LrC switches horizontal and vertical manual transform when copy and pasted

Question

LrC Version: Lightroom Classic version: 13.5.1 [ 202408271704-d15d09cd ]

OS: MacOS Version 14.6.1 (23G93)

Issue: When using the Copy/Paste, Sync, or Preset features to copy and paste a vertical transform from a horizontally-cropped photo to a vertically-cropped photo, the vertical transform becomes a horizontal transform.

To reproduce:

Step 1: Make a vertical transformation on an image. (transformation exaggerated for demonstration purposes)

Step 2: Copy the vertical manual transformation.

Step 3: Navigate to an oppositely-cropped (As in if the first image was natively taken vertically, navigate to a horizontal, or if the first image was natively taken horizontally, navigate to a vertical) image.

Step 4: Paste the copied setting using Command+V

Expected result: LrC should apply a vertical transformation of the same value to the oppositely-cropped image.

Actual result: LrC applies a horizontal transformation of the same value to the oppositely-cropped image. I suspect this has something to do with LrC reading horizontal/vertical metadata when displaying the image, but not considering it when applying the transform. The bug was also noted when the same copy/paste was effectively performed using the Sync feature, and when saving the transform to a preset and then applying that preset to an oppositely-cropped image.

johnrellis · Answer

This problem occurs when you're copying Transform between photos that have different internal orientations.

A landscape photo has orientation 0°. Most cameras record portrait photos with a landscape array of pixels along with a metadata tag indicating that array of pixels should be rotated 90° or 270° to appear visually correct.

LR has long struggled to copy position-dependent settings between photos with different internal orientations, due to an original flawed implementation. Over the years, Adobe has fixed many of these problems though many still remain. The product team still gives inconsistent answers as to whether the remaining problems are "as designed" (in reality, just as-coded) or are "bugs" (not operating as intended).

There is a long-standing bug report about copying Transform settings between orientations, which Adobe has acknowledged as a bug:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-bugs/p-transform-doesn-t-copy-sync-correctly/idi-p/12248826

See this post for a thorough examination of all the issues:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-correct-copying-of-crops-and-local-adjustments/idi-p/12428734

There are two workarounds:

- The Copy Settings plugin will copy Transform's Manual Transform settings correctly, though not all Upright Mode or Upright Transforms correctly, due to limitations in LR plugin support.

- Edit the portrait photo in Photoshop and immediately save it as a TIFF. Photoshop will rotate the original landscape array of pixels and set the internal orientation tag to 0°. Now LR's Copy/Sync will correctly copy Transform settings from landscape photos to the TIFF.

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