P: Add/Subtract to mask using Brush does not allow L&R Brackets to adjust brush size.

[Nature Light]

If I make a gradient mask adjustment, then select subract using brush, the left and right bracket keys no longer manage the brush size but instead increase or decrease the star rating of the image.  The brush mask itself works fine with the bracket keys changing the brush size.  It seems only to happen when the brush is being used to modify an existing mask, although I did not test beyond the example cited.  Is there something I'm doing wrong or is this a true bug?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I am able to replicate this.

Thank you for your report!

Setting Status to acknowledged

[craigr12288421]

I am having the same issue with the brush tool in masking.  If I try to increase or decrease the size with the left/right brackets before I start painting the brackets increase/decrease the rating and not the brush size.  If I tap on the photo, then I get the brush size increase/decrease.

[Nature Light]

Interesting.  This does not happen for me.  If I use the brush to create a mask, the bracket keys work fine.  It's only when I use the brush to adjust a mask already made with another tool (such as gradient), to add or subtract that the brackets change the star rating.  Very strange isn't it!  I see Adobe acknowledged so let's hope a fix in next update.

[craigr12288421]

This is still happening 4 months later.  Is anything being done to fix this?

[RealAirLight]

Photoshop shortcut for brush size adjustment is "[" and "]".

Lrc resets it to rating under Develop. And it can change the brush size sometime too.

I'm using a wacom tablet, it's so annoying to shift to mouse to adjust the brush size by rolling.

I rate my photo accidently millions of times that when I acctually want to increase or decrease the brush size by press "[" and "]". 

For my limited experience, nobody wants to rate with Lrc or Camera.

Remember how many complaints that Canon wasted a button on its camera called "Rate".

Please remove the shortcut for rateing and asign it to  brush resizing.

[PECourtejoie]

Moving to LrC forum.

[George_F]

This works for me.  Pressing those keys resizes my brush adjustment tool in Lightroom Classic.  Pressing Shift + [ or ] changes the brush hardness.

Are you trying to adjust brush size when you aren't using a brush adjustment?

[JohanElzenga]

Maybe you should reset your preferences, because the [ and ] keys work the same in Lightroom Classic as in Photoshop: they change the brush size, not the rating.

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

[RealAirLight]

[] is the default rating shortcut. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/sg/lightroom-classic/help/keyboard-shortcuts.html

[RealAirLight]

Yes, it can resize the brush tools sometimes (displaying in 100%, or add/subtract from an existing mask with a brush). But at fit display scale and a new mask by brush, it changes to rating +/-.

it looks [] are assigned to two functions , rating and brush resizing.

Im using a tablet to brush.

[JohanElzenga]

[] is the default rating shortcut. 

https://helpx.adobe.com/sg/lightroom-classic/help/keyboard-shortcuts.html

By @RealAirLight

Yes, when you do not have a brush tool selected. We were talking about the the default behavior when you do have a brush tool selected.

[George_F]

Not only do I agree with @JohanElzenga , I use the bracket keys to change brush size often when using an adjustment brush in combination with a pen tablet.

I actually didn't know that those keys did anything with the adjustment panel closed, so I've also learned something new 🙂

[johnrellis]

[This post contains formatting and embedded images that don't appear in email. View the post in your Web browser.]

"I'm using a wacom tablet, it's so annoying to shift to mouse to adjust the brush size by rolling. I rate my photo accidently millions of times that when I acctually want to increase or decrease the brush size by press "[" and "]". 

To summarize the previous replies, [ and ] are assigned to decrease/increase ratings when the brush and spot tools aren't open and to decrease/increase brush/spot size when they are:

If [ and ] are changing the rating when you have the brush or spot tool open, then there may be something screwy going on with how the Wacom is invoking the shortcut.  You can test that: When the misbehavior occurs with those tools open, use [ and ] on the keyboard. If the misbehavior stops, then it's likely something the Wacom is doing.  If the misbehavior continues with the keyboard, then it may be that your preferences corrupted -- try resetting them as Johan indicated.

If the issue is that sometimes you forget to open the spot or brush tool before trying to change their size, and you'd like to avoid changing the rating in that case, you can change Decrease/Increase Rating to have a different shortcut, e.g. Opt [ and Opt ], using the Any Shortcut plugin:

[RealAirLight]

Thanks for reply .

But you guys answer are not I wanted. It sounds I am the fauty pside.

1. im running LrC on Windows, it's same on win 10 and win 11.
2. [] is the shortcut for rating, and funny thing is, it's for brush resizing too. 
3. [] will change the rating but resizing before the first brush action. meanwhile it will be the brush resizing shortcut only after you had already brushed something somewhere. otherwise, it is the rate button.

Kindly reply me trying above. thank you guys!

[johnrellis]

"[] will change the rating but resizing before the first brush action. meanwhile it will be the brush resizing shortcut only after you had already brushed something somewhere. otherwise, it is the rate button."

That's happening on your configuration but not on other people's computers.  I've attached a screen recording of LR 11.5 on Windows 10 showing that [ and ] decrease and increase the brush size whenever the brush tool is open, regardless of whether something has been brushed yet.

To determine where the problem is with your configuration, please do these precise steps:

1. Do the menu command Help > System Info and Copy/Paste the first 10 lines here.

2. Does the problem occur when you type [ and ] directly on the keyboard (not using the Wacom)?

3. If the problem occurs when typing on the keyboard (not using the Wacom), try resetting LR's preferences:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/articles-page/how-do-i-reset-lightrooms-preferences/

LR sometimes soils its preferences file, and resetting it can fix all sorts of wonky behavior. That article explains how to restore the old preferences if resetting doesn't help.

