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digitaloxygen
Inspiring
February 15, 2019
Answered

Auto Mask not working on HDR images

  • February 15, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 3511 views

Issue:

Auto Mask does not work on HDR .dng images. It behaves as if auto make is not turned on however it works as expected when used on one of the original images.

See this video for an example: Dropbox - LR Classic CC Auto Mask HDR Failure.mov

Troubleshooting:

- Restarting LR

- Updated to latest version of LR (8.2 build 1204643)

- Reset HDR image (to remove all adjustments)

- Tried regular DNG (non-HDR). Works as expected

- Tried 3 bracket instead of 5 bracket HDR merge. Same issue

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer digitaloxygen

You can Copy & Paste what you have here to create the report. A reference link to this thread can be inserted with the words "for more details and examples." I would imagine you'll get comments from other users and hopefully Adobe Staff.


Update: Marking this as "Answered" for now since it has been migrated over to the Feedback site and recognized as a bug by Adobe. In theory they should provide an update there once it's fixed.

Adjustment brush Auto Mask not working on HDR Images | Photoshop Family Customer Community

3 replies

digitaloxygen
Inspiring
February 21, 2019

Wow is Adobe's support process ever a mess.

Got an email from someone (presumably senior support as it was escalated to them) asking me additional questions but the footer says "Note: This email address cannot receive messages. Please do not reply to this email. For a list of our support phone numbers, please visit our Contact page. " silly being it's 2019 but oh well...

Additionally it says "To review your case history or reopen the case, log in to your Adobe ID Account page." so I go into my account and find the case. It's completely empty. Zero notes from the original chat agent, senior support, etc. I add notes there anyway since they claim replying to the email won't work.

A few days later I get another email but it's in FRENCH for some insane reason. Translation says basically "we haven't heard form you". So I contact support again. They send a second copy of the last email (but in English) and tell me to reply to it (despite the footer saying not to because it cannot receive messages). We wait a bit and of course he says he didn't get the reply but he will put in a note for them to contact me.

Fingers crossed I guess. What a gong show.

GoldingD
Legend
February 15, 2019

Ok, had to go to a proper computer and a proper monitor and look again (probably more the look again) and I see that on the HDR the cabinets are getting included in the mask whereas on the non HDR they are not.

And yes, I can replicate on my copy.

digitaloxygen
Inspiring
February 15, 2019

When you say " I can replicate on my copy." do you mean you are experiencing the same behaviour with the Auto Mask not working on HDR images?

Todd Shaner
Legend
February 23, 2019

Appreciate the in-depth look, though most of it isn't relevant to the issue. I have already masked and delivered the shoot with techniques similar to what you mentioned. The issue was discovered when editing these images and they are about as good as others to highlight the issue.

As per the videos (see Dropbox - LR Classic CC Auto Mask HDR Failure 2.mov for a better example) Auto Mask is clearly behaving very differently (seemingly not working) with HDR vs raw / jpeg images. Looking at the cupboards when brushing the HDR image you can see the brush spills all over them when the crosshair is on the blue walls. In raw or jpeg photos it masks around the cupboards and the brush is (mostly) only applied to the walls.

Had a lengthy call with support yesterday and they have confirmed the behaviour is odd and have (re?)escalated to senior support.  I don't use Auto Mask very often but when I do I'd like it to work as expected.


OK, after looking at the video and exporting the HDR DNG file to TIFF file format I can confirm what you're seeing. With the TIFF file sampling on the blue wall around the window using the Adjustment Brush with Auto Mask works well to confine the mask.

I was confusing that you were trying to work on the windows. It's still not perfect using the TIFF export file, but much better than when working on the HDR DNG file. You can use this as a workaround for now. Apply all of your Global Toning edits to the HDR DNG file and then export to TIFF or JPEG file format and then apply the Local Adjustment Brush edits.

I suggest posting this issue as a 'Problem' report at the Photoshop Family forum. Place a link to this post in the report and a link to that report in a reply here. This will help others who land here with the same issue to add their comments "Me To' vote and 'Follow' at the problem report. Thank you!

Photoshop Family Customer Community

Sean McCormack
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 15, 2019

It's working for me, but I usually have a feathered edge as where the centre part touches, that's where the effect is applied. I've tried it on both a HDR.dng and one of the source files and they're both working equally as badly (sorry, never been a fan of it!).

Sean McCormack. Author of 'Essential Development 3'. Magazine Writer. Former Official Fuji X-Photographer.
digitaloxygen
Inspiring
February 15, 2019

Auto Mask definitely isn't a great tool but in certain situations it works well enough to not have to jump over to PS and back. The hard edge in the video was mostly to showcase the issue better. It was less obvious with a soft edge.

I have a feeling it will be a very specific set of circumstances that cause this. All the "fun" issues are like that. In my searched I found similar issues from years ago that supposedly only applied to 32-bit .tiff's or something so this might take a bit to figure out. I will be contacting Adobe about it directly. Definitely seems like a bug.

Some other interesting findings.

- Older HDR images where Auto Mask was previously used and worked as expected how exhibit the issue too.

- I think it's behaving as if Luminance Range Mask is on even though it is disabled. I even tried toggling it on / off again with no luck.

GoldingD
Legend
February 15, 2019

First off, turn on the mask vusability to see it better.

Second off, it may be more advantageous to turn it off, overspray your mask, then turn the range mask on, select color, click on the eye dropper then sample what you want in the mask.