask, say a radial mask that I frequently use as a quick test of what I'm looking to accomplish over a broad area of my compostion. It has worked very for this but quite often I then manually writing the settings down so I can transfer the exact combination to a brush mask so I can have finer control over my final edits. I realize that I can use the add and subtract sub-masks to achieve a similar outcome but I find I like using the brush much of the time as opposed to that approach. I see it being another option, much the same as "Duplicate and Invert" addition by selecting the context menu from the elipsis and chosing "Copy Settings" with then another obvious addition being "Paste Settings". I could see this being very useful in many instances and believe it would be a rather easy thing to add. Thank you so much for all of the additions and improvements to ACR over the past few years. I hope my idea finds it's way into one of the updates in the near future.  

[TheDigitalDog]

Do you mean like this? 

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

If I understand correctly, there is already a built-in way to do what you want: Take advantage of Masking Adjustment Presets. The technique below usually helps me after I realize the last mask I did uses better settings than masks I created earlier, so I want to apply the mask’s exact settings to the masks I already created, without writing anything down. You can use the same technique to transfer settings among different mask types. These are the steps shown in the demo below:

1. Make your radial gradient test mask, and work out the settings you want. I made my mask settings a little darker and cooler, just to make it obvious what was changing.

2. Save a new Masking Adjustment Preset, and name it anything you want. I named mine “transfer”. This stores the settings of the mask adjustment you made.

3. Create a new mask of any other type. I created a new Brush mask.

4. Choose the Masking Adjustment Preset you created in step 2. Those settings, originally created for a Radial Gradient mask, now apply to the currently selected Brush mask.

5. If you no longer need the preset you created, you can delete it from the same menu that creates it.

Important: A Masking Adjustment Preset is not the same as an image-wide preset/profile. These settings apply only to masked adjustments. To create a Masking Adjustment Preset, you must use the Preset menu at the top of the Masking Adjustments panel, as shown. It won’t work to use the Presets panel or the other preset commands on the More Image Settings menu on the toolbar, because those presets are not available for masks.

[Printing]

Thanks much Conrad! Wow, the "Mask Preset" section was right in front of me and I just never noticed it; I guess because I'm so accostomed to looking for these sort of options in the context menus. I suppose the obvious thing staring you in the face is sometimes the most obscure. I feel so stupid for even asking the question although I'm glad I did. Your screen capture video was especially helpful because at first I couldn't find the brush preset option because it was under all the brush settings, again my being to impatient, lesson learned! This method will work fine although I still feel it would also be nice if it did work it's was into the context menu for quick one click access.

[Conrad_C]

It might help to know that I had to look around a little bit myself to find the Masked Adjustment Presets menu. I usually do this in Lightroom Classic, and I wasn’t used to where they put it in Camera Raw.

Your original request is still a good one, it would be convenient to be able to copy and paste mask settings among different masks in the same image instead of having to do this multi-step creation of a single-use preset. If you want to suggest your idea to Adobe, you can submit a feature request in the Ideas section of this community. In that section, feature requests can be upvoted by other users and Adobe can post a status if they start working on it.

[Printing]

Actually I thought I did post it in the idea section Conrad but I guess it somehow got placed elsewhere. I'll try again and thanks for all of your help.

[nealbridgens]

Thank you so much for that. The screen capture was perfect. It's been driving me crazy and then you solved it! 

Full marks!