Finish the MASK edit

[gt6313297]

Hi, How to finish the mask edit? I mean how to save the work?

[JohanElzenga]

By clicking on the top left most icon. Please note that masks themselves are not edits. They are only selections to restrict your edits to a part of the photo. The edits are applied by using the sliders of the mask panel. 

[dj_paige]

It is saved automatically. You don't have to specifically do a "save". You can click on the Edit icon to move on to other things.

[Conrad_C]

Masking works the same as other Lightroom Classic edits you already use: As soon as you commit an edit, it’s recorded, even before you exit masking. You can see this by watching the History panel. Create or edit a mask, and you’ll see a new mask edit step in the History panel…your mask work was saved right away, whether you continue masking or switch to another feature like Healing, Crop, or Edit.

[gt6313297]

Thank you all

[C.Cella]

@gt6313297 

@Be sure to Enable "Automatically Write Changes IntoXMP" or the changes will only be saved in the catalog.

Should you open the file in ACR it will be unedited and the metada you have written will not be readable outside LrC.

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[gt6313297]

Thanks, it is set.

[C.Cella]

A quick tip.

You can pause that option form the "Status and Activity panel": if you see some slowdowns pasue it and resume it when it's best for you.

Right click to access the option.

[JohanElzenga]

Please note this: Writing to XMP is absolutely not needed to save the edits and does slow down Lightroom Classic. You also don't need it if you send images from Lightroom to Photoshop via the 'Edit in...' menu in Lightroom. There is nothing wrong with enabling this setting, and some people do it as a kind of extra backup, but most people can keep this turned off. Also do note that if you work with DNG files (and all types of RGB files) this will lead to writing to the original file, and will trigger most backup applications to copy the complete file again. So you decide whether or not you want to use it, but do understand that this is not relevant for your original question. Mask edits are saved with or without writing to XMP.

[C.Cella]

Saving into XMPs is extremely vital to work with the ecosystem of Adobe apps and it allows to have edits and metadata available outside the catalog.

Sharing a single file is unarguably better than share an entire catalog.

• If we really have to be precise the real problem is that saving, manually or automatically, in LrC is extremely slow.

Auto saving into sidecar/XMPs could be instant, cause zero problems (especially on SSD) but due to internal coding is not the case.

It is  best to pause saving XMPs IF we see slowdowns.

Realistically @gt6313297 you can keep the option always active, never pause it and you will hardly will see any slowdowns.

Also the XMP option/text is the only reliable way to tell if some photos have "Metadata not up to date" so it's practical.

[JohanElzenga]

Saving into XMPs is extremely vital to work with the ecosystem of Adobe apps

By @C.Cella

I strongly disagree if you imply that it's vital to automatically write to XMP. That is simply not true. I have worked with Lightroom since version 1 beta, and I have never felt the need to automatically write to XMP. And I never found that I should have done that either. I don't want to start an off-topic discussion here, so I'll leave it with this one final remark. Yes, it is important that it is possible to save to XMP, because in some situations you do need it. But that does not mean you need to enable automatically write to XMP. You can also manually do that if and when needed. That's all I am going to say about it.

[DdeGannes]

I agree with Johan, that is how I work since adopting Lightroom. Being able to get rid of sidecar files for my raw image files was a deciding factor in my decision.

[C.Cella]

I mean it is vital if one wants to work outside of LrC, outside of the catalog and access metadata across apps.

It is definitely not vital if one only uses LrC and never opens a file in ACR or LrD, LrMobile or in another software.

This said another scenario.

1. You catalog is on the laptop (catalog is best stored on internal memory) while files are on external HDD/SSD.

2. Your Laptop is stolen from your hotel chamber.

If the the files on the external storage have the edits then all you have lost is the history in the catalog but you can work those files in a new Catalog.

If you never saved into XMPs you are doomed to do every edit anew.

I find that saving into XMPs is a lot better than not: more workflow possibilities, easy sharing + edits/metadata stored in multiple places which is a sort of "double safe" in case the catalog is lost.

I do backup catalog every time I quit LrC and I do use the 3,2,1 rule.

[Conrad_C]

I mean it is vital if one wants to work outside of LrC, outside of the catalog and access metadata across apps.

