Participant

Answered

Batch Auto-straightening isn't working

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 4, 2022
4 replies
35246 views

Good morning! I'm trying to auto straighten a bunch of photos, something I haven't had issues with in the past. I select my images, select 'auto sync', go to the crop tool and hit Auto to straighten. All of my images look like they've had an adjustment made (or LR thinks they have) but if I go back into the image and hit the auto straighten, more adjustments are made. This is frustrating as this used to work, so I don't think it's my technique. Any ideas on how I can make this functional again? Anyone else having this issue? TIA.

Windows

Correct answer johnrellis

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

When you click the crop tool's Auto button, Auto Sync copies the computed crop angle from the current photo to all the other selected photos, so they all end up with the same angle. It does not recompute the straighten angle for each selected photo. I verified this behavior in LR 11.3.1 and 10.4.

To batch-straighten all the selected photos, computing the correct angle for each photo separately, do this instead:

1. Select all the photos and go to Develop.

2. In the Transform panel, select Level and Constrain Crop.

3. Click the Sync button and select Upright Mode only:

And yes, you could also use Auto Sync, but it's dangerous, and for too many people, using it eventually ends in tears.

C

craig.carmean

Participant

2024. Still paying a premium subscription price and Adobe can't give us the ability to batch correct.

johnrellis

Legend

@craig.carmean, see this post for how to automatically level a batch of photos:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-discussions/batch-auto-straightening-isn-t-working/m-p/13315154#M296862

J

JLavii

Participant

Good day! I found this solution earlier this year and it had been working great for months. but then recently after these new updates, it hasnt been working right for each image any more. Is there a new solution or something I should be doing now?

johnrellis

Legend

Hmm, I just retested my steps above, and they worked in my test catalog with LR 13.0.1. Do Help > System Info -- which exact version of LR are you running?

Nicolas Gop

Participant

Hi John!
there is not Shortcut for Crop - Auto. isn´t ?

roc97007

Known Participant

I'd like to suggest an enhancement request. There's currently no way to auto-straighten a batch of photos. Auto-straighten sometimes gets it wrong, but it would still be a net timesaver. I deal with thousands of photos over multiple days, and the single most common buttons I press in Develop is "r" followed by clicking on the "Auto" button. There doesn't even seem to be a keyboard shortcut for auto straighten, which although not ideal might be faster.

Ideally, I would Select a bunch of photos, click "Auto" once, and have them all auto straighten, NOT to the same tilt as the first photo, but each straightened as if I did it individually.

Ron

roc97007

Known Participant

I've read about the synchronize technique, but my understanding is that it adjusts the angle of the rest of the photos the same degree as the first photo, instead of recalculating the degree of straightening necessary for each photo. True or not true?

The issue is that I might have 2500 photos all taken against the same set of vertical columns, (in a stadium, as it happens) but each photo might be off by a slightly different amount and in a different direction. Syncing the angle of a bunch of photos to the angle of the first photo is not a solution, as the corrections will be different for each one.

Please advise.

Ron

johnrellis

Legend

It was not based on a cropped/resaved image, but the original digital negative. I've added a screenshot of the original photo with the crop overlay. As you can see, it was cropped from native (which I believe is 8X12 for a Nikon D5) down to 8X10, and then cropped a bit smaller. As you can see, the image is pretty much exactly in the center of the original frame.

To be clear, when editing the original image, as uploaded from the card and converted by lightroom to DNG, the distortion occurs when I use transform, but does not occur when I click "auto" in the Crop & Straighten frame.

I've included the same shot, with no crop at all, geometry as shot, (original_uncropped.png) and the same photo with the "Level" transform turned on. (original_uncropped_level_transform.png) You can see that the distortion occurs on the uncropped image.

What I can't figure out is what the transform thinks it's doing. In the transformed image, NOTHING is straight. Not the top of the wall, not the pillar, not the seats, not the edge of the ground cover. What the heck does the tool think it's straightening?

Incidentally, all the transform adjustments are exactly in the middle, and the distortion occurs whether or not Constrain Crop is turned on.

Incidentally, there is an odd cant and distortion no matter which transform I use; Auto, Vertical, Full, Level. The amount of cant and the amount of distortion varies depending on the type of transform, but none of them are straight and undistorted.

If you want examples using other photos I can supply them. Doing a mass transform on the 1010 photos in my quick collection resulted in some really fun clownhouse mirror effects but nothing I could actually sell.

I'd be happy to hear that I'm doing it wrong. But if so, what?

UPDATE: This just occurred to me: What are the exact gestures you made to straighten the image with transform? If we are doing something different, that might be a clue. Also, are you on a PC or a Mac?

I took the screenshot original_uncropped.PNG, cropped out the borders, and exported it back into LR as a JPEG. With that JPEG, my LR produces the exact same result with Crop > Auto as with Transform > Level. To compare the two, I made screenshots of Develop showing each and inserted them as layers in a single PSD. As I flip between layers, it's clear that the two are identical. See the attached screen recording.

This was tested in LR 12.0.1 / Mac OS 12.6.1.

Please upload the original raw (not the DNG) to Dropbox and we can see if your bad symptoms happen on other installations. I'm suspecting a bug with Transform on the raw or the DNG, but let's verify the problem occurs in my LR as well.

crop-auto-v-transform-level.zip

johnrellisCorrect answer

Legend

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

When you click the crop tool's Auto button, Auto Sync copies the computed crop angle from the current photo to all the other selected photos, so they all end up with the same angle. It does not recompute the straighten angle for each selected photo. I verified this behavior in LR 11.3.1 and 10.4.

To batch-straighten all the selected photos, computing the correct angle for each photo separately, do this instead:

1. Select all the photos and go to Develop.

2. In the Transform panel, select Level and Constrain Crop.

3. Click the Sync button and select Upright Mode only:

And yes, you could also use Auto Sync, but it's dangerous, and for too many people, using it eventually ends in tears.

heatherc15475534Author

Participant

Thanks so much, I'll try this!

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