[RealAirLight]

Lightroom Classic version: 11.5 [ 202208080927-8a575c91 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en
Operating system: Windows 10 - Home Premium Edition
Version: 10.0.22000
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Logical processor count: 8
Processor speed: 3.0GHz
SqLite Version: 3.36.0

====== Above are the first 10 lines copied from Help/System info...====

It's so stubborn. It keeps +/- rating even had done everything all you  guys had adviced.

1) Reset the LrC preference (method 1)

2) I unintalled Wacom app and unplug it physically

Thd [] keeps re-rating before my brush hit anything.

You may not repeat it as me if super natural force exists:

1. Press [ or ] to increase or decrease the rating in Module Library. This is the default shortcut by LrC.
2. Change to Module Develop
3. Click the Masking
4. Click + Creat New Mask
5. Click Brush
6. Press [ or ]

No, no brush resizing, it's rating increasing or decreasing.

Im mad now.

[drtonyb]

This is another manifestation of the bug in LrC, at least for Windows systems.

It appears to be random, but it is somewhat reproducible. Here are my findings on this problem:

Close LrC from the Develop module, then relaunch so that LrC starts up in the Develop module.

On Adding a Brush mask, you will find that pressing the [ and ] keys work as expected, changing the size of the brush and the feather changes with Shift + [ and Shift + ]. You will also find that pressing the Space Bar allows you to click to zoom in and while zoomed in, pressing the Space Bar allows you to click to zoom out again or click and drag to move around the image.

Remove the Brush mask, switch to Library and then back to Develop. Now Add a Brush again and try the [ or ] keys. They now change the Rating, Shift with these keys does nothing and the Space Bar doesn't seem to work either. Once you brush on the image, all the keys will work again as expected. You can also get things to work again by clicking the New Mask icon in the Mask panel.

I have other issues like this when creating Sky and Subject masks where the Invert key ' won't work.

If you switch to Develop from another Module, then Create a New Brush Mask, the shortcut keys won't work properly until you actually brush on the image.

[richardplondon]

One small detail: there is a stage after you have chosen to place a new Brush mask, but before you have yet begun actually painting this (so, while there is not yet any "pin" icon showing, assuming you have set those to display). During this interim stage it may be that it's not yet the focus of key shortcuts, to affect brushing/erasing. Similarly, at this point a single Escape key press will cancel out of add-mask mode. But once you have begun actually brushing/erasing, an Esc keypress will exit from doing so within this particular mask. And then a second Esc keypress would be needed to exit from mask mode altogether.

Could this difference, be the reason why people are reporting slightly different experiences?

[johnrellis]

I'm not able to reproduce the problem with the steps provided by @RealAirLight or @drtonyb (being careful not to actually start painting brush strokes).

I found just one other report of similar symptoms from 2017:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/lightroom-classic-healing-brush-rating-... 

The symptoms went away after the person reinstalled LR, but that was very possibly just coincidence. 

@drtonyb, I suggest filing a bug report with the precise steps you're using to provoke the bug:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/how-do-i-write-a-bug-report/idi-p/12386373

Including a full-resolution screen recording of the entire LR window would be best, which would give details about the precise steps you're taking and perhaps give clues to a developer.

If Adobe can't reproduce the problem, they probably won't take action (unless many, many people report similar symptoms), but the bug report will be a place that others can hang their reports too, giving a more accurate sense of the scope of the problem.

[johnrellis]

@RealAirLight, try using the free trial of the Any Shortcut plugin to change the shortcuts for Decrease and Increase Rating to Opt [ and Opt ].  Do [ and ] now always work correctly to change the brush size?

[drtonyb]

@richardplondonsaid

"... there is a stage after you have chosen to place a new Brush mask, but before you have yet begun actually painting this (so, while there is not yet any "pin" icon showing, assuming you have set those to display). During this interim stage it may be that it's not yet the focus of key shortcuts, to affect brushing/erasing. Similarly, at this point a single Escape key press will cancel out of add-mask mode."

When the Brush is in this 'interim stage' and the [ ] keys are changing the Rating, the Esc key doesn't work either.

The edit pin doesn't receive the [ ] shortcut keys, the Brush tool does (normally). As I said, the Sky and Subject masks also have this problem and their Edit pin is displayed.

@johnrellissaid

"I suggest filing a bug report with the precise steps you're using to provoke the bug"

I submitted a bug on the Sky/Subject mask issue coming up to 11 months ago for LrC 11.1 and have been updating the report with new information since then. I'll be adding this problem to it now.

As for the Brush, there is still something a bit random about it, but try this:

From Library switch to Develop

Add a Sky mask, but don't click anything else

Check if the ' key Inverts the mask (on my PC it doesn't)

Click Add New Mask and select Brush

Use ] and [ to change the Brush size (mine doesn't, it changes the Rating)

I don't have a Wacom either, only a keyboard and a mouse.

[RealAirLight]

Thanks God! I had found a company finally!

[RealAirLight]

Sometimes, yes, its somethings, randomly,  it ( [] ) works as brushing resizing tool even before any brushing when creat new mask by Brush. After brushing out some mask and it becomes a rating shortcut when doing add/subtract a existing mask by Brush.

I would like the developer simply remove the [] from the shortcut of rating adjustment. Nobody does that, nobody.

[RealAirLight]

Thank you for great information sharing!

May try later.

[RealAirLight]

Most annoying is, if my photos are filtered by rating (mostly imported from DPP), for example, only *****, it (the editing photo) will disapper immediately after I hit [ to reduce the brush size for the photo are rated lower and removed from the listing.

So annoying and painful.