By @C.Cella

It is vital for that, so that is the only scenario where I find it useful to save to XMP: When I need Camera Raw or Bridge to see the edits. Otherwise, XMP files complicate things by adding thousands of files to the file system, files which always have to be moved and renamed along with their parent files which not all applications will do automatically, and also adding to backups. (Keeping in mind that nothing slows down a backup like a lot of tiny files; fewer large files copy much faster.) In addition to the time and resources needed for Lightroom Classic to write them all out and keep them updated. So I minimize the number of XMP files I have, it’s definitely only on an “as needed” basis.

This said another scenario.

1. You catalog is on the laptop (catalog is best stored on internal memory) while files are on external HDD/SSD.

2. Your Laptop is stolen from your hotel chamber.

If the the files on the external storage have the edits then all you have lost is the history in the catalog but you can work those files in a new Catalog.

If you never saved into XMPs you are doomed to do every edit anew..

By @C.Cella

It is not necessary for that to be a likely scenario. I travel with a pocket-sized SSD exclusively for system backup because if I am on the road for something that requires that my system be available (for example, I’m scheduled to present from my laptop in front of hundreds of people), every important change to my system must be backed up. So my laptop (containing those edits in the Lightroom Classic catalog) is backed up regularly, at least once a day, and the backup SSD is kept separate from the laptop. If I am out and the laptop is back in the hotel room, the encrypted backup is out with me. If something horrible happens to the laptop, then if I can I find another one (borrow, rent) I can continue working from my backup, with no data loss.

Another major consideration is that XMP files don’t save everything, they save only the metadata that can be stored in an XMP file. A lot of the valuable work in the catalog is the catalog-level info like history as you said, but also collections, stacks, virtual copies including proof copies, Publish Services, cloud sync data, etc. If those must be preserved, then XMP files are an inadequate backup and so catalog preservation is the priority.

(We should all keep in mind that the catalog vs XMP debate is getting off topic for this thread 🙂 )

[Sean McCormack]

And that is why I also use cloud backup. I appreciate why you want XMP on, but for those using Lightroom as the heart of asset management, you can send files from from there as required without automatic XMP creation. When you specifically need to send a file with XMP, it's not an issue to do it then. For that matter, when you Export as Original, you get an XMP file automatically (with Raw). 

[DdeGannes]

At Sean, if you are going to export then export as DNG and your edits will be included in the DNG file header.

[JohanElzenga]

If you never saved into XMPs you are doomed to do every edit anew.

I do backup catalog every time I quit LrC and I do use the 3,2,1 rule.

By @C.Cella

I know I said I would not react anymore, but this flabbergasted me too much. Don't you see that these two sentences are utter contradictions?...

[C.Cella]

@JohanElzenga 

Not a contradiction.

Keeping a catalog Backup is not always enough!

For instance this summer I was working on my photos (edits were being saved into XMPs as usual)

I worked for a few hours, normal.

At one point my Windows laptop got a fatal error, blue screen of death...the error already happened several times but all was fine after.

This time after restarting I discovered the catalog was corrupted beyond repair.

Tough luck uh!

So my catalog backup was several hours behind and didn't contain the last edits/masks BUT as the edits were saved into XMPs  I simply loaded metadata and I got them.

If I had only stored edits in my catalog I would have lost precious hours of work.

Worth saying after that I never used again that laptop.

.

[JohanElzenga]

@C.Cella The two sentences I quoted were from your example that the laptop got stolen. In that case those sentences clearly do contradict eachother. If your computer gets stolen, then you do have a catalog backup, which is much better than having XMP files, because virtual copies are not written to XMP, stacks are not written to XMP, flags are not written to XMP, collection membership are not written to XMP, books are not written to XMP and publishing services are not written to XMP.

It seems to me that you are desperately trying to prove a point. Granted, if you keep working on a computer that has crashed on you several times before, then perhaps automatically writing to XMP is indeed vital. So I agree that all people who use similar flaky hardware should follow your advice, or backup their catalog every hour (Apple Time Machine does that, although this backup may not be without problems of its own), so they won't lose more than an hour of work when that machine finally dies on them. You've made your point at last, so perhaps we can finally close this off topic discussion.