LrC - Image 'Resetting' after heavy masking...

[paulbiddis]

Good morning all,

I am editing an image and using masks. One of the masks is heavily edited with lots of subtractions. I still have more subtractions to do but, all of a sudden, any further subtraction results in the pause while the programme thinks it over and then it 'resets' the image back to zero - i.e. no base adjustments and no masks at all. The history doesn't reset though - so if I 'undo' one step it reverts back to the state with masks, but the same thing happens again when I try to subtract again.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Paul

[GoldingD]

About how many brushes (Adds, subtracts, etc) in that one mask?

Their is a practical limit that most edits will not get close to. Are we talking dozens or hundreds?

[paulbiddis]

Hi GoldingD,

Thanks for your reply. The answer is - quite a lot, probably 100+.  

So, I guess I may have simply overstretched what is possible. Tomorrow I will try and edit again from scratch (couldn't face it today) and try and be more savvy. I will let you know.

Many thanks.

Kind regards,

Paul

[GoldingD]

You might want to share some screenshots, or perhaps a video capture of what you are attempting. Some members may have advice on a masking approach to work around your issue. Often when a very complex mask is in use, a different approach may be called for.

Also other members may have advanced masking advise/tips, in the use of Add/SUB in Intersects, in brush selections

Some members may request sample images via DropBox or other cloud share as to test.

[paulbiddis]

Good morning,

Unfortunately the same issue has happened again but on another image - where I was paying particular attention to reducing the number of add/subtract strokes. I even created a snapshot every so often and then deleted the history (hoping that that may help, but alas).

I also turned off the GPU accelorator - thought it was worth a try. Again, no luck.

I appreciate that there must be a practical limit and guess I have hit it. Any advice on complex masking would be very welcome. I am not sure a screen shot will help but have provided a before and after.

Many thanks.

Paul

[GoldingD]

I notice that you are working with Smart Previews, and that apparently the original is off-line (perhaps an external HD not connected?_

Could that be an issue?

[GoldingD]

Oh that 2nd screenshot\

No longer a MAC user, so my inquiry/reply may be a bit off. But I am sure a MACOS member will step in.

That notification about Graphics Memory leads me to inquire as follows:

Please post your System Information as Lightroom Classic (LrC) reports it. In LrC click on Help, then System Info, then Copy. Paste that information into a reply. Please present all information from first line down to and including Plug-in Info. Info after Plug-in info can be cut out as that is just so much dead space to us non-Techs and it takes up vast amounts of scroll space making the reply less readable and less likely that others will bother with your post.

[john beardsworth]

What device - mouse, tablet etc - are you using to make these brush strokes?

And have enabled automatic saving to xmp? Also, what is the file type?

For that window, have you tried using the Object selection method, possibly with intersect if you're trying to select the glass or the frame?

[paulbiddis]

Hi John,

Apple MacBook Pro i5. 

File type is tiff (but the other image I originally posted about was dng). You are correct - I was trying to just select the frame. What I had done was 'add a mask' using a general brush that covered the whole window - I then used the 'erase' option of that brush to try and remove the excess (i.e. the walls and windows).

I'm afraid I do not seem to have enable automatic saving to xmp - from what I can tell all metadata is stored within the dng(?).

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Paul

[Sean McCormack]

As a heads up on selecting the whole frame: use the Luminance Range and leave it full. You may need to move to range sliders to trigger the mask, but leave them at 0/0 and 100/100. 

You can definitely use combinations of smart masking to reduce the number of brushes use, but if it's really intense and a TIFF as mention, you may be better using Photoshop with layered masks. 

[john beardsworth]

Paul

Is there nothing like a Wacom or other tablet device? I've seen reports of some of these producing extremely high amounts of data and producing symptoms similar to yours.

And in Catalog Settings, this automatic setting is disabled? Those reports seem to happen when it is enabled.

Could you try that alternative way of selecting the window, where you would use the Objects method, draw a rectangle around the window, and then add an Intersect which would allow you to target the frame's tones and exclude the panes (or vice versa).

John

[paulbiddis]

Hi John, hi Sean, hi Golding,

Thanks both for your input.

The 'automatic write changes to XMP' was/is disabled. I forgot to mention that I do use a wacom but not always - some of the brush strokes were done with the wacom and others the MacBook touchpad. 

What is interesting is that I can still make non-masking changes. I have also found that if I delete one of the masks I can continue to use the add/subtract brush on the remaining mask(s) - so I am coming to believe there is a practical limit to the number of strokes. Either that or the size of the masks in the background of the program.

I will try again tomorrow from scratch and report.

Thanks.

Paul